État des Lieux in France: Complete Guide to Move-In and Move-Out Property Inspections (2026)

An état des lieux is a written inventory describing the exact condition of a rented property at two key moments: when the tenant receives the keys (entrée) and when they hand them back (sortie). It is not a formality or a courtesy — it is a legally mandatory document under Article 3-2 of the Loi n°89-462 du 6 juillet 1989, as modified by the Loi ALUR (Loi n°2014-366 du 24 mars 2014). Since ALUR, a single standardised format applies to all residential leases, detailed by Décret n°2016-382 du 30 mars 2016.

The obligation applies to:

• Unfurnished rentals (location nue) — the main residential lease

• Furnished rentals (location meublée) — including bail mobilité and student leases

• Colocation — each co-tenant must be party to the inspection

• HLM and institutional landlords — no exemption

How it must be done:

• Contradictoire — performed together by both parties (landlord or their mandated agent, and tenant), or their appointed representatives. This is the standard method and carries the strongest evidentiary value.

• By a huissier de justice — a court-appointed bailiff establishes the inventory if one party refuses to attend or to sign, or if the parties cannot agree. The cost is split 50/50 regardless of who is at fault, with a regulated tariff (around €130–€230 depending on property size).

Two copies must be produced — one for the landlord, one for the tenant — and both copies must be annexed to the bail (rental contract). A missing or incomplete état des lieux is one of the most common reasons why deposit disputes end up before the juge des contentieux de la protection.

The entire legal mechanism of the état des lieux rests on a comparison. The état des lieux d'entrée establishes the baseline — the exact condition of every room, surface, appliance and fixture on the day the tenant receives the keys. The état des lieux de sortie records the condition on the day the keys are returned. Any difference between the two, other than what qualifies as usure normale (normal wear and tear, or vétusté), may be deducted from the tenant's dépôt de garantie.

État des lieux d'entrée:

• Performed the day the tenant takes possession (remise des clés)

• Must be attached to the bail as an annex

• The tenant has 10 days after signature to request corrections or additions (Décret 2016-382)

• For heating installations specifically, the tenant has the first month of the heating period (premier mois de chauffe) to ask for additions relating to radiators, boiler, thermostats, etc.

État des lieux de sortie:

• Performed the day the tenant hands back the keys (restitution des clés)

• Meter readings taken again — electricity, gas, water — to establish final consumption

• The landlord compares room-by-room with the entrée version

• Any deductions must be justified with invoices (devis or factures) from a professional

For reference on the underlying lease contract and deposit mechanics, see our guide to the French bail (lease contract). If you're drafting the lease itself, AdminLanding's bail generator produces a compliant contract with every Loi 1989 clause — including the état des lieux annex reference — pre-populated from your property and tenant data.

Key principle: anything visible and present at entrée that is not recorded is presumed to have been in good condition. Anything recorded at entrée as already damaged cannot later be charged to the tenant at sortie.

The Décret n°2016-382 du 30 mars 2016 prescribes the precise content required for an état des lieux to be legally valid. Missing any of the mandatory items exposes the document to legal challenge.

Administrative header:

• Type of état des lieux — entrée or sortie (explicit mention)

• Date — the day the inspection is carried out

• Address of the property — complete address, including building, staircase, floor, and door number

• Identity and contact details of the parties — landlord (or mandated agent) and tenant (or co-tenants for colocation)

• Reference to the bail — date of signature of the rental contract

Technical readings (compteurs):

• Electricity meter — reading (index) and meter number

• Gas meter — reading and meter number, if applicable

• Water meter(s) — cold and/or hot water, with reading and meter number

• For individual sub-meters in collective buildings, each index must be recorded

Room-by-room description:

For every room (salon, cuisine, salle de bains, chambres, WC, entrée, couloir, balcon/terrasse, cave, parking) a detailed description of:

• Walls (murs) — paint, wallpaper, tiles: colour and condition

• Floors (sols) — parquet, tiles, carpet, laminate: condition, marks, scratches

• Ceilings (plafonds) — condition, stains, cracks

• Windows and shutters (fenêtres, volets) — glazing, frames, handles, blinds

• Doors and locks (portes, serrures) — condition, alignment, functioning

• Electrical fittings (prises, interrupteurs, luminaires) — working order, visible wear

• Plumbing fixtures (robinetterie, sanitaires) — condition, drip, scale

• Appliances if any (électroménager) — model, serial number, working order

• Furniture for meublés — itemised list with condition of each piece

Keys and accessories:

• Number and type of keys delivered — main door, mailbox, cave, garage, badge d'immeuble, clé de cave

• Any remote controls, garage openers, access cards

Signatures:

• Both parties must sign every page (paraphes) and the final page (signatures)

• For digital états des lieux, electronic signature has full legal value since 2014

The quality of an état des lieux is determined almost entirely by how carefully the inspection is carried out. A rushed five-minute walkthrough is worse than no état des lieux at all, because it creates a binding document that misrepresents reality.

