The ALUR Act: what it really requires of sellers and landlords

1. The ALUR documents to give the buyer of a co-ownership lot

In practice the question of ALUR obligations covers three distinct subjects: the documents to supply, how the money is split between seller and buyer, and the insurance made compulsory by article 9-1 of the Act of 10 July 1965. All three are dealt with below, in that order.

Article L. 721-2 of the Construction and Housing Code, created by article 54 of Act no. 2014-366 of 24 March 2014 on access to housing and renewed planning, amended by order no. 2015-1075 of 27 August 2015 and then by article 171 of Act no. 2021-1104 of 22 August 2021, sets out the list. The version in force is the one applicable since 1 January 2024.

Its scope is precise: the sale of a lot or part of a lot, or the transfer of a right in rem over a lot, in a built property used wholly or partly as housing and subject to the co-ownership regime. A house outside a co-ownership is not covered.

Timing matters as much as the list. The documents are given to the buyer no later than the date the preliminary sale agreement is signed. Where there is no preliminary agreement, they are attached to the draft notarial deed notified to the buyer (paragraph III of article L. 721-2). At auction, they are annexed to the conditions of sale (paragraph IV).

One clarification that avoids a common error: this list is in addition to the technical survey pack, it does not replace it. The provision says so itself: these documents come in addition to the technical survey pack referred to in article L. 271-4. The surveys do not come from the ALUR Act but from order no. 2005-655 of 8 June 2005, nine years earlier.

2. The two exemptions the statute provides

Order no. 2015-1075 of 27 August 2015 shortened the list in two common situations.

First exemption: the buyer already owns at least one lot in the same co-ownership. Only the financial information under 2° of paragraph II is then required.

Second exemption: the sale concerns an ancillary lot. Article L. 721-2 itself defines an ancillary lot as a parking space or a space such as a cellar, attic, box room, cupboard, shed, garage or store. In that case what remains required is the summary sheet, the co-ownership rules, the schedule of division and their amending deeds, and the financial information. In other words, selling a cellar does not oblige you to produce three years of meeting minutes.

As to form, delivery may be by any medium and any means, including electronically, subject to the buyer's express acceptance. The buyer certifies that delivery took place, either by simply signing the deed containing the preliminary agreement where that is a notarial deed, or, where the agreement is a private document, in a document that the buyer dates and signs by hand. Put plainly: sending files without the buyer's prior agreement and without a dated certificate does not tick the box.

3. The sanction is not annulment, and it does not cover everything

Article L. 721-2 carries no automatic nullity. Its sanction appears in article L. 721-3 of the Construction and Housing Code, and it consists in moving the start of the cooling-off period or of the reflection period.

First paragraph of article L. 721-3: where the documents and information referred to in 1° and 2° of paragraph II of article L. 721-2 are not given to the buyer by the date the preliminary agreement is signed, the cooling-off period under article L. 271-1 runs only from the day after those documents and that information are communicated to the buyer.

Second paragraph, whose reach is narrower and which many summaries wrongly treat as identical to the first: where the documents and information referred to in 1° and in c) of 2° of paragraph II are not attached to the draft notarial deed in accordance with paragraph III, it is the reflection period under article L. 271-1 that runs only from the day after they are communicated. The set of documents concerned is therefore not the same depending on whether there is a preliminary agreement or a direct sale by notarial deed.

Two practical consequences.

First: the ten-day cooling-off period of article L. 271-1, raised from seven to ten days by article 210 of Act no. 2015-990 of 6 August 2015, can stay open for weeks after the preliminary agreement. An incomplete file is not a fine; it is a sale left hanging on the buyer's goodwill.

Second: on the letter of the provision, article L. 721-3 covers only 1° and 2° of paragraph II. It mentions neither the maintenance record (3°), nor the information notice (4°), nor the conclusions of the overall technical survey (5°), nor the multi-year works plan (6° and 7°). Failing to supply those last four blocks does not, of itself, trigger the postponement in article L. 721-3. That does not make it risk-free: the buyer keeps the general-law grounds, in particular breach of the pre-contractual duty to inform under article 1112-1 of the Civil Code and fraudulent concealment under article 1137 of the same code.

4. Etat date and pre-etat date: two distinct documents, only one capped price

The etat date and the pre-etat date arise at different moments and under different regimes.

The etat date is provided for by article 10-1 of Act no. 65-557 of 10 July 1965. The managing agent draws it up at the notaire's request, at the notarial deed stage. It settles the accounts between seller, buyer and the co-ownership. Its fees and costs are capped at 380 euros including all taxes by decree no. 2020-153 of 21 February 2020, in force since 1 June 2020.

The pre-etat date appears in no statute. It is the name the profession gives in practice to the financial information under 2° of paragraph II of article L. 721-2, which must accompany the preliminary agreement. The 2020 cap does not cover it: that decree is made for the application of article 10-1 and concerns the etat date. No regulatory cap therefore applies to the pre-etat date.

