Commercial and residential premises: application of the rules of decency

Rental decency applies only to the residential portion of a “mixed” lease that is actually occupied by the lessee as the principal dwelling.

Paris, 20 May 2020, No. 18/19805, extract : (…) The court recalls that Article 1719 paragraph 1° of the Civil Code in its wording resulting from Law n°2000-1208 of 13 December 2000, which provides that: the lessor is obliged, by the nature of the contract, and without the need for any particular stipulation: 1° to deliver to the lessee the thing rented and, if it is his main dwelling, a decent dwelling, is applicable to current leases. However, in the case of commercial leases, for the special provisions relating to the delivery of a decent dwelling to apply, it is not sufficient for the clause designating the lease to indicate that a dwelling exists; the dwelling must also be occupied by the lessee as his principal dwelling. In this case, since the lease was concluded with a legal person and the legal person complained that it had been unable to sublet the dwelling dependent on the commercial lease, it could not claim that this dwelling would constitute its principal dwelling, which is a condition for the application of the above-mentioned texts (…) FOR THESE REASONS The court, ruling on both sides of the case, confirmed the judgement undertaken (…)