Renting a home — French B1/B2
Se loger en France : du dossier au bailRenting in France: from the dossier to the lease
What you will be able to do
- Hold your own at a viewing: ask about the rent, the service charges, the deposit, the guarantor and the notice period — using vous with the agent throughout.
- Name in French the documents a rental application requires, and explain which one you are missing and why.
- Choose deliberately between qui, que, dont and où — and never delete the relative pronoun the way English lets you ("the flat I saw" has no French equivalent without que).
- Build sentences with the compound pronouns (lequel, auquel, duquel) after prepositions and after phrases such as à côté de, grâce à, sans — putting the preposition first instead of stranding it at the end.
- Understand how renting actually works in France — garant, Visale, état des lieux, APL, zone tendue — and know how to ask about each of them.
Dialogue — A flat viewing… and the paperwork that comes with it
Vocabulary
| Français | English |
|---|---|
| le logement | housing; a place to live, accommodationBroader than l'appartement — this is the word used on official forms and in adverts, roughly "property/accommodation". |
| le bail | a lease, a tenancy agreementIrregular plural: les baux. Collocation: signer un bail. Nothing whatever to do with English "bail". |
| le loyer | the rent paid to the landlordMasculine. Careful with the verb louer: it means both "to let out" and "to rent from someone" — only context tells you which. |
| les charges (f. pl.) | service charges (water, heating, communal areas)In adverts: charges comprises (CC) = charges included, hors charges (HC) = charges on top. |
| le dépôt de garantie | the depositEveryday speech says la caution, but in a contract la caution is also the guarantor — and it never means English "caution". |
| le garant, la garante | guarantor (the person who covers the rent if you don't)Feminine adds -e: la garante. The article carries the gender in speech, since the -e is silent. |
| l'état des lieux (m.) | the inventory / schedule of condition of the propertyDrawn up d'entrée and de sortie; the difference between the two decides how much of the deposit you get back. |
| le préavis | notice perioddonner son préavis = to give notice on your tenancy. |
| le propriétaire, la propriétaire | landlord, landlady; ownerSame form for both genders — only the article shows which. Colloquially shortened to le proprio. |
| le locataire, la locataire | tenantIdentical in masculine and feminine; le locataire / la locataire. |
| le bailleur, la bailleresse | the lessor — the landlord as a party to the contract (legal register)Note the irregular feminine: la bailleresse. |
| la colocation | a flatshare / houseshareYour flatmate is le/la coloc (short for colocataire). Not English "collocation". |
| le justificatif de domicile | proof of addressun justificatif is any supporting document you produce as evidence. |
| l'attestation d'hébergement (f.) | a signed statement from the person putting you up, confirming that you live at their addressune attestation = a signed declaration or certificate — the everyday French word for a great deal of official paperwork. |
| le bulletin de salaire | payslipJust as common: la fiche de paie. |
| la quittance de loyer | rent receiptIt can itself be accepted as a justificatif de domicile. |
| le RIB (relevé d'identité bancaire) | your bank details (the slip with your IBAN that you hand over for payments)You will be asked for it constantly — keep a PDF on your phone. |
| l'aide au logement (f.) | housing benefitColloquially les APL; paid by la CAF (Caisse d'allocations familiales). You faire une demande — une demande is an application or a request, never a "demand". |
| la démarche | an administrative step; a piece of officialdom you have to go throughUsually plural: faire des démarches. Not a "demarche" in the diplomatic sense; the same noun also means somebody's walk or gait. |
| le délai | a deadline, the time allowed for somethingClassic false friend: it is NOT a "delay" (that is le retard). dans un délai de quinze jours = within a fortnight. |
| le guichet | a counter or window in a public officeau guichet = at the desk; guichet fermé = position closed. |
| le formulaire | a formremplir un formulaire = to fill in a form. |
| la mairie | the town hall, the local council officesWhere you register, get documents certified and, in France, get married. |
| la préfecture | the prefectureThe state's office at département level — there is no British or American equivalent; residence permits and foreigners' paperwork are handled there. |
| le titre de séjour | residence permit |
