Law No. 2023-668, aimed at protecting housing against illegal occupation, was enacted on July 27, 2023. This law strengthens the protection of property owners and secures relationships between landlords and tenants.
The law focuses on three main objectives: better repression of squatting, securing rental relationships, and enhancing support for tenants in difficulty.
To achieve this, the law intensifies the repression of certain offenses, creates new offenses to penalize intrusion and continued occupation of another's property, and introduces measures to protect landlords' rights against non-paying tenants who remain in the property despite an eviction order.
A new offense of fraudulent occupation of residential, commercial, agricultural, or professional premises has been created. This offense extends the repression of squatting to all real estate properties (previously, it only concerned residences). The law also establishes two other offenses: fraudulent occupation by a defaulting tenant who remains in a property without right or title in violation of a court decision, and incitement to squat.
The law increases penalties for the offenses of home invasion and identity theft of a property owner. It also clarifies the concept of domicile, now including all furnished residential premises, regardless of whether the property owner lives there. However, the Constitutional Council has issued a reservation, stating that the presence of furniture alone cannot characterize the offense of home invasion.
Squatters who have been judicially ordered to be evicted can no longer obtain delays by arguing that their relocation cannot occur under normal conditions. The accelerated administrative eviction procedure is also extended to all residential premises that are not domiciles. When the occupied premises constitute the applicant's domicile, the illegal occupant has 72 hours to leave (extended to seven days for other residential premises).
The grace periods granted to good-faith tenants who have been ordered to be evicted and whose relocation cannot occur under normal conditions are reduced. These periods can no longer be less than one month and more than one year.
To secure rental relationships, the law mandates the inclusion in rental agreements of a clause providing for the automatic termination of the contract for non-payment of rent or charges as agreed, and for non-payment of the security deposit. The judge can only suspend the execution upon the express request of one of the parties and provided that full payment of the rent resumes before the hearing date.
Finally, the Constitutional Council censured Article 7 of the law, which provided for a special liability regime concerning damage to property and persons. This article proposed to exempt the property owner from maintenance obligations and liability for damage resulting from a lack of maintenance. The Constitutional Council considered that implementing such a regime would disproportionately infringe on the victims' right to obtain compensation for damage resulting from the lack of maintenance of a dilapidated building.
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