Leases in France: rent, minimum rental period, termination, subletting.
Pursuant to Art. L. 145-1 ff. Code de Commerce, a commercial lease exists when a rental property is rented to commercial tenants for commercial, industrial or trade purposes in exchange for payment of rent. Tenants receive special protections in the framework of a commercial lease in France. These include, for example: the right to unilateral lease extension for all tenants; the tenant’s right to sell their commercial operation and the lease at any time without the landlord being able to terminate the lease with the purchaser.
This is different from the sole transfer of the lease agreement without the commercial operation, which may be contractually excluded, or the three-year solidarity liability of the former tenant for outstanding rent payments upon transfer of the commercial operation. The nationality of the tenant is now also of no importance to their protection under French commercial lease contracts.