Recoverable rental charges (charges récupérables) in France: what a landlord can bill the tenant

French law splits what a tenant pays into two parts: the rent, and the charges récupérables (recoverable charges, sometimes called charges locatives). Article 23 of loi n°89-462 of 6 July 1989 defines these as sums accessory to the rent covering three families of costs:

1. Services linked to the use of the building — water, collective heating, lift operation, communal electricity.
2. Routine maintenance and small repairs of the common areas and shared equipment.
3. Taxes and fees matching services the tenant actually benefits from — chiefly the household-waste tax (TEOM).

Crucially, article 23 does not list the items itself. It delegates that to a décret en Conseil d'État — and that decree is n°87-713 of 26 August 1987. The list it fixes is limitative: if a cost is not on it, it cannot be passed to the tenant, full stop. There is one narrow route to add items — a local accord collectif on building security or energy-saving works — but that is the exception, not the rule.

The décret 87-713 groups recoverable costs by building system (water, heating, lift, common areas, exterior, taxes). The dividing line is simple: consumption and routine upkeep are the tenant's; ownership, replacement and improvement are the landlord's.

The caretaker rule is precise. Under décret 87-713, a gardien or concierge's wages and social charges are recoverable at 75% if they handle both common-area cleaning and household-refuse duties, but only 40% if they perform just one of the two. In-kind pay, severance and profit-sharing are never recoverable.

The standard way to collect charges on an unfurnished (empty) lease is provisions sur charges: a monthly advance paid alongside the rent. Because a provision is only an estimate, article 23 of loi n°89-462 makes an annual reconciliation mandatory — the régularisation des charges.

The mechanics:

1. The provision amount must be justified by the previous year's régularisation results and the building's budget forecast — not set arbitrarily.
2. At least once a year, the landlord compares total provisions collected against real, documented costs.
3. One month before the régularisation, the landlord sends the tenant a décompte par nature de charges — an itemised statement by category, plus, in collective buildings, how costs are split and the heating/consumption breakdown.
4. If the tenant underpaid, a top-up is due; if they overpaid, the surplus is refunded.

One protection for tenants: if the régularisation is not done before the end of the year following the reference year, the tenant may ask to pay any balance in twelfths, spread over 12 months (article 23).

A tenant is not expected to trust a bottom-line number. Article 23 of loi n°89-462 gives an explicit right of inspection: for **six months from the day the décompte is sent**, the landlord must keep the supporting documents (pièces justificatives) available to the tenant under normal conditions.

What this means in practice:

• The landlord must let you consult the invoices, contracts and — in a copropriété — the syndic's charge statements. There is no automatic duty to post photocopies of everything, but access must be real and reasonable (often at the agency or syndic office).
• For collective heating and hot water, the consumption details must accompany the décompte, not merely be available on request.
• If a landlord refuses to substantiate a line, a tenant can legitimately withhold that portion until it is justified.

Tenants who ask for the breakdown rarely overpay; landlords who keep clean records rarely lose the argument. Free guidance is available from your local ADIL/ANIL advice service, which can review a décompte line by line.

For a **furnished (meublé)** rental, article 25-10 of loi n°89-462 lets the parties choose between two regimes:

The forfait is a flat amount written into the lease and paid with the rent. It can never give rise to a top-up or a refund: if the real costs turn out higher, the landlord absorbs the difference; if lower, the tenant keeps it. The one guard-rail is that the forfait must not be manifestly disproportionate to the building's actual charges.

The bail mobilité (a 1–10 month lease for students and mobile workers, created by the loi ELAN of 2018) removes the choice entirely: charges are collected by forfait only, so no régularisation is ever possible. The recoverable list, however, is the same décret 87-713 in every case.

Neither side can reach back indefinitely. Article 7-1 of loi n°89-462 — introduced by the loi ALUR of 24 March 2014 — sets a three-year prescription for actions arising from the lease, including rent and charge arrears.

It cuts both ways:

• A landlord who forgot to régulariser can still recover under-collected charges, but only for the last 3 years.
• A tenant who was overcharged can reclaim the surplus, again for up to 3 years.

Example: a charge dated March 2025 can be claimed until March 2028; beyond that it is prescribed and can be refused without risk.

One subtlety matters for tenants. For an action to reclaim overpaid charges (action en répétition), the Cour de cassation has held that the 3-year clock starts on the date of the régularisation that first revealed the overcharge — the moment the tenant could know an undue sum was paid — not on the earlier date each provision was paid.

Most charge disputes come down to two landlord mistakes: re-billing something off the list, or skipping the yearly reconciliation. A defensible régularisation follows the same order every year:

1. Collect the real figures — syndic charge statement, water/energy invoices, maintenance contracts.
2. Strip out the non-recoverable lines — taxe foncière (keep only TEOM), major works, management fees, the non-recoverable share of the caretaker.
3. Apply the right keys — the tenant's tantièmes share, and the 75%/40% caretaker rate.
4. Compare with provisions collected and compute the top-up or refund.
5. **Send the décompte one month ahead** and keep the pièces justificatives available for six months.

Building and sending that itemised statement — with the supporting breakdown a tenant can actually check — is exactly the kind of task our rental workspace automates: see the Rent by AL rental app. Do it cleanly once a year and the three-year risk essentially disappears.