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What do energy ratings mean for French property owners?

If you're buying, selling or renting a property in France you will need to get an energy rating, and the score given to the property will affect how or even if you can sell or rent it.

Published: 12 February 2024 10:41 CET
What do energy ratings mean for French property owners?
Photo by Jean-Christophe VERHAEGEN / AFP

Since 2006, all properties in France have been rated on a scale of A to G on their energy efficiency – this is a rating based on things like how well-insulated the property is and what method is used for heating the property and the water.

The energy performance rating must be included in the paperwork of any property that is for sale or for rent and it looks like this.

Image Ministère de la Transition Écologique et de la Cohésion des Territoires

As well as providing useful information for a future owner or tenant on how much they are likely to be spending on gas/electricity bills, the energy ratings can also affect future plans for a property.

What the ratings mean

Any property that is rated A-C will generally be in good repair with an efficient heating system and an adequate level of insulation.

Properties rated D will likely be more difficult to keep warm in winter and cool in summer, and are likely to bring in a steeper bill for heating during the winter months.

However, properties rated E, F and G bring with them serious legal restrictions.

Heat sieves

Properties rated F or G are dubbed passoires thermiques (heat sieves) or sometimes passoires enérgetiques (energy sieves).

If you want to sell a property with an F or G rating you are required to pay for an extra ‘energy audit’ (at a cost of around €1,000) to give the buyer a detailed breaking of where the building is wasting energy and how it can be put right.

There are already restrictions in place on rents charged for F and G rated properties and from January 1st 2025 it will become illegal for landlords to renew a contract or offer a new contract on a G rated property. This will be followed by F and then E rated properties.

Because of these restrictions, properties with a F and G rating have a lower market value, and may be difficult to sell at all. 

E rating 

At present there are no legal restrictions on E-rated properties, but rental restrictions are scheduled to come into effect in 2034.

There are currently no plan to impose an energy audit in order to sell E-rated properties, but it doesn’t seem beyond the realms of possibility that this may become a requirement in the future.

Grants

On the bright side, owning property with a poor energy rating does mean that you are eligible for various grants to do the work necessary to improve its rating (which will have the happy side effect of cutting your energy bills).

The French government has a €5 million fund to help homeowners do energy-related renovations, mostly available via grants from the MaPrimeRenov scheme.

GUIDE: French property guides you might be eligible for

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VISAS

Ask the expert: What are the French immigration laws for ‘pacsé’ couples?

The French civil partnership known as Pacs is an alternative to marriage - but the situation is complicated if you're hoping to get a French visa or residency permit through being pacsé with a French or other EU national, as immigration lawyer Paul Nicolaÿ explains.

Published: 2 May 2024 11:59 CEST
Ask the expert: What are the French immigration laws for 'pacsé' couples?

In a 2018 judgement, the Conseil d’Etat, France’s highest administrative Court, put an end to a long-running controversy as to whether or not an individual, signatory of a civil partnership under French law (Pacs) with a European citizen could be considered as a family member of the latter and therefore benefit from favourable EU regulations on immigration.

One of the core principles of the European Union has always been to facilitate the movement of European citizens within the territories of the Member States. And obviously, expatriation is a much more attractive option if family members are allowed to remain united without time limit and with rights equivalent to those of local citizens.

These assumptions form the basis of the European directive 2004/38/EC of 29 April 2004 on the right of citizens of the Union and their family members to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States.

This regulation gives a precise definition of a “family member” that includes the spouse, the descendant, the ascendant in a state of dependance, and also “the partner with whom the Union citizen has contracted a registered partnership, on the basis of the legislation of a Member State, if the legislation of the host Member State treats registered partnerships as equivalent to marriage and in accordance with the conditions laid down in the relevant legislation of the host Member State”.

In other words, if a civil partnership, implemented by an EU Member State such as France, confers on its signatories the same status and the same rights and obligations as a marriage contracted in the same country, then civil partners must be considered as spouses under the EU aforementioned directive, and therefore benefit from the right to move and reside freely within the EU.

Quite logically, the issue was raised concerning the French civil partnership implemented in 1999 and called Partenariat civil de solidarité (Pacs).

After all, Pacs and marriage have in common the same obligation of common life, a commitment to mutual material support and the same consequences on taxes. In the meantime, unlike marriage, Pacs contracts have little to no effect on parentage, nationality, property, and inheritance and are much easier to rescind.

READ ALSO What are the differences between Pacs and marriage?

The first answer given to that question by the French legislative power in 2006 was that Pacs and marriage were not equivalent.

In the following years however, several administrative Courts have ruled otherwise, in contradiction with French national law, and considered that the most important aspects of a Pacs contract make it roughly similar to a civil marriage.

The final word belonged to the Conseil d’Etat, France’s highest administrative Court, which in 2018 overturned this position and definitely ruled that, due to the essential differences between Pacs and marriage, only married spouses are considered family members under EU law.

In practical terms, the main outcome of this legal controversy is that non European nationals cannot apply for a French visa or residence card as family members of an EU citizen, simply due to the fact that they signed a Pacs contract with an EU national.

Of course, other solutions exist for them but, undoubtedly, they do not benefit from EU law and remain under a much less favourable status than spouses of EU citizens residing in France.

READ ALSO What type of French visa do I need?

Their main option is to apply for a residence card under the status vie privée et familiale (private and family life), but in this case préfectures require the proof of a stable and continuous common life of at least one year.

If you find yourself in this situation, be careful to submit your application file through the appropriate procedure. Any confusion, even due to the préfecture itself, could induce frustrating delays and put you in a precarious situation.

Paul Nicolaÿ is a French lawyer based near Paris and specialising in French immigration and nationality law – find his website here.

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