| l'assurance habitation (f.) | home contents insuranceCompulsory for tenants in France — you must produce the policy when you sign the lease. |
| la zone tendue | a designated high-pressure rental areaIn one of these the tenant's notice period drops from three months to one. |
| emménager | to move inDon't confuse it with déménager = to move out, to move house. |
| résilier | to terminate, to cancel (a contract, a subscription)Not "to resign" — that is démissionner. |
| souscrire | to take out (an insurance policy, a subscription)souscrire une assurance takes no preposition, but souscrire À un abonnement does. |
Expressions and collocations
| Expression | Meaning |
|---|---|
| monter / constituer un dossier de location | to put together a rental application pack (a dossier here is simply a folder of documents — nothing to do with a secret file on someone) |
| un dossier en béton | a rock-solid application, one nobody can pick holes in (literally "made of concrete") |
| se porter garant de quelqu'un | to stand as someone's guarantor, to take on their obligations |
| verser le dépôt de garantie | to pay the deposit (contracts say verser, "to pay in / transfer", rather than payer) |
| donner son préavis (de départ) | to give notice on your tenancy, to hand in your notice to quit |
| envoyer une lettre recommandée avec accusé de réception (LRAR) | to send a registered letter with proof of delivery (recommandée = registered, NOT "recommended") |
| être hébergé(e) à titre gratuit | to be staying at someone's place rent-free (the set wording used on official forms) |
| faire ses démarches administratives | to sort out your official paperwork (des démarches are the steps you have to take, not a "demarche") |
| prendre rendez-vous en préfecture | to book an appointment at the prefecture (note en préfecture, with no article) |
| toucher les APL / toucher une aide | to receive housing benefit / to receive an allowance (toucher + money = to be paid it; never "to touch") |
| faire l'état des lieux d'entrée / de sortie | to do the check-in / check-out inventory of the property |
| ça sent l'arnaque | that smells like a scam (said of a dodgy-looking advert) |
Grammar
Relative pronouns: qui, que, dont, où and the compound forms (lequel, auquel, duquel)
Les pronoms relatifs simples et composés
Start with the mistake English speakers make before any other: English lets you delete the relative pronoun. "The flat I saw yesterday", "the person I spoke to", "the money he owes me" — all perfectly good English, all impossible in French. Every French relative clause needs its pronoun, with no exceptions: l'appartement QUE j'ai visité hier. And the second habit to unlearn is that English picks the pronoun by what the noun IS (who for people, which/that for things), whereas French picks it by what the pronoun DOES in its own clause. If a verb follows immediately and the pronoun is its subject, you use qui (le voisin qui habite au-dessus — "the neighbour who lives upstairs", but also la clé qui ouvre la porte, for a thing). If a new subject follows and the pronoun is the direct object, you use que (l'appartement que j'ai visité). So qui/que splits subject from object, not human from non-human.
Two mechanical checks are worth memorising. First, qui NEVER elides: you write qui il, qui elle — never *qu'il in this function — while que becomes qu' before a vowel or mute h (l'attestation qu'elle a signée). Second, the past participle agrees with a direct object placed before the verb, which is exactly what que does: les démarches que nous avons faiteS. English has nothing of the kind, so it is pure extra work — but it is often audible, not just spelling: faites, prises, mises, écrites all sound different from fait, pris, mis, écrit.
Dont replaces anything that would be introduced by de, and it is hard for anglophones because English splits that job across whose, of which, about which, of whom — or hides it entirely. Three uses. (1) Verbs and adjectives whose French complementation includes de: parler de (talk about), avoir besoin de (need — English takes no preposition at all), s'occuper de, se souvenir de, rêver de, ignorer l'existence de, être fier / content / responsable de. Hence le document dont j'ai besoin. Note ignorer in passing: it is a false friend meaning "to be unaware of", not "to ignore" someone. (2) Possession: le propriétaire dont le fils habite à Lyon = "the landlord whose son lives in Lyon". The trap here is that English "whose son" tempts you into *dont son fils — wrong. After dont, French uses the DEFINITE ARTICLE, never a possessive, because dont already carries the "whose". (3) Part of a whole: trois candidats, dont deux étrangers = "three applicants, two of them foreign".