Before starting:

• Allow at least 30 minutes for a studio, 1 hour for a 2-room, 1h30+ for a family flat

• Bring a charged phone with good camera quality — photographs are decisive evidence

• Bring a torch — to inspect wardrobes, cupboards, behind appliances

• Bring a measuring tape — useful for disputed marks and holes

Use precise vocabulary. The Décret 2016-382 and case law use standard terms — and so should you. Vague words like « état correct » create ambiguity. Preferred terms:

• Bon état — in good condition

• État d'usage — acceptable for the age of the property

• Usure normale / vétuste — normal wear for the expected lifespan

• Taché — stained (specify where and how)

• Fissuré / fendu — cracked or split

• Rayé — scratched

• Dégradé — damaged

• Absent / manquant — missing (e.g. a handle, a shelf, a socket cover)

• Hors service — not working (for appliances or fixtures)

Photograph everything, systematically:

• Wide shot of each room

• Close-up of every defect — always with something for scale

• All meters (electricity, gas, water) with the index clearly visible

• The full set of keys laid out

• Timestamp matters: your phone's EXIF data provides legal-grade evidence of date and time

Test everything that can be tested:

• Every tap, hot and cold, checking flow and temperature

• Every electrical socket (bring a charger or a socket tester)

• Every light switch

• Every window and shutter — open, close, lock

• Every door and key

• Toilet flush, shower drainage, kitchen extractor, boiler ignition

• Heating — if the inspection is outside the heating period, note this explicitly and use your right to amend during the first heating month

Check for humidity and ventilation:

• Sniff behind wardrobes and in corners of bathrooms

• Look for condensation marks on windows

• Verify the VMC (mechanical ventilation) is running — a tissue held in front of the vent should be sucked in

This is the single most disputed issue at move-out. The principle, now codified by Décret n°2016-382 du 30 mars 2016, is simple: the tenant is not responsible for normal wear and tear (usure normale, or vétusté). They are responsible only for deterioration (dégradation) caused by negligence, misuse, or lack of routine maintenance.

What counts as usure normale:

• Paint that has faded after several years

• Small scuff marks behind furniture

• Minor fading of parquet in high-traffic zones

• Natural yellowing of joints

• Worn carpet in entry areas

What is typically chargeable to the tenant:

• Holes in the wall from shelves or TV mounts (beyond small picture nails)

• Stains from pets or cigarettes

• Broken tiles, cracked sinks, shattered glass

• Appliances broken through misuse

• Damage from unreported water leaks

• Excessive dirt requiring professional cleaning

The grille de vétusté (depreciation grid):

The Décret 2016-382 allows landlord and tenant to annex a grille de vétusté to the bail, setting out the expected lifespan of each element. Typical figures found in published grids:

• Paint on walls: 7 years

• Wallpaper: 7–10 years

• Moquette (carpet): 7–10 years

• Parquet: 15–20 years

• Kitchen appliances: 10–12 years

• Boiler: 15–20 years

Practical example: A tenant leaves after 5 years. The paint needs redoing. With a 7-year lifespan, vétusté has consumed 5/7 of the paint's value. The landlord can only charge the tenant for 2/7 of the cost — not the full repainting. Without a grille de vétusté, the same logic applies through case law, but disputes are much harder to resolve without a written reference.

Case law principle (Cass. Civ. 3e, 3 November 2011): The landlord cannot charge the tenant for work that amounts to normal renovation of an aged property.

Since the Loi ALUR, a digital état des lieux has the same legal weight as a paper one — and in many ways offers superior evidentiary quality. Article 1366 of the Code Civil (formerly Article 1316-1) expressly recognises electronic writings as equivalent to paper, provided the author can be identified and the integrity of the document is preserved.

Requirements for a legally valid digital état des lieux:

• Both parties must sign electronically — either via a qualified electronic signature (eIDAS) or, for non-qualified e-signatures, with sufficient authentication to link the signature to the signer

• Both parties must receive a copy — ideally by email with the signed PDF attached, or through a platform that provides downloadable archives

• The document must contain all the mandatory items set out by Décret 2016-382 — no shortcut is acceptable

• Photographs must be embedded in the PDF or clearly referenced, with date/time stamps

• Meter readings must be numerical (not approximate), and ideally supported by a photo of the meter

Advantages of the digital format:

• Timestamps are tamper-evident — EXIF data on photos, audit trails on platforms

• Instant delivery — both parties have the document immediately, no postal delay

• Automatic archiving — no risk of losing the paper copy before the end of the lease

• Easy to amend — the tenant's 10-day right to add observations, and the first-heating-month right, are easier to exercise when the baseline document is electronic

Where to generate a compliant digital état des lieux:

AdminLanding's état des lieux generator produces ALUR-compliant entrée and sortie documents with photographs attached, a built-in grille de vétusté, and signature électronique conforme eIDAS — the same tool used by professional agencies. For landlords who want to conduct the inspection on-site from a phone, Rent — Bail, Quittance, Loyer on Google Play (Android) or on the Apple App Store (iOS) provides the same functionality on mobile, with photographs taken directly inside the app.