What a seller should remember: the etat date item cannot exceed 380 euros including tax; the pre-etat date item is subject to no cap and is a matter for negotiation.

5. A second reading of ALUR obligations: who pays what, seller or buyer

The second meaning of the question is financial. Here is how it splits, item by item, with the provision that applies to each.

The general principle on charges is laid down in article 6-2 of decree no. 67-223 of 17 March 1967, created by decree no. 2004-479 of 27 May 2004. Note above all its last sentence, which explains most misunderstandings: any agreement to the contrary takes effect only between the parties to the transfer. In other words, a pro rata split agreed in the notarial deed governs the position between seller and buyer, but it cannot be raised against the co-ownership, which continues to claim the sums from the co-owner designated by the decree.

One last point that is often forgotten: it is very much in the seller's interest to give the notaire a certificate from the managing agent, less than a month old, confirming that the seller owes the co-ownership nothing. Failing that, the notaire must notify the managing agent of the transfer by recorded delivery with acknowledgement within fifteen days of the transfer of ownership, and the managing agent then has fifteen days from receiving that notice to object to the release of the funds by an extrajudicial act, stating on pain of nullity the amount and the grounds of the debt (article 20 of the Act of 10 July 1965). An objection means the price is frozen at the notaire's office.

6. The works fund: the money the co-ownership does not give back

The ALUR Act created the works fund. Act no. 2021-1104 of 22 August 2021 recast it and moved it to article 14-2-1 of the Act of 10 July 1965, in a version in force since 1 January 2023.

In buildings used wholly or partly as housing, the fund is set up at the end of a ten-year period from the date the building's construction works were accepted. Where a multi-year works plan has been adopted, the annual contribution may be no lower than 2.5% of the value of the works provided for by that plan, nor lower than 5% of the provisional budget. Where no plan has been adopted, it may be no lower than 5% of the provisional budget.

Paragraph III of article 14-2-1 is explicit about what becomes of the money: it is attached to the lots and passes permanently, as soon as it is paid, into the assets of the co-ownership, and it gives rise to no reimbursement by the co-ownership when a lot is sold.

The same paragraph III expressly provides the only way to realise its value: the buyer may agree to pay the seller an amount equivalent to those sums on top of the lot's sale price. This is therefore not an unofficial arrangement but a possibility the statute itself contemplates, and it requires the buyer's agreement. It is also why d) of 2° of paragraph II of article L. 721-2 requires the share of the fund attached to the lot sold to be communicated to the buyer before the preliminary agreement.

7. A third reading of ALUR obligations: the insurance that became compulsory

The third meaning concerns insurance, and it is article 9-1 of the Act of 10 July 1965, created by article 58 of the ALUR Act.

The provision is short: every co-owner must insure against the third-party liability risks for which they must answer, either as an occupying co-owner or as a non-occupying co-owner, and every co-ownership must insure against the third-party liability risks for which it must answer.

Two useful clarifications.

This obligation concerns third-party liability, not insurance of the property itself. Article 9-1 does not require a co-owner to insure their walls against fire. It requires them to cover the damage for which they must answer. Policies sold under the name non-occupying owner insurance therefore generally go beyond that statutory duty alone.

It applies to a landlord letting out their lot, in their capacity as a non-occupying co-owner. It does not relieve the tenant of their own duty to insure against tenancy risks, which arises from point g) of article 7 of Act no. 89-462 of 6 July 1989.

8. On the landlord's side: what the ALUR Act actually changed

The ALUR Act rewrote a large part of Act no. 89-462 of 6 July 1989. For a landlord letting a home as a main residence, here is what is required, and under what sanction.

A warning about the amounts: the caps on letting fees set by article 2 of decree no. 2014-890 of 1 August 2014 may be revised each 1 January by ministerial order. They are therefore no longer fixed at 12, 10, 8 and 3 euros. Check the scale in force on the day the tenancy is signed before issuing an invoice.

9. What people wrongly believe

Seven misconceptions come up regularly. Here they are, each corrected with its provision.

The ALUR Act requires the surveys. Wrong. The technical survey pack comes from article L. 271-4 of the Construction and Housing Code, introduced by order no. 2005-655 of 8 June 2005. Article L. 721-2 expressly adds to it; it does not absorb it.

The pre-etat date is capped at 380 euros. Wrong. The 380-euro cap in decree no. 2020-153 of 21 February 2020 is made for the application of article 10-1 of the Act of 1965 and concerns the etat date, the one the managing agent gives the notaire for the deed. The pre-etat date appears in no statute and no regulatory cap covers it.

