Property Condition Report (État des Lieux) for France: Free PDF Template + Checklist

Why the condition report is your best protection

Straight to the point. Without a signed entry condition report, French law presumes the property was handed over in good condition. Every bit of damage observed at move-out is then legally your problem, not the tenant's. That's article 1731 of the Civil Code — there is no room to negotiate.

A precise, signed entry EDL flips that presumption. If the wallpaper was torn on day one and it's documented, the tenant can't be blamed. If it was intact then and ripped at move-out, the repair cost can come out of the deposit — legitimately, and without realistic challenge.

Honestly, generic templates downloaded from the internet are nearly worthless without timestamped photos attached. We see it every month with the landlords we work with: it's the single biggest difference between a deposit claim that holds up and one that collapses on first reading.

What the 2016 decree requires

Decree n° 2016-382 of 30 March 2016 set a common framework for every EDL. Eight elements are mandatory — missing even one weakens the document's evidentiary weight.

1. 1. Type of report — entry (entrée) or exit (sortie). Sounds obvious, yet we regularly see templates where the label is ambiguous.
2. 2. Date of inspection — day, month, year. For exit reports, this is also the date that triggers the deposit return clock (1 month if no damage, 2 months otherwise).
3. 3. Full property address — street, number, floor, lot or door number where applicable.
4. 4. Party identification — landlord (or mandate holder) and tenant(s): full name, address.
5. 5. Property description, room by room — surface area, layout, number of fixtures. Not a global description.
6. 6. State table for each element — floors, walls, ceilings, windows, fittings, appliances. With a precise rating: new, good, used, poor, to be replaced.
7. 7. Signatures — landlord AND tenant(s), ideally on every page.
8. 8. Note on key handover — number, type, building badge if any.

Room-by-room checklist

Here's the structure we use internally. For every room, six families to check: walls, floors, ceilings, joinery (doors and windows), fittings (sockets, switches, radiators, lights) and plumbing where applicable.

• Entrance hall. Floor finish, wall near the door (marks, knocks), intercom, mailbox, visible meter if any.
• Kitchen. Extractor hood (switch it on), hob, oven, sink, taps, joints, upper and lower cabinets (hinges), tiles, ventilation. Photograph the inside of the cupboards.
• Living room. Parquet or tile, skirting, paint, sockets (count and test), switches, radiator (turn on), shutters, window or French door, handles.
• Bedrooms. Same checks as the living room, with extra attention to carpet/parquet wear and any wall fixings.
• Bathroom. Bath or shower, taps, drainage, silicone joints (often the very first point of dispute), mirror, towel rail, ventilation.
• Exterior. Balcony, terrace, cellar, garage, garden if applicable. With the corresponding keys.

One photo per element, dated. Not a wide-angle shot — a detail shot.

Free PDF template or integrated software?

The free PDF template does the job if you manage a single property and you put real care into it — photos for everything, initials on every page, a copy handed to the tenant the same day. That's enough to start.

From the second property onward, it gets messy. You're juggling PDFs in Drive, photos on your phone, and when a dispute hits you spend three hours hunting for the right file. Pierre, who owns a furnished flat in Nice and uses our platform, won a dispute in 2024 thanks to timestamped photos embedded directly in his EDL: €940 of repair costs charged to the deposit, accepted without appeal. What made the difference: the tribunal saw the same photo in the entry EDL and the exit EDL, inside the same document, with no chance of manipulation.

That's exactly what a property management software like FacturZen does: guided EDL room by room, photos attached element by element, electronic signature, dated archive, and a direct link to the lease and automatic rent receipts. From €7 per month, data hosted in France, GDPR compliant.

Conclusion: never rush this document

The état des lieux is the highest-yield document in the entire rental cycle — an hour spent at move-in can spare you €1,500 to €3,000 of losses at move-out. Be precise, photograph everything, get every page signed. And if you manage more than one property, switch to a system that ties the photos to the document in a way that can't be challenged. That's the only calm version of this job.