According to the law of July 6, 1989 governing rental leases, an owner has the obligation to regularize the charges paid by his tenant every year. The Court of Cassation recently condemned a lessor for this oversight.
An obligation falls on all owners renting accommodation. The Court of Cassation firmly reiterated this in a decision rendered on September 18, 2025. As everyone knows, in exchange for decent housing, the tenant must pay his lessor monthly rent and pay charges. In return, according to article 23 of the law of July 6, 1989, the owner has the obligation to regularize these charges each year.
Clearly, the lessor must compare the amounts paid by the tenant to the expenses actually incurred for the maintenance of the building, water, electricity, gas or the household waste removal tax (TEOM). The owner must therefore precisely justify the amounts he has claimed by communicating the detailed statement and making the supporting documents available to the tenant.
The case judged by the Court of Cassation illustrates the consequences of non-compliance with this obligation. In this case, a landlord demanded payment of significant rent and utility arrears from a tenant. The rental lease was concluded in October 2000, and since a review of the rent and charges in 2014, the tenant had to pay 963.11 euros to her landlord every month. A sum including rent of 808.11 euros and a provision for charges of 155 euros.
The owner criticized the tenant for having paid an insufficient amount of charges between April 2016 and September 2020. According to his calculation, during this period, out of a total sum due of 52,007.94 euros (rent + charges), to which was added 419 euros of TEOM, the tenant had only paid 43,825.68 euros. He therefore estimated that there was an unpaid amount of 8,601.26 euros linked in particular to charges. On the basis of these elements, he requested the termination of the rental lease, the eviction of the tenant and the payment of this debt.
Initially, the Paris Court of Appeal ruled in favor of the owner. The tenant was ordered to pay the sum of 8,601.26 euros and to pay occupancy compensation equal to the amount of rent and charges which would have been due if the lease had continued normally until she vacated the premises. Furthermore, the termination of the lease having been pronounced, his expulsion was ordered.
But subsequently, the Court of Cassation overturned the decision of the Paris Court of Appeal. The highest court in the country criticized the Parisian judges for not having verified whether the provisions of monthly charges claimed by the lessor had actually been regularized each year, as required by law. The Court of Cassation recalled that article 23 of the 1989 law requires that rental charges be subject to at least annual regularization. The lessor must communicate to the tenant, one month before this regularization, a detailed statement by type of charges and keep the supporting documents available for 6 months.
In the absence of regularization, the charges paid cannot be considered insufficient. Without this essential verification, the Court of Cassation then considered that the decision of the Paris Court of Appeal had no legal basis and therefore annulled it.
Ultimately, it was the owner who was ordered to pay 3,000 euros to his tenant. A sum corresponding to the legal costs incurred by the latter to assert its rights throughout the procedure.