Crucially, an English "about which / that … about" does not automatically give dont. What decides is the preposition the FRENCH verb demands, and English is a very poor guide to it. Penser À quelque chose → un problème AUQUEL je n'avais pas pensé (not dont). S'attendre À → le montant auquel je m'attendais, even though English "expect" takes no preposition. Conversely attendre is straightforwardly transitive — French has no "for" here — so "the receipt I'm waiting for" is simply la quittance que j'attends. Before you choose a relative pronoun, check what the French verb takes; never map the English preposition across.
Où covers place but, just as importantly, TIME: le jour où, l'année où, le moment où, l'époque où. English says "the day when I signed", so learners reach for quand — but quand is never a relative pronoun after a noun in French, and *le jour quand is a serious error. There are also d'où and par où: la ville d'où je viens ("the town I come from" — note that English strands the preposition at the end and French fronts it), le chemin par où il est passé.
The compound forms (lequel and family) go after a preposition, and here the English habit of stranding must be broken outright: "the agency I wrote to", "the scheme I heard about", "the form without which…" — French always puts the preposition first, never at the end: l'agence à laquelle j'ai écrit. These forms also agree in gender and number, something English simply does not do, so you have to know the noun's gender before you can pick the pronoun. They contract with à and de: à + lequel = auquel, de + lesquels = desquels, but à + laquelle stays à laquelle. Three practical rules: (1) preposition first, always; (2) for a PERSON, everyday French prefers qui after a preposition — la personne avec qui je travaille sounds far more natural than avec laquelle, which is kept for things and for formal register; (3) after prepositional phrases ending in de — à côté de, en face de, près de, au cours de, à cause de, au bout de — dont is banned and you must use duquel / de laquelle / desquels: l'immeuble à côté duquel j'habite. Finally, one place where French and English line up neatly: when the pronoun refers to a whole clause rather than a noun, French uses ce qui / ce que / ce dont exactly where English uses a comma plus "which" — Il a perdu son RIB, ce qui retarde tout ("which is holding everything up").
| Preposition | masculine singular | feminine singular | masculine plural | feminine plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| no preposition | lequel | laquelle | lesquels | lesquelles |
| à + … | auquel | à laquelle | auxquels | auxquelles |
| de + … (after à côté de, en face de, près de…) | duquel | de laquelle | desquels | desquelles |
| any other preposition (dans, sur, pour, sans, avec, grâce à) | dans lequel, grâce auquel | dans laquelle, grâce à laquelle | dans lesquels, grâce auxquels | dans lesquelles, grâce auxquelles |
| example | le dispositif grâce auquel l'État se porte garant | l'agence à laquelle j'ai écrit | les documents auxquels il manque une signature | les démarches auxquelles je me suis habituée |
Exercise — fill in the gaps
Wpisz poprawną formę i naciśnij Enter — sprawdzi się od razu. Akcenty warto pisać, ale odpowiedź bez nich też zaliczymy (pokażemy poprawny zapis).
Exercise — translate into French
Napisz zdanie po francusku i naciśnij Enter. Dopuszczamy naturalne warianty — liczy się sens i poprawna struktura.
Quiz
The verb is avoir besoin DE quelque chose. Because the French verb comes with de built into it, the relative pronoun has to be dont. English gives you no help at all here: "the form I need" has neither a preposition nor a relative pronoun. Only the French verb's complementation decides.
After dont expressing possession, French takes the definite article and never a possessive. English "the neighbour whose daughter lives here" pushes you straight towards *dont sa fille, but dont already means "whose", so sa would say it twice. Nor can the noun stand bare, the way it does in English.
Quand is never a relative pronoun after a noun. With nouns of time (le jour, l'année, le moment, l'époque) French uses où — even though English says "the moment WHEN everything changed".
After prepositional phrases ending in de (à côté de, en face de, près de, au cours de, à cause de), dont is impossible. You need a compound form: duquel / de laquelle / desquels. English allows "the building I live next to", with the preposition left dangling at the end — French never does.