The seller gets their share of the works fund back. Wrong as against the co-ownership. Article 14-2-1, III of the Act of 10 July 1965 provides that sums paid pass permanently into the co-ownership's assets as soon as they are paid and give rise to no reimbursement when a lot is sold. The same provision does, however, allow the buyer to agree to pay the seller an equivalent amount on top of the sale price.

Without the ALUR documents the sale is void. Wrong. The sanction specific to this regime is postponement of the start of the cooling-off or reflection period, under article L. 721-3, not annulment.

You must supply every set of general meeting minutes. Wrong. Article L. 721-2, II, 1° c) covers the minutes of the general meetings of the last three years.

The maintenance record was created by the ALUR Act. Wrong. It comes from article 18 of the Act of 10 July 1965 as worded by article 78 of the SRU Act no. 2000-1208 of 13 December 2000, its contents being set by decree no. 2001-477 of 30 May 2001. The ALUR Act required it to be given to the buyer.

The ALUR Act caps rents everywhere in France. Wrong. The rent-level controls that apply today rest on the pilot scheme opened by article 140 of Act no. 2018-1021 of 23 November 2018, the ELAN Act, which applies only in areas whose competent authority asked for it and where a decree introduced it. What applies across the whole country is the limit on the annual rent review during a tenancy to the movement in the rent reference index, where the agreement contains a review clause, under article 17-1 of the Act of 6 July 1989.

10. The timetable that changes the picture

Two recent deadlines mean the list in article L. 721-2 now concerns far more residential co-ownerships than it did three years ago.

The multi-year works plan. Article 14-2 of the Act of 10 July 1965, as worded by Act no. 2021-1104 of 22 August 2021, requires a draft multi-year works plan to be drawn up in buildings used wholly or partly as housing whose construction works were accepted more than fifteen years ago. The plan is updated every ten years. The skills and guarantees required of whoever draws it up are set by decree no. 2022-663 of 25 April 2022. Entry into force was staggered by the number of lots used as housing, offices or shops: 1 January 2023 for co-ownerships of more than 200 lots, 1 January 2024 for those of 51 to 200 lots, 1 January 2025 for those of no more than 50 lots. The direct consequence for a seller: 6° or 7° of paragraph II of article L. 721-2 now concerns most residential co-ownerships over fifteen years old.

The collective energy performance certificate. Article L. 126-31 of the Construction and Housing Code, from the same Act of 22 August 2021, requires an energy performance certificate for the building in multi-dwelling residential buildings whose planning application was filed before 1 January 2013, on a timetable that is also staggered: 1 January 2024 for co-ownerships of more than 200 lots, 1 January 2025 for those of 51 to 200 lots, 1 January 2026 for those of no more than 50 lots. That collective certificate does not appear as such in the list in article L. 721-2. An informed buyer will nonetheless ask for it.

Letting fees. The caps set by article 2 of decree no. 2014-890 of 1 August 2014 may be revised each 1 January by ministerial order, by reference to the movement in the rent reference index. The first revision came with the order of 17 July 2025, amended by the order of 13 November 2025, which applies a 0.87% increase matching the movement in the index between the third quarter of 2024 and the third quarter of 2025. For tenancies entered into on or after 1 January 2026, the caps in the schedule to that order are 12.10 euros per square metre of habitable area in very-high-demand areas, 10.09 euros in high-demand areas and 8.07 euros elsewhere, for the viewing, the file and the drafting of the tenancy, plus 3.03 euros per square metre for the check-in inventory. As these caps are revised only by ministerial order, check the one in force on the day of signature.

11. Putting the ALUR file together efficiently

In practice a seller holds almost none of this list. Seven documents out of eight are in the managing agent's hands. The right sequence is therefore as follows.

One: write to the managing agent as soon as you decide to sell, citing article L. 721-2 expressly, and asking for the documents item by item rather than for an undifferentiated sale pack. Some of these documents must already be on the secure online space the managing agent is required to make available to co-owners, provided for by article 18 of the Act of 10 July 1965, whose minimum contents are set by decree no. 2020-1229 of 7 October 2020.

Two: check that the documents are consistent with one another. A schedule of division that does not match the lot being sold, minutes voting works that do not appear in the financial information, a works-fund share stated without the last contribution: these inconsistencies weaken the file as much as a missing document does.

Three: get delivery certified. Express acceptance of electronic delivery, then a certificate dated and signed by the buyer's own hand where the agreement is a private document. Without that trace, you will not be able to show that the cooling-off period actually started to run.

Four: do the arithmetic before you commit. The works-fund share, the charges of the last two financial years and the works voted but not yet called all bear directly on the net price you will receive. That calculation belongs before you set the asking price, not after the preliminary agreement.

On that last point, the Briveo online valuation draws on the public transfer data for your municipality and gives you a price range in two minutes, with no obligation. The net proceeds calculator then lets you deduct the charges, the costs and the co-ownership balance to see what will actually reach you.