I'm renting a furnished apartment in Paris. It's a standard 1 year contract, the "Kit Meuble - location habitation non saisonniere" form. Rent is paid by the calendar month (in fact, I had to pay for a whole month, even though I moved in mid-month). I was told that the rental must end at the end of a calendar month, so I must give notice before the end of the previous month, eg. notice before end of Sep to leave by end of Oct. However, the contract doesn't seem to say anything about that. My reading of it is that I can give notice at any time and am only liable to pay rent for one month from that day, eg. I can give notice on 02-Oct and pay rent only until 02-Nov. Which is it? Is there any law or official government statement about that?
1 Answer
Service-public.fr describes the rules for furnished and unfurnished apartments. The page on contracts for unfurnished rentals is somewhat more explicit but I think the rules are the same in this respect (many other rules are different, however):
Le délai court à compter de la date de réception effective de la lettre de congé. Ainsi, par exemple, une lettre de congé reçue le 5 septembre fait courir un préavis jusqu'au 5 décembre à minuit s'il est de 3 mois (et non jusqu'au 31 décembre).
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En revanche, lors du dernier mois du délai de préavis, le loyer dû par le locataire est déterminé proportionnellement au nombre de jours restant à courir dans le mois.
Exemple : la lettre de congé est reçue par le propriétaire le 5 juin. Le locataire est redevable du loyer jusqu'au 5 septembre, et paiera pour le mois de septembre les 5/30ème du loyer et des charges de ce mois.
It's therefore one month from the date your landlord received your notification (which must be sent by registered mail, not by regular mail or email). This rule holds even if the contracts contain (illegal) clauses saying otherwise.
Also note that a one year contract does not commit you to pay for the whole year (like it would in some other countries), you can certainly leave at any time, even during the first year.
