What is decent housing?
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Context:

The lessor is required to provide the lessee with decent accommodation which does not reveal any obvious risks that could affect physical safety or health and which is equipped with the elements making it suitable for residential use. This is provided by the article of the law of July 6, 1989. Safety, health and comfort are important, without forgetting the living area, the height under the ceiling, as well as the comfort equipment.

Tips:

In regards to health, safety and comfort : the characteristics of decent housing were fixed by a decree of January 30, 2002 (n ° 2002-120). The accommodation must therefore meet requirements concerning the physical safety and health of tenants and must include certain comfort equipment.

Of course, housing subject to an insalubrity decree (unsanitary housing) or peril (edifice threatening ruin) cannot be considered as decent housing.

Note that housing that does not meet the characteristics of decency does not allow the tenant to obtain housing benefits to which he may be entitled. In addition, the tenant has recourse to compel the owner to initiate work.

The accommodation must also have living space and high ceilings ; In fact, the accommodation must have at least one main room having either a living area of at least 9 square meters and a ceiling height of at least 2.20 meters, or a living volume of at least 20 meters. cubes.

Excluded are the area of unfinished attics, cellars, basements, sheds, garages, terraces, loggias, balconies, dryers outside the accommodation, verandas, volumes comprising at least 60 % of glass walls in the case of collective dwellings and at least 80 % of glass walls in the case of individual dwellings, common premises and other outbuildings of dwellings as well as parts of premises with a height of less than 1.80 meters (article R 111-2 of the Construction Code and home).

Let's talk now items of equipment and comfort...

The accommodation must include the following equipment:

  • Heater: the law requires an installation allowing normal heating, fitted with energy supply and combustion products evacuation devices and adapted to the characteristics of the dwelling.
  • Drinking water and wastewater disposal: a drinking water supply installation ensuring distribution inside the dwelling with sufficient pressure and flow for the normal use of its tenants is required.

The installations for the evacuation of gray water and black water preventing the discharge of odors and effluents and fitted with a siphon are also compulsory.

  • Cooking appliances: the tenant must have a kitchen or a kitchenette fitted out so as to receive a cooking appliance and including a sink connected to a hot and cold water supply system and to a wastewater evacuation system .
  • Sanitation facilities: a sanitary installation inside the accommodation comprising:
  • a toilet, separate from the kitchen and the room where meals are taken,
  • equipment for personal hygiene, comprising a bathtub or a shower, fitted out in such a way as to guarantee personal privacy, supplied with hot and cold water and provided with a waste water outlet.
  • Electricity and lighting: the electrical network must allow sufficient lighting of all rooms and accesses as well as the operation of common household appliances essential to daily life.

Note that the provisions on decent housing come with penalties. For the tenant, the non-conformity of the accommodation deprives him of housing allowance. The landlord may be subject to a reduction in rent and incur criminal penalties in the event of an accident.

To remember :

To be entitled to housing allowances, the tenant must prove that the accommodation he is renting meets the minimum standards of decency. The Family Allowance Fund sends the tenant a questionnaire that he must have his owner fill out. If it appears that the accommodation does not correspond to the standards, the Family Allowance Fund will refuse the housing allowance, unless the tenant has officially requested the owner to bring the accommodation into conformity or has taken legal action. justice in this sense. Housing allowance will then be maintained until the work is completed.

The tenant's recourse:

If the tenant notices during the occupation that the accommodation does not meet the characteristics of decent accommodation, he can at any time request the compliance by amicable process then, in the absence of agreement, by legal action before the court of 'instance. The judge will determine the nature of the work to be carried out and will set a deadline for their execution. Faced with the inertia of the lessor, the court can pronounce a reduction in the rent.

The lessor may also be penalized in the event of an accident caused to the tenant, for example by the poor condition of a window guardrail. Property managers have been alerted by their professional federations to this type of risk: in the event of bodily injury caused to the tenant, they could, in their capacity as agents of the lessors, be held liable.