Cohabiting tenants: What are the rules? - The two concubines sign the lease
Verified 02 juin 2023 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)
Each cohabitation is holder of the lease, and legal lessee the housing they live together.
Cohabiting partners must pay rent and expenses in a manner that joint and several.
This means that the landlord (or real estate agency) can go to any of them to get the full payment.
Cohabiting partners should give notice (leave) to the owner (or real estate agency).
To do this, they can either send a single letter that they sign every 2, or each draft a letter that they send at the same time.
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In case of violence
When one of the concubines is violent, the other concubine can give his leave to the owner with a period of notice of 1 month.
Abuse must be committed against the partner who leaves the home or the child who usually lives with him.
The spouse who leaves the home must send his or her leave by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt. It must indicate the reason for departure (violence) and include one of the following documents:
- A copy of the protection order issued by the family court judge
- A copy of the criminal conviction of the abusive partner for acts of violence against the other partner or against a child who habitually resides with the latter. This sentence must be less than 6 months old.
FYI
- The spouse who leaves the dwelling, and his or her suretyshall not be liable for any unpaid payment made as from the day following the date on which the letter of leave is submitted to the owner
- If the abusive partner does not pay the rent from the day after the letter is presented to the landlord, the landlord has a legitimate and serious reason for to sell or take over the dwelling.
Other case
A cohabiting partner who wishes to terminate the lease must give notice (leave) to the owner (or real estate agency).
The lease continues with the remaining partner.
When the lease contains a solidarity clause, the spouse who gives notice shall remain liable for the rent and the charges due:
- for six months following the date of the end of the notice period
- or upon the end of the notice period, if a new tenant arrives before that date
When one of the cohabiting partners dies, the lease continues with the remaining partner in the unit.
Abandonment occurs when the following conditions are met:
- Where the departure of one of the cohabiting partners is made inevitable and definitive by reason of his state of health, and this departure is binding on him and the other partner. For example, this is the case when one of the cohabiting partners settles in a retirement home.
- Either when the departure of one of the cohabiting partners is abrupt and unpredictable and has been programmed without the other partner's knowledge. For example, it is the case when one of the partners leaves, while the other is at work, taking personal belongings, furniture...
When one of the cohabiting partners abandons the dwelling, the lease continues with the remaining partner in the dwelling.
The owner (or real estate agency) must send each of his letters to the 2 concubines, for them to be valid.
In fact, the exchange of letters between the owner (or the real estate agency) and only 1 of the concubines is not enforceable to the other partner.
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The informants who answer you belong to the ministry in charge of housing and city planning.
- Departmental Agency for Housing Information (Adil)
Abandonment, death (general case)
Abandonment, death (social housing)
Abandonment, death (so-called "Law of 48")
Cohabitation and solidarity clause (VI)