On renewal of a French commercial lease (bail commercial, the 3-6-9 lease), the rent is in principle capped: it may not rise by more than the reference index over the term of the expired lease. That cap protects the trader. But the Commercial Code provides for cases where it falls away and the rent is set at rental value, known as déplafonnement (release of the renewal rent from the statutory cap). For a landlord, that is sometimes the difference between €20,000 and €45,000 a year. For a tenant, it is the item that decides whether the business survives.
The principle: the cap
Article L. 145-34 of the Commercial Code provides that, unless certain elements have changed materially, the renewed rent may not exceed the variation in the commercial rent index (ILC) or the tertiary activities rent index (ILAT) since the rent of the expired lease was first set. The calculation is mechanical: original rent multiplied by the ratio between the latest published index and the lease’s reference index.
Case 1: a material change in the elements of rental value
Article L. 145-33 lists the elements that determine rental value: the characteristics of the premises, the permitted use, the respective obligations of the parties, local commercial factors and the rents commonly charged in the neighbourhood. If one of the first four has changed materially during the expired lease, the cap disappears.
Local commercial factors are the usual battleground. A new tramway line, a pedestrian zone, the arrival of an anchor retailer, population growth in the district may constitute a material change, provided it is of interest to the business in question. The Orléans Court of Appeal accepted it for a 30 % rise in tramway ridership; the article on that decision sets out the reasoning. Conversely, a change that benefits the district but has no connection with the tenant’s activity is not enough.
The change in local commercial factors need not have produced a measurable effect on turnover: it is enough that it is likely to have a favourable effect on the activity actually carried on (Cass. 3e civ., 18 September 2025, appeal no. 24-13.288, reported). New statutory obligations imposed on the landlord during the expired lease, such as the compulsory insurance of a non-occupying co-owner since 2014, also count among the elements to be taken into account (Cass. 3e civ., 23 January 2025, appeal no. 23-14.887, reported).
A change in the characteristics of the premises mainly covers improvement works carried out by the landlord, or by the tenant where the lease provides that they revert to the landlord without compensation at expiry. A change in permitted use, for example an extension of activity accepted during the lease, also counts.
Case 2: a lease of more than twelve years
Where the lease has continued through tacit extension beyond twelve years, the rent of the renewed lease is set at rental value, without any need to prove a material change. This is the classic pitfall of a lease left to run without notice being served, and in practice the most frequent occasion for uncapping.
Case 3: single-purpose premises and offices
Premises built for a single use, such as a hotel, a cinema or a clinic, fall outside the cap: their rent is set according to the customs of the sector, often as a percentage of turnover or by reference to a rent coefficient. Premises used exclusively as offices follow the rents charged for equivalent premises. Bare land also has its own regime.
Case 4: the clauses of the lease
An indexation clause whose operation has moved the rent by more than a quarter since it was last set opens a review at rental value (article L. 145-39). This is not a renewal, but the effect is comparable, and automatic indexation deserves careful reading before signing.
How rental value is calculated
Rental value is not the rent the landlord hopes for. It results from the references of the locality: renewal rents set by the court, comparable new lettings, decisions handed down for neighbouring premises. The premises are reduced to a weighted floor area: the sales area on the street frontage counts for one, while rear areas, storerooms, upper floors and basements receive decreasing coefficients justified in the report. The clauses of the lease then adjust the result: charges and taxes recharged to the tenant, non-competition clause, right to sublet, works borne by the tenant.
Smoothing: the tenant’s protection
Since the Law of 18 June 2014, known as the Pinel law, where uncapping results from a material change in the first four elements of rental value or from a clause of the lease relating to its term, the rent increase may not exceed 10 % of the previous year’s rent, each year, until rental value is reached (article L. 145-34, last paragraph, of the Commercial Code). This smoothing applies to leases concluded or renewed since 1 September 2014, unless the parties have agreed otherwise. The Cour de cassation (the French supreme court for civil and commercial matters) has ruled that it does not benefit a nine-year lease that has continued through tacit extension beyond twelve years: in that case the uncapped rent applies without phasing (Cass. 3e civ., 16 October 2025, appeal no. 23-23.834, reported). An uncapping from €20,000 to €45,000 is therefore spread over several years in the first two cases and takes effect immediately in the third: that changes the negotiating strategy on both sides.
What a report brings before the commercial rent judge
The commercial rent judge (juge des loyers commerciaux) very often appoints an expert. A well-built party report first allows you to negotiate with figures, then helps to steer the court expert’s assignment and to prepare the dires (a party’s written observations to the expert). It settles the preliminary question, that of uncapping, before setting the value. The Commercial rent and leases page describes the content of the report, the timescale and the fee.
What next
Is your lease coming up for renewal with the rent under discussion?
Landlord or tenant, send me the lease and the notice: I will tell you whether the conditions for uncapping are met and what the premises are worth on the market.
Free quote, by email or by phone. No commitment before the quote is accepted. Fees are never linked to the value of the property (Charte de l’expertise, Title I, §2.1).
