Right to enforceable housing (Dalo): asserting your right to housing - In the provinces

Verified 13 mars 2026 - Public Service / Directorate of Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)

Your situation

  • You want to get social housing in the provinces
  • General case
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The Dalo appeal is reserved for certain applicants for social housing. Only these applicants are eligible. The Dalo appeal must allow them tobe recognizedpriority for the allocation of social housing.

FYI  

But making a Dalo appeal does not guarantee that you will get social housing quickly. The availability of social housing depends primarily on the number of units available.

Simulate your eligibility for the Dalo

To find out if you meet the conditions to benefit from the Dalo, you must use this simulator:

Province and Dom: estimating eligibility for the Dalo

Know the conditions to respect for the Dalo

To benefit from the right to housing (Dalo), you must respect the following conditions :

  • Be French or have a valid right or residence permit
  • Fill in the income conditions for obtaining social housing
  • Have taken at least one step to obtain housing or be able to stay there (for example: have applied for social housing, or have contacted the hygiene and health service of the town hall in case of unsanitary housing, or have given notice to the owner to carry out the necessary work in case of indecent housing).

In addition, you must be in at least 1 of the following situations :

  • Not having received a proposal for social housing adapted to your needs (number of people to be housed...) and your capacities (income...), despite a waiting period longer than abnormally long delay
  • Being homeless (staying with relatives, being homeless...)
  • Have a court decision evicting you from your home, without relocation
  • Be accommodated in an accommodation structure or social purpose hotel residence continuously for more than 6 months
  • Have been temporarily housed in a transitional dwelling (for example, a dwelling provided by an association) or a home-dwelling (social residence, relay house, boarding house, etc.) for more than 18 months
  • Living in a room unsuitable for housing (cellar, garage, shop, room without window...)
  • Living in a home unsanitary or in dangerous housing (risk of collapse or fire, insecurity linked to delinquency...)
  • To be handicapped, or have a dependent disabled, and being housed in housing that is not adapted to this disability
  • To be handicapped, or have a dependent disabled or at least 1 minor child, and living in housing overworked or not decent (without an installation allowing access to drinking water, drainage of dirty water, normal heating, lighting and operation of household appliances...).

Please note

Making an appeal Dalo does not exempt you from apply for social housing or to renew your application for social housing.

You must provide the following:

You must submit these documents to the secretariat of the Dalo Mediation Commission the department where you want to get social housing. You can either submit them to the committee secretariat or send them to the committee secretariat by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt.

To find out the contact details of the secretariat of the commission, ask the town hall or the prefecture of department (some prefectures publish this information on their website).

Warning  

You must make only one recourse Dalo and transmit it to only 1 mediation commission.

When the committee secretariat has received your complete file, it sends you an acknowledgement of receipt.

The date of the acknowledgement of receipt gives rise to a period of three months during which the Commission must make its decision.

Please note

Making an appeal Dalo does not exempt you from apply for social housing or to renew your application for social housing.

The commission must make its decision within 3 months which follow the date of the acknowledgement of receipt of your Dalo appeal.

The commission may take one of the following 3 decisions:

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You have priority

This means that accommodation must be allocated to you as a matter of urgency. As a result:

  • The commission informs you of its decision by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt. This notification you also indicate that you will lose the benefit of this decision if you refuse the housing proposal that the prefect must make to you. The accommodation offered must be adapted to your needs (number of people to be housed...) and your capacities (amount of your income...).
  • The commission shall inform the prefect that you must be offered accommodation adapted to your needs and capabilities within 3 months or 6 months, depending on the department concerned.

FYI  

You must continue to renew your social housing application (and if necessary, update it) until you are assigned a home.

You must inform the commission secretariat if your contact details or situation (e.g. number of people to be housed) changes.

You're not a priority

This means that you will not be assigned emergency accommodation.

The commission informs you of its decision by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt. This notification tells you why you are not considered a priority applicant.

You have 2 months to contest the reasons for the refusal. To do this, you can:

  • Either send to the secretariat of the commission a letter signed with the documents to provide proof of your situation and make a legal appeal to the administrative tribunal. To do this, you do not have to hire a lawyer. You can choose to be assisted by a social worker or approved association.
  • Either make a direct appeal to the administrative tribunal. To do this, you do not have to hire a lawyer. You can choose to be assisted by a social worker or approved association.

You must be accommodated or have temporary accommodation

When the committee considers that a “classic” housing proposal is not suitable for your situation, it directs your Dalo appeal to a remedy Daho: titleContent.

This means that she recommends that you be offered accommodation, or temporary accommodation.

Following this decision, you must receive a proposal for accommodation (for example, in a social hotel residence) within 6 weeks, or a proposal for transitional housing (for example, housing provided by an association) or a proposal for accommodation in a home-dwelling (for example, in a social residence, relay house, boarding house...) within 3 months.

Within 3 months which follow the decision of the commission recognizing you as priority, the prefect must make you a housing proposal adapted to your needs (number of people to be housed...) and your capacities (amount of your income...).

Warning  

Refusing the Dalo housing proposal, while it is adapted to your needs and abilities, makes you lose the benefit of the decision of the commission that recognized you priority.

During this period, you must:

  • Continue to renew your social housing application (and if necessary, update it) until you are assigned a home
  • Inform the commission secretariat if your contact details or situation (e.g. number of people to be housed) changes.

After this time limitHowever, if you have not received a housing proposal adapted to your needs and abilities, you have 4 months to appeal to the administrative court.

You can appeal to the administrative court within 4 months after the end of the period given to the prefect to offer you accommodation.

For this, you must provide the administrative tribunal a copy of the mediation board's decision recognizing you as a priority and as needing urgent accommodation. The decision of the commission indicates in particular the administrative tribunal to which you must apply.

Before the administrative court, you are not obliged to take a lawyer. You can get help from a social worker or a approved association. If you decide to take a lawyer, you can apply for legal aid to remunerate him.

Warning  

You must continue to renew your social housing application (and if necessary, update it) , until you are assigned housing.

The Administrative Court has 2 months to render its decision.

The court may require the housing ministry to house you, when a mediation board has recognized you as a priority applicant and that you have not been provided with housing that is appropriate to your needs and abilities.

The court may also order you to be accommodated in a residential structure, a transitional accommodation or accommodation, a residential home or a social hotel residence.

FYI  

Making this recourse does not entitle you to any compensation. However, you can take another action (the so-called “action for damages”) before the administrative court, if you feel that you have suffered damage.

You can challenge the decision of the administrative court on the Dalo, making an appeal in Cassation.

Who can help me?

Find who can answer your questions in your region

    • accès

      For more information on this subject, you can contact Allô Service Public.

      Attention: the service does not have access to users' personal files and therefore cannot provide information on their progress.

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      • Lundi : de 08h30 à 17h30
      • Mardi : de 08h30 à 12h15
      • Mercredi : de 08h30 à 12h15
      • Jeudi : de 08h30 à 17h30Horaires exceptionnels le jeudi 2 avril de 08h30 à 09h45 et de 14h00 à 17h30
      • Vendredi : de 13h00 à 16h15

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      The informants who answer you belong to the ministry in charge of housing and city planning.

  • Town Hall
  • Paris - Center d'action sociale de la ville de Paris (CASVP)
  • Departmental Agency for Housing Information (Adil)

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