After "what's your income?", it's the question that comes up in almost every conversation with a French landlord: "do you have a guarantor?" For many tenants, that's where the application stalls, especially for anyone new to France. Yet having no parent ready to sign isn't a dead end: there are several options, and one of them is free.
Simple or joint guarantee
A guarantor (legally, "la caution") commits to paying in your place if you don't. There are two forms of commitment.
Simple guarantee (caution simple). The landlord must first pursue you, with a formal demand for payment (commandement de payer), before claiming anything from your guarantor.
Joint guarantee (caution solidaire). The landlord can go straight to your guarantor from the first missed payment, without pursuing you first. It's the form landlords ask for most often.
An example. You rent a one-bedroom flat at €1,100 a month, with your father as guarantor. March's rent goes unpaid. With a joint guarantee, the landlord can ask your father for the €1,100 in March. With a simple guarantee, they must first serve you a formal demand for payment.
A guarantor can be an individual (a parent, a friend) or a legal entity (Action Logement through Visale, a company, a bank). And a point many people miss: a landlord can't refuse your guarantor because they aren't French or because they don't live in mainland France.
The documents a guarantor provides
An individual guarantor provides the same categories of documents as you:
- an ID document;
- proof of address;
- one or more documents proving their professional situation;
- one or more documents proving their income (payslips, tax notice, property deeds, pension statement...).
A company acting as guarantor provides a K bis extract under three months old and its representative's ID.
The list is set by decree and it's exhaustive: a landlord can no more demand your guarantor's bank statements than yours. The full detail is in our guide to rental application documents.
The guarantee deed
The guarantor commits in writing, in a signed guarantee deed (acte de cautionnement), separate from the lease. For an individual guarantor, it must include in particular:
- the rent, in words and figures, and its revision terms, exactly as in the lease;
- a reproduced passage of the law of 6 July 1989 on how long the commitment lasts;
- a statement written in by the guarantor themselves, setting out the nature and extent of their commitment;
- in a flatshare, which flatmate's departure ends the commitment;
- the guarantor's signature.
The landlord must also give the guarantor a copy of the lease. If any of these formalities is missing, the guarantee is void.
The duration matters. A fixed-term commitment binds the guarantor until the stated date. An open-ended one can be cancelled by the guarantor at any time, but the cancellation only takes effect at the end of the current lease. Your guarantor should read that part closely before signing.
The landlord has rent default insurance: no guarantor
This is the rule many tenants don't know. A private landlord who has taken out rent default insurance (GLI, garantie loyers impayés) can't also ask you for a guarantor, unless you're a student or an apprentice.
For a landlord that's a company (other than a family property company), the rule is stricter still: it can only ask for a guarantee from one of the bodies listed by decree, or a guarantor for a student without a higher-education grant.
In practice, if a landlord mentions their rent default insurance and also wants a guarantor, politely point out the rule.
No guarantor: your options
1. Visale, Action Logement's free guarantee. Visale acts as your guarantor, free of charge. It's open to any tenant up to the age of 30, whatever their situation, and to older employees in the first months after being hired or transferred (other cases exist). The exact conditions and rent ceilings are on visale.fr, where you check your eligibility.
You apply online, before signing the lease. You receive a visa to show the landlord. Worth knowing: if Visale pays rent on your behalf, you have to pay it back. Our Visale and CAF guide covers the conditions for tenants moving from abroad.
2. Paid guarantees. Private companies act as your guarantor in exchange for a fee you pay. Before signing up, check exactly what the guarantee covers, its total cost over the lease, and ask the landlord whether they accept it: nothing obliges them to.
3. A bank guarantee. Your bank acts as guarantor, usually in exchange for a sum frozen in an account plus fees. It ties up money, so compare it with the two options above.
What isn't an option: paying a bigger deposit "because you have no guarantor". The deposit is capped at one month's rent excluding charges for an unfurnished flat and two months for a furnished one. And a landlord who wants a transfer "to hold the flat" before signing is showing a classic scam signal.
Presenting your guarantor
A guarantor only helps if the landlord sees it straight away. Put it in the first line of your application: "Guarantor: Visale" or "Joint guarantee: my parents, €4,800 net a month". The landlord understands your file before opening a single document.
Sources: service-public.fr, loi n° 89-462 du 6 juillet 1989 (article 22-1), Code civil (article 2297), décret n° 2015-1437, visale.fr.
