Commercial Maintenance Obligations (Art. 606 & Pinel) in France

Before 2014, commercial lease law in France was the scene of intense liberal practices entirely favorable to institutional real estate investors. With the Pinel Law, the nation completely reversed the trend by drastically stopping the famous "Triple Net" clauses which transferred absolutely all heavy repairs or property taxes of a dilapidated building (roofs, ecological renovations) onto the back of a newly installed small shopkeeper.

Disclaimer: The modifications of the November 2014 Pinel law apply to renewed or newly subscribed contracts. Exceptions are only valid in rare "single-tenant block" monolithic leases. Be cautious when auditing very old, unrevised contracts. Information certified for 2026.

1. The Formal Ban on Recharging "Article 606 Major Repairs"

The core of this legislative upheaval dictates the prohibition of making the tenant (the merchant) bear any repair of a structural or major nature (of the real estate "in substance"). From now on, any contract line imputing this charge is deemed unwritten.

These major entities which must be invoiced exclusively to the financial owner of the building, listed in the famous "Article 606 of the Civil Code", include:

• Retaining walls and fences.
• The total general roof. (Renewal of beams and roofs due to leaks).
• Vaults, slabs, or floors.

Note: A simple cleaning of tiles and gutters or interior varnishing is not Article 606; this represents minor damage to the premises which is a tenant charge.

2. Fees and "Abusive" Charges Also Forbidden from Invoice Reallocation

The restrictive framework in France pushed redistribution to its limits:

• The HOA Property Manager's (Syndic) fees (if the local is inserted in a residential building on the upper floor) or pure "rental management administration" fees for the premises, which the real estate agency and the owner formerly pushed into the storekeeper's charges. It is definitively illegal to demand this.
• The complete Imputation of the renewal of old and "venerable" Obsolescence (Vétusté) to the outgoing tenant (the act of recharging an obsolete elevator to departing tenants under the pretext of 'miscellaneous or annex works' tenant charges by anticipation of modernity).

3. What the Tenant Will Still Pay in Full

The panel of authorized invoicing to tenants almost encompasses: "all utilitarian internal maintenance exclusive to their functioning business or its routine external maintenance in common areas proportionally useful."

• Preventive maintenance (broken private interior windows, terminal fluid systems, plumbing to renew, radiators, industrial roller gates).
• Compliance Upgrades required by their own (and exclusive) activity: If a caterer installs or renovates a chimney with filter extractors to hygienic standards in an old boutique lacking restaurant fire standards, and their activity imposes a new fire standard, the incompressible ongoing costs and even the fees attached to it will be entirely allocated to them as charges. (If the standard upgrade is linked to the global unmodifiable building: the landlord bears it).

4. The Tax Enigma (The Tax Redistribution Pact)

In corporate real estate in France (Offices & Commercial Assets), this is the area that escaped the massive general sanctions of tenant protectionism compared to other items.

If a line, obligatorily formalized since the recent law expressly authorizes it by anticipation in the "Pinel Law Inventory" of their lease, then the wall owner CAN STILL legally recharge nearly 100% of the Property Tax (Taxe Foncière) (or its TEOM contribution - the garbage collection tax) directly in a straight flow to the merchant!

But if no clear, precise, or distinct insert comes to justify or breakdown the value (often under a provisional call during the autumn of each payment) under these annex mentions: no reallocation of the tax will succeed before the Commercial Judge section.

- 2025/2026 News Note: In the Senate, the "administrative simplification" of a famous commercial bill envisions breaking this reallocation taboo with the total obligation to make the property companies and managers bear the Landlord's Tax, just like in primary residences.

Landager Consolidation of Tax and Pinel Resolution

While it's easy for small divisions to separate water (dedicated meters), extracting tax with property defaults across tertiary center volumes requires oversized pivot tables.

The SaaS "Funds and Offices" accounting system of the Landager platform performs a pre-charge by thousandths upon presentation of attestations based on the "weighted net usable" surface of a structure against general invoices, fundamentally deducting the ratio of non-rechargeable works (the formal Art 606) to extract them immediately from the "Annual Commercial Charges Rendition Notice" module.

Back to the Commercial Overview: France.