In real estate law, an owner can claim additional rent from his tenant if the rented accommodation has rare and exceptional equipment. In this legal dispute, the lessor added 120 euros to the rent because the building has an elevator.
By signing a rental lease with their landlord, tenants expect two things: to find decent accommodation and to have to pay rent every month. To the latter can obviously be added charges linked to the consumption of electricity, gas or water, housing maintenance costs (cleaning of common areas, renovation), or even the removal of household waste. But, in certain cases, the tenant may also be required to pay additional rent.
Concretely, in rental law, this mechanism allows an owner to exceed the rent set in the rental contract. Owners may require this additional rent if the rented accommodation has exceptional characteristics compared to the rest of the district where it is located (direct view of a monument, large terrace rare in the area, very high ceiling height, etc.). According to article 2-1 of the law of July 6, 1989, any rental advertisement must explicitly indicate the amount of the rental supplement and precisely detail the characteristics which justify this supplement.
The National Agency for Housing Information (ANIL) specifies that no official calculation exists to determine the amount of a rent supplement. It is estimated only by the owner. A study carried out by PriceHubble reveals that the median amount of rent supplements applied in France is 178 euros per month.
However, a recent court decision has however allowed an owner to impose a rent supplement on his tenant for equipment which is, a priori, not part of the equipment making him eligible for this type of supplement. This surprising decision set a precedent and could open the way to new interpretations of the criteria justifying additional rent.
The dispute at the origin of this legal case dates back to August 10, 2017. At that time, Yvan (name has been changed) signed a rental lease with a landlord to rent a 16m² studio located on the top floor of a building in Paris. The basic rent was 440 euros, to which were added 75 euros in charges and… a rent supplement of 120 euros. The reason for this supplement: the building has an elevator. After a few months, believing that this rent supplement was unjustified, Yvan took his landlord to court to obtain the cancellation of the supplement and the restitution of the sums unduly collected until then.
After a long legal procedure, both parties ended up before the Paris Court of Appeal. On May 21, 2024, the judges delivered their verdict, ruling in favor of the lessor. The magistrates considered that the accommodation, located on the top floor of the building, had plenty of light and peace justifying additional rent. According to them, the presence of the elevator made it possible to enjoy the advantages of a maid’s room, without suffering the disadvantages linked to the difficulty of access by stairs.
Protesting against this decision, Yvan filed a cassation appeal. The tenant claimed that the brightness and calm of his studio resulted from the high floor of the accommodation, which is the case with most maids’ rooms in Paris. According to Yvan, it was therefore not an exceptional characteristic. In addition, the tenant denounced the fact that the court of appeal retained the presence of an elevator as justification for the additional rent, while the maintenance of this equipment is already the subject of recovery by the lessor as charges.
In its judgment No. 585 FD, rendered on December 4, 2025, the Court of Cassation indicated that calm and light in housing constituted rare and particularly sought-after characteristics in Paris. Concerning the elevator, the highest court in the country confirmed that this equipment allows you to benefit from the advantages of a high floor without suffering the disadvantages. The Court of Cassation thus validated the reasoning of the Court of Appeal and rejected the tenant’s appeal. Yvan was ordered to pay his owner the sum of 3,000 euros to reimburse the legal costs paid.
