Dwellings whose heating costs are so high that the tenant struggles to pay the bills or decides not to heat themselves should become rarer. Indeed, a dwelling whose energy consumption is greater than 450 kilowatt hours per square meter per year (kWh/m2/year) has been considered indecent since the beginning of 2023. It can therefore no longer be rented without prior work.
These provisions are provided for by the decree n° 2021-19 of January 11, 2021 resulting from the law relating to energy and the climate of 2019. This new criterion defining the decency of housing is now added to the list fixed by the law of July 6, 1989, in the same way as the having a dwelling without water infiltration, without danger for the occupant and without parasites, such as bed bugs.
The National Observatory for Energy Renovation (ONRE) indicates that the number of extremely energy-intensive dwellings is approximately 510,000 in total, including 140,000 in the private rental stock, 50,000 in the social rental stock and 320,000 occupied by their owner.
The latter are not directly affected by the threshold of 450 kWh/m2/year but, when the accommodation is sold, the owners will obtain a lower price for it insofar as the accommodation is uncomfortable, but also because renting will not be an option for the potential buyer. Furnished tourist accommodation is not affected by this measure either.
A two-year period
To find out if the accommodation you occupy consumes more than 450 kWh/m2/year, it is necessary to refer to the energy performance diagnosis (DPE) compulsorily transmitted during the sale or rental. This document classifies dwellings according to their energy consumption, from the letter A (very economical) to the letter G (very inefficient). The G rating is assigned to those whose energy consumption is greater than 420 kWh/m2/year.
If the accommodation bears the G label, this does not mean that it is prohibited for rental. It is not until 2025 that the ban on thermal colanders will be extended to all G-rated apartments and houses. “The government intends to leave owners who rent a property with a letter G but which is below the 450 kWh/m2/ year two more years to carry out the renovation work »says M.e Jean-Baptiste Bullet, notary in Chevilly-Larue (Val-de-Marne).
When reading the DPE, you must also look at the note in “final energy”, that is to say actually delivered to the consumer, and not that of “primary energy” (which is used to produce this final energy) , also indicated. “To facilitate this reading, a decree of November 3, 2022 modifies the presentation of the DPEs so that the final and primary energy consumption appears on the first page of the diagnosis”says M.e bullet.
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