Avec laquelle is grammatically correct, but when the antecedent is a PERSON, everyday French uses qui after a preposition. lequel/laquelle are kept for things, for formal register, or where you need to avoid ambiguity. Either way, something must be there: English "the person I share the flat with" drops the pronoun and strands the preposition, and French does neither.
L'état des lieux is a written description of the flat's condition, drawn up when you move in (d'entrée) and again when you leave (de sortie). Comparing the two is what decides whether your deposit comes back, which is why it pays to record every last scratch. It is the French equivalent of a British check-in inventory, except that it is signed by both parties and has real legal weight.
Se porter garant means accepting liability for somebody else's debts — in renting, the role of le garant. Signing a contract on someone's behalf is signer par procuration, an entirely different legal act.
Pronunciation — say it aloud
Posłuchaj wzoru, potem powiedz zdanie. Mikrofon oceni je słowo po słowie (zielone = dobrze wymówione).
France in practice
Renting in France: why everything hinges on the dossier
In France the flat does not go to whoever rings first; it goes to whoever has the best folder of documents — le dossier. (In English the word suggests a secret file kept on somebody; in French it is simply the paperwork behind any application.) The benchmark is the règle du tiers: landlords expect the rent to come to no more than a third of your net income, so the pack has to contain your last three bulletins de salaire, your employment contract, your most recent tax assessment (l'avis d'imposition) and a justificatif de domicile. The law — the loi Alur and its implementing decree — sets out precisely what a landlord may NOT ask for: a photograph, a bank statement, your carte vitale, a criminal record extract (extrait de casier judiciaire) or proof that you have no outstanding loans. Beware one common misunderstanding: a letter from your employer (attestation de l'employeur) is in fact permitted — agencies confuse it with the banned documents and regularly ask for papers that are not on the list. Where a British agency runs you through a referencing company and a credit check, and an American landlord starts from your credit score, the French system stays resolutely analogue: nobody scores you, somebody reads your folder.
The second pillar is the garant: a guarantor resident in France who signs an acte de cautionnement solidaire and is liable for your debts. For a newcomer with no family in the country this is often an insurmountable barrier — much as British agencies demand a UK-based guarantor from foreign tenants, sometimes asking for six months' rent up front instead. That is why the free Visale scheme exists (run by Action Logement): you apply online, you are issued a visa Visale with a reference number, and a public body becomes your guarantor. More and more landlords accept it, but not all of them do — ask outright before you submit your dossier.
The third thing is the état des lieux, the written record drawn up when you move in and again when you move out. It is the only document on which the deposit is settled (dépôt de garantie: at most one month's rent excluding charges for an unfurnished flat, two months for a furnished one). The landlord has one month to return the money if the two records agree, and two months if they differ. Note a structural difference: in France the landlord holds the deposit directly, whereas in England and Wales it is capped at five weeks' rent and must be lodged with a government-approved protection scheme, and in Ontario a damage deposit is not allowed at all. Experienced tenants therefore photograph everything and write even the scratches on the parquet into the record — a year later, nobody will be able to prove otherwise.
On top of that come local realities. In towns classed as a zone tendue (Paris, Lyon, Bordeaux, Lille, Montpellier and several dozen other urban areas) the tenant's notice period is one month rather than three, and in some of them encadrement des loyers imposes an official ceiling on rent per square metre — the advert itself must state the loyer de référence majoré. Over the winter the trêve hivernale applies: from 1 November to 31 March nobody may be evicted. Home insurance (assurance habitation) is compulsory and you will not be allowed to sign the lease without a policy, unlike the UK or Ireland, where contents insurance is the tenant's own decision. Finally, put in your CAF application for the aide au logement on the day you move, because the benefit only runs from the month after you move in.
