France DPE Rental Ban (Passoire Thermique): G, F and E Dates and Who It Catches

A tenant looking at a G on an energy label and a landlord looking at a renovation quote are asking the same question from opposite sides: what does the rental ban actually do, and when. The answer is more limited than the headlines suggest and more consequential than most landlords assume, because the rule does not work as a prohibition with a penalty attached. It works through the law on decent housing, which a sitting tenant can invoke at any time.

The dates themselves are settled and have been since 2021. What causes the confusion is the trigger. The calendar does not sweep dwellings off the rental market on a given morning. It attaches to the moment a lease is concluded, renewed or tacitly reconducted, which is why G rated dwellings were still visibly being occupied well into 2026 without anyone breaking a rule.

Information last verified on 21 July 2026. This page presents general legal information, not legal advice.

The calendar

Article 160 of the loi Climat et résilience of 22 August 2021 tied the definition of a decent dwelling to the energy classes set out in article L173-1-1 of the Code de la construction et de l'habitation. That article classifies existing residential buildings from A to G by decreasing performance, measured in kilowatt hours of primary energy per square metre per year and in kilograms of carbon dioxide per square metre per year, with the thresholds fixed by arrêté.

In metropolitan France the minimum level is class F from 1 January 2025, which is the same thing as saying class G can no longer be let. It becomes class E from 1 January 2028, removing class F, and class D from 1 January 2034, removing class E.

An earlier and cruder rule still sits underneath. Since 1 January 2023 a dwelling consuming 450 kilowatt hours of final energy per square metre per year or more has been treated as indecent in metropolitan France, independently of its letter grade.

In Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyane, La Réunion and Mayotte the calendar runs later: class G is excluded from 1 January 2028 and class F from 1 January 2031.

Which leases the ban actually catches

This is the point most summaries get wrong, in both directions. The obligation applies to leases concluded after the relevant date, to renewals and to tacit reconductions. It does not terminate a lease already running, does not make the landlord retroactively unlawful, and does not oblige a sitting tenant to leave.

Service-public.gouv.fr states the position plainly for class G: since 1 January 2025 it is no longer possible to let a dwelling with a DPE rated G, and that also covers renewal of the lease and its tacit reconduction.

So a lease signed in 2023 on a G rated flat continued normally through 2025. The obligation reached it when the lease came up for renewal or reconducted itself. Landlords who assume nothing happens until they choose to re let are missing the tacit reconduction, which is the usual way a French residential lease continues and which arrives without anyone signing anything.

The separate decency route is available to a sitting tenant at any time and does not wait for renewal, which is dealt with below.

What happens if a non compliant dwelling is let

There is no fine and no criminal offence. Letting a dwelling below the minimum performance level makes it non decent within the meaning of article 6 of loi n° 89-462 du 6 juillet 1989, and the sanction is the decency remedy in article 20-1 of the same law.

Under that article the tenant may ask the landlord to bring the dwelling into conformity, without that request affecting the validity of the lease in progress. If the parties do not agree, or the landlord does not respond within two months, either party may seize the commission départementale de conciliation, though its opinion is not a precondition to applying to the judge.

The juge des contentieux de la protection may then determine the nature of the works to be carried out and the deadline for doing them, and may reduce the rent or suspend its payment, with or without escrow, until the works are complete, as well as award damages.

There is a limit written into the article. The judge cannot order works to reach the minimum performance level where the dwelling is in a copropriété and the owner shows that, despite diligence, the decision lay with the syndicat des copropriétaires, or where architectural or heritage constraints make the level unreachable. That exception is about the works order specifically, not a general amnesty.

The rent freeze on F and G, which is separate and already in force

A distinct measure often confused with the letting ban is the gel des loyers. Since 24 August 2022, under article 159 of the loi Climat et résilience, rents on dwellings rated F or G cannot be increased: no annual indexation on the IRL even where the lease contains a revision clause, and no increase between two tenants. It has no expiry date and it applies today, everywhere, including in communes with no rent control at all.

