It is a reform which, since January 1, 2022, has strengthened the information of joint sureties, many of you have committed yourself as guarantor for a student child. Details from Charlie Cailloux, legal counsel for Particular to particular on PAP.fr.
franceinfo: What does this reform consist of?
Charlie Pebbles: It consists of protecting people who commit themselves as a joint surety: it is a unilateral and serious commitment for the guarantor. He derives no advantage from it, at best for him, nothing happens, at worst, he finds himself paying rent for accommodation that he does not personally occupy.
This is the reason why since the Alur law, the legislator reinforces the formalism, imposes obligatory information in the act, so that the guarantor is well informed of what he undertakes, and that he does not take the act lightly. And besides, it goes a little in all directions!
That is to say ?
Until 2018, the guarantor had to hand-copy two statements, which sealed his commitment. It was quite tedious but effective. In 2018, the Elan law removes the two handwritten mentions because it is too archaic, and it prevents the signing of guarantees by dematerialized means. And in 2022, the big return of the mandatory handwritten mention, only one, not two!
Good anyway, for owners who require a joint and several guarantee, make sure that your model is up to date, otherwise your joint and several guarantee will be zero!
You were saying that the surety agrees to pay everything the tenant owes, but that means there is no limit?
Yes, exactly ! There are two big limits: the first is the duration of the commitment! The act of surety must necessarily be limited in time, it must be the subject of a stipulation in the act. Failing this, the guarantor may terminate his commitment at each renewal of the rental contract.
Secondly, and this is a novelty of the reform, the commitment of the surety must be limited in its amount! It is an amount that is negotiated between the guarantor and the owner: if 10,000 euros is indicated for example, the owner can request the deposit up to this amount, beyond that, the deposit will be released.
Yes, the joint guarantee must be limited but it remains a commitment over several years and on large sums!
It’s true, but in reality, it’s still quite rare for the surety to end up paying such sums. On the one hand, because unpaid rent is ultimately quite rare (only 2% of tenants) and on the other hand, because in most cases of unpaid rent, we end up finding a solution to stop the bleeding before coming to court.