Two habits of language will save you trouble. First, sizes: un deux-pièces means two rooms in total — a living room and one bedroom — so it is what an English-language advert would call a one-bedroom flat (T2 and F2 mean the same thing); the figure that really tells you the size is the surface in m². Second, register: with an agent, a landlord or anyone behind a counter you use vous, and you keep using it even after several meetings — moving to tu is something the older or more senior person offers (“on peut se tutoyer ?”), never something you assume. Among friends, as Julien does with Marta in the dialogue, it is tu from the first minute. English marks none of this, which is exactly why anglophones slip into tu too early; the safe rule is vous until you are invited to do otherwise.
Reading — real history
Quand l'étiquette change, mais pas le mur
Dowiesz się, jak jedna zmiana wzoru obliczeniowego wyprowadziła 850 tysięcy francuskich mieszkań z kategorii sit energetycznych i co to zmieniło dla najemców.
Le 2 janvier 2026, quelques minutes ont suffi sur le site de l'Ademe pour qu'un studio chauffé à l'électricité change d'étiquette sur son DPE. Classé G la veille, il est devenu F. Aucun mur n'a été isolé, aucune fenêtre remplacée. Ce qui a changé, c'est le calcul : depuis le 1er janvier 2026, l'électricité est convertie avec un coefficient de 1,9 au lieu de 2,3. Environ 850 000 logements sont ainsi sortis de la catégorie des « passoires thermiques » sans chantier.
Ce détail technique décide qui a le droit de louer. Depuis le 1er janvier 2025, un logement classé G ne peut plus être proposé à la location ; les F suivront en 2028, les E en 2034. Or la France comptait début 2025 3,9 millions de résidences principales classées F ou G, près de 13 % du parc. Déplacer le curseur, c'est rendre des centaines de milliers de logements louables — ou repousser le problème, selon le camp où l'on se place.
Le débat n'est pas clos. Le 8 juillet 2026, le Sénat a adopté en première lecture un texte de « relance et décentralisation du logement », qui veut assouplir ce calendrier. Il est maintenant à l'Assemblée nationale, et rien n'est encore en vigueur. Les bailleurs rappellent qu'une rénovation complète coûte 30 000 à 60 000 euros et que les artisans manquent. Les associations de locataires répondent que l'interdiction reste le seul levier qui ait vraiment fait bouger le parc.
Pendant ce temps, le locataire cherche. L'observatoire de Bien'ici, publié le 9 juillet 2026, annonce une hausse des offres de location de 12,5 % en un an, la première depuis des années. Mais elle reste inférieure de plus de moitié à celle de 2019, et la tension sur les studios parisiens a explosé depuis 2021. Au premier trimestre 2026, selon Guy Hoquet, le loyer moyen était de 818 euros, 1 681 euros à Paris. Surtout, la surface accessible pour un même budget a encore reculé : 54 m² en moyenne, 30 m² en Île-de-France.
Les passoires ont presque disparu des annonces de location : moins d'une sur dix, et la plupart partent à la vente. Les gagnants sont ceux qui peuvent acheter au rabais un bien mal noté et le rénover. Les perdants sont les ménages modestes qui, faute d'offre, acceptent plus petit, plus cher, ou plus loin.
Reste une question que le nouveau coefficient ne règle pas. Il reflète une électricité française peu carbonée, pas le radiateur du locataire. Une meilleure étiquette ne réchauffe pas un appartement mal isolé, même si elle autorise le bail. L'Assemblée tranchera cet automne ; pour celui qui visite un appartement en septembre, la question reste plus simple : combien coûtera l'hiver ?
Key vocabulary
- un locataire — najemca, lokator
- un bailleur — wynajmujący, właściciel mieszkania na wynajem
- un bail — umowa najmu
- une passoire thermique — „sito energetyczne”, mieszkanie o fatalnej izolacji
- une étiquette (énergétique) — etykieta, klasa energetyczna
- le DPE (diagnostic de performance énergétique) — świadectwo charakterystyki energetycznej
- le parc (immobilier) — zasób mieszkaniowy
- une annonce (de location) — ogłoszenie o wynajmie
- un artisan — rzemieślnik, fachowiec budowlany
- un chantier — budowa, plac budowy, remont
- isoler (un logement) — ocieplić, zaizolować
- un loyer — czynsz (najmu)
- assouplir — złagodzić, uelastycznić (przepisy)
- en vigueur — obowiązujący, w mocy
- un levier — dźwignia, narzędzie nacisku
- trancher — rozstrzygnąć, zdecydować
- au rabais — z rabatem, po zaniżonej cenie
Check how much you understood. Click the answer.