That is a different mechanism from the temporary 3.5 per cent inflation cap on rent revisions, which expired after the first quarter of 2024 and no longer applies. How indexation works when it is permitted is covered on the rent increase page, and the separate reference rent system in a handful of cities is covered on the rent control page.

The DPE calculation changed on 1 January 2026

The rating itself is not fixed forever, because the method behind it moves. Two changes matter for anyone near a threshold.

The reform of 1 July 2024 introduced a weighting on the reference surface used for domestic hot water, which corrected a distortion that had been penalising small units under 40 square metres and pushing them into F and G on the strength of the hot water calculation alone.

Then an arrêté published in the Journal officiel on 26 August 2025 lowered the primary energy conversion coefficient for electricity from 2.3 to 1.9, in line with the updated European value, with effect from 1 January 2026. Under the old figure one kilowatt hour of electricity counted as 2.3 kilowatt hours of primary energy; it now counts as 1.9. The ministry states that no dwelling will see its label fall as a result.

Estimates of how many dwellings leave F and G because of these changes have circulated widely and vary a great deal depending on the reference stock and the year used, so they are best treated as orders of magnitude rather than counts. What is not in doubt is the mechanism: every DPE issued from 1 January 2026 uses the new coefficient, DPE issued earlier remain valid for their ten year term, and where the recalculation would improve the rating the owner can obtain a free update through the ADEME DPE Audit observatory without a new visit from a diagnostician.

For a tenant, this means a label seen on an advertisement in 2024 is not necessarily the label the same dwelling carries today, and the date on the DPE is worth reading alongside the letter. It is one of the documents worth checking carefully at the same time as the move in inventory.

Collective DPE in copropriétés

Alongside the individual diagnosis, a collective DPE is compulsory for collective residential buildings whose building permit was filed before 1 January 2013. It was phased by size: single owner blocks and copropriétés of more than 200 lots from 1 January 2024, 50 to 200 lots from 1 January 2025, and up to 50 lots from 1 January 2026. In the five overseas departments the obligation starts on 1 January 2028.

The collective DPE is valid for ten years, except where a diagnosis made after 1 July 2021 places the building in class A, B or C. Once it exists, the syndic has to put the question of an energy saving works plan or an energy performance contract on the agenda of the next general meeting. For an individual owner facing a poor rating, the collective diagnosis is often what determines whether the fix is an individual job or a building wide one, which in turn feeds the exception in article 20-1 described above.

A bill in Parliament could reopen letting of poorly rated dwellings

This should be watched, not relied on. A proposition de loi aimed at clarifying energy renovation obligations and securing their application in copropriétés was adopted by the Sénat at first reading on 1 April 2025 and transmitted to the Assemblée nationale, and a government housing bill taken up in 2026 pursues a similar logic, allowing poorly rated dwellings to be let where the owner commits to renovation works, with exceptions for technical constraints and for works blocked by the copropriété.

None of that is law. A bill adopted at first reading in one chamber can be amended heavily or never reach a final vote, and until a text is enacted and published the calendar set out at the top of this page is what applies. Any source describing the reopening of G lettings as a current rule is describing a proposal.

Further French legal information is collected on the France legal information hub. Related tenancy questions, including how much notice each side must give, are covered on the tenant notice period page, and what a landlord may keep at the end of the lease on the security deposit page. Where a dispute over a non decent dwelling turns into an arrears dispute, the procedure is set out on the eviction page.

Disclaimer

This page provides general information about the French energy performance rules applying to rented housing, for educational purposes. It is not legal advice and it is not an assessment of any reader's own dwelling, lease or renovation project. Whether a given dwelling is caught depends on its rating, the date of its DPE and the date the lease was concluded, renewed or reconducted. Verify current rules and dates against service-public.gouv.fr, Légifrance or ecologie.gouv.fr, or consult an ADIL adviser or a qualified French avocat, before acting on anything set out here.