Commercial lease: charges and expenses of the tenant and the landlord

Verified 29 May 2026 - Entreprendre Public Service / Directorate of Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister), Ministry of Economy

The distribution of burdens between the landlord (owner) and the tenant is regulated. It must appear in a precise inventory drawn up at the time of the signing of the commercial lease contract or as an annex to the lease. The landlord also has an obligation to inform the tenant about the work done or to be done. 

The law requires an inventory to be included in the commercial lease or in an annex to the lease precise and limiting categories of charges, taxes, taxes and royalties related to the commercial lease. This inventory must indicate the distribution between the landlord and the tenant.

In addition, a summary report with the liquidation and regularization of expense accounts must be established annually. It shall be sent by the landlord to the tenant no later than 30 September of the year following that in which it is established.

If the parties have no inventory planned precise and limiting charges and taxes, the landlord can not charge charges to the tenant.

In a real estate complex comprising multiple tenants (e.g. shopping center), the commercial lease must specify the distribution of the costs or expenses of the work between the different tenants. This distribution is made according to the area exploited. The amount of taxes and royalties payable by the tenant must correspond to the space occupied by each tenant and the share of the common parts necessary for the rented thing. In condominiums, the lessor presents the annual summary report within 3 months of the presentation of the condominium accounts for the annual financial year.

During the lease, the landlord must inform the tenant of any new charge, or any new tax or fee or any element modifying the distribution set out in the lease contract.

In the commercial lease, certain charges still weigh on the lessor. Other charges called rental charges or « recoverable loads » are expenses incurred by the landlord and rebilled to the tenant. The tenant reimburses the landlord only if the lease agreement specifically provides for this rebilling.

Charges due by the lessor

The charges still due by the lessor are as follows:

  • Expenditure on major repairs affecting the building, such as retaining and fencing walls, vaults, dikes, framework and roof. For example: rehabilitation of a building following flooding, refurbishment of the electrical installation, repair of a pipe). In practice, these repairs are those that impact the structure and/or solidity of the building. Large repairs are characterized by material importance and exceptional cost.
  • Expenditure on works necessary due to the obsolescence of the property or to bring it up to standard when it comes to big repairs. This concerns work to comply with the regulations, such as upgrades (accessibility for disabled people, hygiene, fire safety, electricity) and more broadly all work to be carried out by administrative injunction or prescription.
  • The fees the lessor related to the management of the rents of the premises or building subject to the lease
  • In a real estate complexcharges, taxes, charges, fees and the cost of work relating to vacant premises or attributable to other tenants.

Charges paid by the landlord and reinvoiced to the tenant

The following taxes are paid by the lessor:

Warning  

To be reimbursed to the lessor by the lessee, these taxes must be clearly identified in the commercial lease agreement.

The tenant must pay for maintenance and ongoing repairs and certain taxes.

Expenses always borne by the tenant

The ongoing maintenance and repair expenses, say rental expenses, are always the responsibility of the tenant.

These are the following:

  • Current expenditure on water, gas and electricity
  • Routine maintenance and repair expenses such as paints, wallpapers, carpets, heaters, meters, sanitary facilities, exterior shutters
  • Equipment expenses of the condominium (elevator, maintenance of common areas)
  • Embellishment works whose cost is higher than the replacement costs of the element concerned

Taxes payable by the tenant

The property tax of companies (CFE) and the contribution on the added value of companies (CVAE) are always at the expense of the tenant.

Taxes that can be recharged to the tenant

Some taxes are charged to the tenant only in the presence of a precise inventory with a distribution of the charges between the lessor and the tenant in the commercial lease. In this case, the tenant is required to refund the lessor the following taxes:

The landlord must send the tenant the following 2 documents concerning the work:

  • Estimate work that it plans to carry out in the next 3 years with a provisional budget
  • Summary Report work carried out in the previous 3 years with their cost

This information is communicated to the tenant every 3 years within a period of 2 months from each triennial maturity.

At the request of the tenant, the landlord must submit any document justifying the amount of the work.

In the case of a building complex with several tenants (for example, a shopping center), the commercial lease must specify the distribution of the cost of the work between the different tenants occupying this complex.