Eviction for unpaid rent: rules will change

the housing law will modify the procedure for terminating a lease due to unpaid rent

In the event of unpaid rent, eviction is a procedure that is often initiated. It is estimated that 160,000 eviction decisions are taken annually, with a 75% increase since 1999. For the greater Paris area, 24,000 eviction decisions were made in 2016 (source: ANIL).

For the evicted households the consequences are serious, but it is just as serious for the small landlords of the dwellings concerned. The procedure to recover unpaid rents and charges is long and tedious.

After a formal notice to pay the rent, then a payment order accompanied by a report to the(CCAPEx), the landlord must take action to summon the tenant before the district judge.

The aim will be to have the termination of the lease noted, to lead to the condemnation of the payment of the arrears of rent and to pronounce the eviction of the tenant if the latter does not resume the payment of the rent. The time of success of this procedure, it elapses between 18 months and 24 months, and it will cost between 3 000 and 5 000 euros to the owner lessor. Clearly, incompressible delays apply from one procedure to another, which complicates the landlord's approach.

There are many inconsistencies in this procedure: the fact that a tenant in good faith may want to pay part of his debt. However, if he wants his file to be taken into account and treated by the commission of overindebtedness, he cannot pay off debts other than food.

Thus if a schedule is contracted and fixed in parallel by the judge seized of the procedure of cancellation of the lease and that the tenant does not respect the agreements, he becomes again evictable!

The bill (ÉLAN), which is scheduled for adoption in the fall, seeks to articulate the intervention of the various players in the process.

Thus, the judge who rules on the eviction of the tenant could take into account the payment terms provided for by the overindebtedness commission. A conventional recovery plan proposed by the commission would replace the payment schedule provided by the judge.

For tenants judged to be in good faith who resume payment of rent and charges and who remain likely to remain in their dwelling without prejudice to the landlord, the text nevertheless provides for a probationary period of two years. In the event of further unpaid rent, the landlord may order the immediate eviction of the tenant.

An improvement of the payment order is also proposed: the latter will note the amount of rent and charges as well as the breakdown of the sums due to the landlord so that the CCAPEX can have all the information to carry out its mission of controlling the debt and accompanying the tenant debtor.

It is expected that all of these measures will come into effect on March^1, 2019.