Advertisements had to disappear from real estate agencies and websites. From January 1, 2025, housing considered to be thermal sieves, that is to say displaying an energy performance diagnosis (DPE) classified G, can no longer be rented. This concerns nearly 600,000 poorly insulated houses and apartments in France.
Let us rest assured: current tenants will not be kicked out… even if there is legal uncertainty. But for unoccupied G-rated housing, owners must undertake work to improve the DPE before re-renting.
Adopted in 2021, the Climate and Resilience Law plans to gradually consider housing with poor energy performance as indecent. First of all, it was housing classified G+ in the energy performance diagnosis (DPE) which was judged indecent in 2023. It is now the turn of classes G from January 1, before housing F in 2028, then E in 2034. The law obliges landlords to provide the tenant with decent housing.
If this is not the case, the latter can request work from the owner, contact a judge if necessary to make the lessor comply, obtain a reduction in rent or the suspension of payment while awaiting the work. However, faced with this often very costly work, many prefer to wait or even sell their property.
Like here, in Paris, where Audry, a 68-year-old retiree, has decided to do it: he is putting his apartment located very close to Nation up for sale. “It's not just a small tax increase, it's a big one“, he whispers. His last tenant has just left this two-room apartment, small, but pretty and well organized, he describes: “We have a small room which overlooks a small courtyard. It's very calm. It is an apartment that was completely renovated in 2021. I would have no trouble finding a tenant, but it is prohibited. So there you have it, that’s why I decided to sell.”
This owner could renovate it to improve the DPE, but the work is too important in his eyes. “We have walls that face the outside. So, if I wanted to move up in category, this wall would have to be doubled, as well as this one. Almost all of my walls… It's very heavy. And for motivations that I do not share, because energy renovations must be done, but we must not go about it with an ax like that“, he regrets.
“There are so many students or young employees who are biting their fingers at not being able to find small accommodation in Paris. Humanly, it's still serious. We are wrong to do that”
Audry, a Parisian ownerat franceinfo
For Sylvie, owner with her husband of a G-rated studio in the heart of Paris, the list of necessary work is even longer and more expensive.
So, this resident of the south of France feels stuck. “I won't be able to rent it. I don't want to sell it. This is a property that will be empty most of the time!“, she denounces. At 59, she is worried about her finances: “This little item was for our future retirement. Knowing that we still have a loan on this property of 1,159 euros per month. When I retire, I will have 1 400 euros. In addition, if we don't rent it, we will pay the tax on unoccupied housing. We are punished in every sense of the word. So, I prefer not to think about it for the moment.”.
But Sylvie admits it: she still has a little hope. “This morning, I was still on the internet looking for energy strainers, DPE news, new government… because I tell myself that things are going to change. There are things that will change, it's not possible“, she hopes. Sylvie is indeed counting on the new government to review the ECD rules.
A bill aimed at clarifying the text and adapting the timetable to the constraints of co-ownerships was presented at the end of October to the National Assembly, but its examination has been blocked since the censorship of the Barnier government.
