A third of the rental housing advertisements offered on the SeLoger site do not mention the DPE (energy performance diagnosis). However, it is obligatory.
This is the nutri-score of real estate. The DPE provides information on the energy and environmental performance of a home. An owner who sells or rents an apartment or house must absolutely provide an energy performance diagnosis, it is a legal obligation.
But surprise, when you browse the seloger.com site, many properties offered for sale or long-term rental do not indicate this information. Sometimes the words “Blank DPE” or even “Not subject to DPE” appear.
Thus, on December 16, 2024, when we carried out a search on the site seloger.com, 33% of rental advertisements did not include a DPE. A figure which even rises to 54% for Paris. On the sales side, 17% of advertisements for old properties do not include any mention of the DPE.
However, the law is clear on this subject. L'article L126-33 of the Construction and Housing Code provides that the DPE as well as a theoretical indication of the amount of energy expenditure must be “mentioned in advertisements relating to the sale or rental, including those broadcast on a platform digital”.
“The DPE must be mentioned in all advertisements, including online, under penalty of a fine ranging from 3,000 to 15,000 euros,” confirms lawyer specializing in real estate law Romain Rossi Landi to BFM Business.
However, there is an exception which gives the possibility of displaying the word “blank DPE”, which was provided for in the old calculation method. But this only applies until December 31, 2024 and only for sale (not for rental) for diagnostics carried out between January 1, 2018 and June 30, 2021.
“It misleads the tenant”
“These illegal advertisements constitute unfair competition for landlords who respect the standards,” denounces Vincent Grataloup, an owner-landlord. This individual bought a thermal strainer in Vitry-sur-Seine a few years ago, and had renovation work carried out in order to gain several energy classes.
“I see a whole bunch of housing with rents lower than mine, which simply do not display the DPE or the mention 'property not subject to the DPE'', he testifies.
“It drowns out my ad and misleads the tenant, who thinks that SeLoger is a reliable site,” accuses Vincent Grataloup.
This dissatisfied owner therefore reported these breaches to the sites in question. Leboncoin has decided to remove the advertisements which had been the subject of a report. But Seloger chose to keep them online and justified his decision in an email.
SeLoger “co-responsible for non-compliance”
The company swears that the reported ad “does not violate our general conditions (fake account / ownership rights to photos / erroneous mentions in ads…)”. The mention “property not subject to the DPE” is however false.
“The fact that the DPE is not informed could be due to the fact that the owner did not have it at the time of broadcasting the ad,” explains SeLoger in a second email to Vincent Grataloup.
In 2023, the company itself recognized that 20% of the properties offered for rental on its site were not in order. But she seems to feel that it is not her responsibility.
It argues that it provides advertisers (those who write the advertisements) with a DPE section, and considers that it is their responsibility to provide it. “If they do not inform them, they may be subject to a penalty for non-compliance with the law,” she adds without further details.
However, according to Maître Romain Rossi Landi, “all announcements must include the DPE, regardless of the broadcast medium, we can therefore consider Seloger as co-responsible for non-compliance”.
Contacted several times, SeLoger did not respond to our requests.