Zmienił się tylko współczynnik przeliczeniowy prądu (z 2,3 na 1,9) — żaden mur nie został ocieplony, a projekt ustawy nie został jeszcze uchwalony.
Tekst mówi, że klasa energetyczna „decyduje, kto ma prawo wynajmować”: mieszkania z klasą G nie wolno wynajmować od 2025 roku.
Senat przyjął go w pierwszym czytaniu, ale — jak pisze autor — „rien n'est encore en vigueur”, tekst jest teraz w Zgromadzeniu Narodowym.
Liczba ofert wzrosła o 12,5% (pierwszy wzrost od lat), ale wciąż jest o 55% mniejsza niż w 2019 roku.
Ostatni akapit mówi wprost: współczynnik odzwierciedla niskoemisyjny miks energetyczny, a nie kaloryfer lokatora — lepsza etykieta nie ogrzewa źle izolowanego mieszkania.
Talk about it
- W Polsce świadectwo charakterystyki energetycznej jest obowiązkowe przy sprzedaży i wynajmie od kwietnia 2023 r. Czy ktoś z was kiedykolwiek zwrócił na nie uwagę przy szukaniu mieszkania? Dlaczego tak lub nie?
- Francja zakazuje wynajmu najgorszych energetycznie mieszkań, ale przez to jest ich mniej na rynku. Czy podobny zakaz w Polsce pomógłby najemcom, czy raczej podniósłby czynsze w Warszawie i Krakowie?
- Kto powinien płacić za ocieplenie starej kamienicy: właściciel, najemca przez wyższy czynsz, czy państwo (np. przez Czyste Powietrze)? Uzasadnij.
Final task — an email to the agency + a phone role-play
PART 1 — email (150–180 words). Write to an estate agency in French, replying to an advert: a two-room flat, 62 m², €820 excluding charges, Lyon 7e. In your email: (a) introduce yourself and set out your work situation (CDI, net income), (b) list the documents you already have ready and admit which one is missing and why (you are staying at a friend's place for the time being), (c) ask whether the landlord accepts the Visale guarantee, (d) ask how much the service charges are and what they cover, (e) propose a time for a viewing. Formal requirement: use at least five relative pronouns from this unit, including at least one dont and one compound form (auquel / lequel / duquel). Open with “Madame, Monsieur,” and close with “Dans l'attente de votre réponse, je vous prie d'agréer, Madame, Monsieur, mes salutations distinguées.” Resist the urge to translate “Dear Sir or Madam” and “Yours faithfully” word for word — French business letters run on fixed formulae, and the closing sentence above is one block you simply reproduce. PART 2 — role-play (5–7 minutes, out loud). Act out a phone call with the agent, who tells you the flat has gone to another applicant with a “meilleur dossier”. Your job is not to let it go. Prepare three arguments in French — a permanent contract, the Visale guarantee, readiness to pay the deposit straight away — and build them with the conditional (si je devais…, il serait possible de…) and with the subjunctive after “il faudrait que…”. A word on that subjunctive: English has all but lost this mood, keeping it only in fossils like “it is essential that he BE present”, so there is nothing to translate across. Treat il faut que / il faudrait que as a trigger that mechanically pulls the next verb into the subjunctive — il faudrait que je vous envoie mon dossier, il faudrait que vous soyez patient — and drill the trigger rather than reasoning about the mood. Record yourself on your phone and listen back: check that you never contract qui before a vowel, and that no possessive has slipped in after dont. PART 3 — mini-research. Go to visale.fr and list, in French, five conditions you have to meet to obtain the guarantee. Write them as sentences containing relative pronouns, e.g. “C'est un dispositif auquel peuvent prétendre les moins de 31 ans.” (Watch prétendre à: it means to be eligible for something, to lay claim to it — it does NOT mean “to pretend”, which is faire semblant.)