The absence of an état des lieux has asymmetric consequences — depending on which one is missing, the disadvantaged party changes.

If there is no état des lieux d'entrée:

Article 1731 of the Code Civil applies: the tenant is presumed to have received the property in good condition and must hand it back in the same state. This presumption is extremely disadvantageous — in practice, it means the landlord can claim deductions for any visible defect at sortie, and the tenant has no way to prove the defect pre-existed.

Exception: If the absence is due to the landlord's refusal (and the tenant has evidence — e.g. a recommandé AR demanding an inspection), the presumption can be rebutted. In this case the burden of proof shifts back to the landlord to demonstrate that the tenant caused the deterioration.

If there is no état des lieux de sortie:

The reverse: the landlord loses the right to invoke Article 1731 and, more importantly, cannot justify any deduction from the dépôt de garantie. The deposit must be returned in full within 1 month (Loi ALUR). Case law consistently holds that the burden of proving deterioration lies with the landlord, and without an état des lieux de sortie, they have no baseline.

Practical advice — always insist on both:

1. At entrée: if the landlord tries to hand over keys without an inspection, refuse to accept the keys until the inspection is done. If they refuse, send a recommandé avec accusé de réception citing Article 3-2 of the Loi 1989, and engage a huissier.
2. At sortie: if the landlord doesn't show up, engage a huissier and attend yourself. The cost is shared, but the protection is essential.
3. Never sign an état des lieux you haven't read or that you disagree with. Once signed, contesting it is very difficult — you have only 10 days to amend, and contradicting it later requires strong evidence.

Disagreements over an état des lieux — typically at sortie, when the landlord withholds some or all of the dépôt de garantie — are among the most common rental disputes in France. Fortunately, there is a well-established escalation path that most disputes never need to fully exhaust.

Step 1 — Direct negotiation and recommandé AR. Start by writing to the landlord (or managing agent) by recommandé avec accusé de réception, itemising the contested deductions and requesting a detailed justification with devis or factures. The landlord is legally required to provide supporting documents for any deduction. If you have a quittance de loyer trail, invoices, or photographs contradicting the deductions, include them.

Step 2 — Huissier de justice (if disagreement arose at sortie itself). Either party can request a huissier to establish the état des lieux at move-out. The cost is split 50/50 regardless of the outcome, with a regulated tariff of roughly €130–€230 depending on the property's surface area.

Step 3 — Commission départementale de conciliation (CDC). The CDC is a free mediation body available in every French département, composed of landlord and tenant representatives. It handles disputes on état des lieux, dépôt de garantie, charges récupérables, and more. Referral is free and takes about 2 months. The CDC issues a non-binding opinion that is often respected, especially when the case looks weak.

Step 4 — Tribunal judiciaire (juge des contentieux de la protection). For disputes under €10,000, the juge des contentieux de la protection has exclusive jurisdiction over residential lease disputes. No lawyer is required, but the procedure is more formal. Typical timeline: 6–12 months from filing to judgment. If the landlord is held liable for the delay in returning the deposit, they owe 10% of monthly rent per month of delay (Loi ALUR).

Typical overall timeline for a contested deposit:

• Month 1: Sortie + recommandé AR

• Months 2–3: Negotiation, CDC referral

• Months 4–6: CDC opinion, potential settlement

• Months 6–18: Court action if still unresolved

AdminLanding's Pack Location is built specifically for landlords and tenants navigating French tenancy law. It generates legally compliant états des lieux (both entrée and sortie) that comply with Article 3-2 of the Loi 1989 and Décret n°2016-382 du 30 mars 2016, with:

• Standardised room-by-room templates — all mandatory items pre-populated, nothing forgotten

• Photo attachments — uploaded directly into the PDF, with timestamps preserved

• Built-in grille de vétusté — annexed automatically, with standard lifespans for each element, editable if you have a custom grid

• Meter readings with photo proof

• EU eIDAS-compliant e-signature — legally qualified, with an audit trail both parties receive by email

• Instant archiving — the signed document is stored in your account, downloadable any time

For on-site use, Rent — Bail, Quittance, Loyer on Google Play (Android) or on the Apple App Store (iOS) runs the same workflow from your phone or tablet — you take the photos, complete the room descriptions, and collect signatures directly at the handover, without going back to a desk. The two accounts are linked, so what you start on mobile can be finalised on the web and vice versa.

Both platforms also generate the supporting documents you'll need through the lease — bail, quittances de loyer, régularisation des charges, congé, restitution du dépôt de garantie — keeping everything linked to the same property file. For landlords with multiple properties or tenants renewing their titre de séjour (who regularly need quittances from the last 3 months), this integrated approach removes most of the manual document work.

The état des lieux generator is part of the Pack Location (€49 for the first property, one-time) — the cost of a single huissier visit, but for documents you'll use throughout the lease.