The inventory of condition: what is decided in one hour, moving in and moving out

A joint written record, and the only evidence that holds

The inventory is drawn up when the keys are handed over, then again when they are returned. The law of 6 July 1989 requires it to be joint: the landlord or their agent and the tenant, present together, in good light. A visit at dusk on a December evening produces a document nobody will be able to defend.

The decree of 30 March 2016 sets out its minimum contents: the date, the address, the identity of the parties, readings of the individual meters, the keys handed over, and for each room a precise description of the floors, walls, ceilings and fittings. It may be supplemented with observations, reservations and images.

Layout matters. The incoming and outgoing records must be readable side by side, on a single two-column document or on two documents laid out the same way. An incoming record on an agency form and an outgoing one written on plain paper cannot be compared line by line. Yet the whole exercise rests on that comparison, and without it every point is open to argument.

Each party receives a copy on signature, by hand or electronically. A dated photograph of each room, attached to the document, does not replace the written description, but it makes that description far harder to dispute.

The ten days after moving in, and the winter that follows

The incoming record is not frozen on signature. The tenant may ask the landlord to add to it within 10 calendar days, for any part of the home. For the heating, the window opens during the first month of the heating season: a cold radiator is discovered in November, not on a move-in in June.

Where the home has individual heating or hot water, or a collective system with individual metering, the index readings for each energy source appear on both the incoming and the outgoing record. That extract is also used by the professional who carries out the energy performance diagnosis.

If the landlord refuses the correction requested, the tenant may refer the matter to the departmental conciliation commission. Answering in writing, accepting what is accurate and explaining the rest, costs less than a hearing.

That leaves the case where nothing was done. If the missing inventory is the landlord's doing, after ignoring a formal notice, it is the landlord who must prove at the end of the lease that the home was handed over in good condition. If it is the tenant's doing, or shared negligence, the tenant is presumed to have received the home in a good state of tenant repairs, unless they prove otherwise.

Wear and tear, or what time is entitled to use up

The decree of 30 March 2016 defines wear and tear as the state of wear or deterioration resulting from time or from the normal use of the materials and fittings. The law draws the consequence: the tenant is responsible for routine upkeep and minor repairs, except where they are caused by wear and tear, poor workmanship, a construction defect, an unforeseeable event or force majeure.

Paint dulled after six years of occupation or parquet polished smooth along the walkways cannot be deducted from the deposit. A burnt carpet or a wall riddled with holes can. The tenant returns the home in the condition in which they received it, normal wear excepted, with no duty to restore it to new.

To avoid arguing room by room, the parties may agree when the lease is signed to apply a wear-and-tear schedule. It cannot be improvised: it must be chosen from among those covered by a collective agreement, national or local, and must set, for the main materials and fittings, a theoretical lifespan and fixed annual depreciation coefficients.

The principle is simple. The closer a surface comes to its theoretical lifespan, the smaller the share of the repair cost left to the tenant. Attached to the lease, the schedule replaces the exit negotiation with a calculation.

What the inventory costs, and who pays for it

Drawn up between landlord and tenant, the inventory costs nothing. Entrusted to a professional instructed by the landlord, it is shared, but only on the way in: the tenant's share may exceed neither half the invoice nor a ceiling per square metre of living area, set at 3.03 € including tax in 2026.

On the way out, the tenant pays nothing when the inventory is drawn up by the landlord's agency. A lease clause charging them for it is unfair and deemed unwritten.

When one party refuses to attend or to sign, the other may call on a commissaire de justice, the French court officer. They summon both parties by registered letter at least 7 days in advance, and their report binds both sides, even if one failed to appear. The fee is regulated: in mainland France, 132.82 € for a home of 50 m² or less, 154.74 € up to 150 m², 232.12 € above that, plus 18.06 € for the summons and 11.28 € for travel. The total is split in half.

From departure to repayment, every deduction must be proved

The deadlines for returning the deposit, one month if the outgoing record matches the incoming one, two months if it does not, and the penalty of 10 % of the rent per month of delay are set out in our article on leases in Nice. They run from the return of the keys, and it is the inventory that decides which of the two deadlines applies.

Whatever is kept back must be justified. The landlord gives the tenant the documents behind each sum: both inventories, photographs, a court officer's report, a quote or an invoice for works. A lump sum for refurbishment scrawled at the foot of the outgoing record proves nothing.

In a co-ownership building, the landlord may keep a provision pending the annual closing of the building's accounts, set on supporting documents and capped at 20 % of the deposit. The balance is settled within a month of the final approval of the accounts, unless the parties agree to settle everything at once.

Two points avoid needless disputes. The tenant may not pay the last month's rent with the deposit, even for an equivalent sum. And the late-payment penalty does not apply where the tenant did not give a new address when handing back the keys.

When disagreement persists

The departmental conciliation commission is joint: it brings together equal numbers of representatives of landlords and of tenants. It seeks an agreement between the parties and hands down no ruling. Landlord and tenant alike may refer a matter to it free of charge, whether the dispute concerns the inventory or the deposit.

For a home in Nice, it is the Alpes-Maritimes commission, whose secretariat is run by the DDETS at the CADAM, 147 boulevard du Mercantour. The parties are summoned at least 15 days before the hearing. An agreement signed before it closes the matter: whoever gives up part of a claim can no longer take it to court.

For a claim of 5,000 € or less, an attempt at amicable resolution is compulsory before going to the juge des contentieux de la protection, the court that hears tenancy cases: a court conciliator, mediation or a participatory procedure. The commission is not one of them, whereas a court conciliator acts free of charge. Above that amount, an amicable step remains possible without being required. The claim itself is time-barred after three years.

So everything is decided in two hours, several years apart, on a document the landlord can no longer correct once signed. It is one of the tasks a management mandate handles from start to finish, from a precise, photographed incoming record to deductions costed on quotes when they are needed. Promenades Services manages properties in Nice and along the nearby coast, from 107 Promenade des Anglais.