Rental investors, no doubt you have already advised you to rent your accommodation preferably to students. For what ? Because many parents are guaranteed their offspring, thus protecting you from the unpaid rent, the main haunting of the landlords. Still, the Signature of the deposit On the lease be his and not an imitation … An owner learned at his expense, according to a decision of the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal of September 11, spotted by the law firm Neu-Janicki. As a lump from unpaid rents, he asked for payment from the person who had bonded for his tenant.
Las! The deposit argued that the written mention and the signature appearing on the lease contract were not of his hand. As a reminder, article 22-1 of the law of July 6, 1989, which tends to improve rental relationships, requires that the person who is surety affixes his signature and writes with his hand mention provided for in article 2297 of the Civil Code. According to the latter, “Building no nullity of her commitment, the natural person’s surety herself applies the mention that she undertakes, as a deposit, to pay to the creditor what the debtor owes him in the event of his failure, within the limit of an amount in principal expressed in all letters and in figures”.
Housing: why Minister Valérie Létard slammed the Lecornu government in advance the Lecornu Government
The owner dismissed from his request to pay the unpaid
This mention can be handwritten or, since January 1, 2022, digitally written as part of an electronic signature of the rental contract. The deposit must thus write, for example, that it “Besides, as a deposit, to pay to the lessor what the tenants owe him in the event of failure of these, within the limit of an amount of 700 euros (seven hundred euros), corresponding to the rent described in this act of deposit”. This formalism aims at “”ensure that the deposit is perfectly aware of the nature and extent of its commitment ”explains Neu-Janicki cabinet.
In this case, the surety, which, in passing, filed a complaint for identity theft, produced its identity document with justice, comprising its true signature. A signature of obviously different from that affixed to the rental contract, which confirmed a technical advice of amicable expertise, which concluded that “”coarse»». The judges therefore declared the surety act “No and no effect”thus dismissing the landlord lessor of his payment request for unpaid rents.
Airbnb rental: owners, prepare for the “shock” of a new tax rule in 2026
The lessor to prove that there is no falsification
“A deposit is zero if the signature or the handwritten notices do not come directly from the deposit, regardless of the consequences for the lessor. It is up to the latter to provide proof that there is no falsification, failing which it is dismissed his requests»» Payment of rent unpaids, insists the law firm. You are warned.