The rental agreement: content and rules by country | Documentation SmartLife Construction

What the agreement contains

The lease (PDF) is built from the rental, unit and tenant information at the time you download it. It includes:

a summary sheet: property, period, rent and charges, security deposit, notice, services and payment due date;
the parties: landlord, tenant and, where applicable, guarantor;
the description of the premises: rooms with their type, area and equipment, then the total area;
the floor plan, when you have drawn the unit's plan;
the residence services available to the property;
the term, financial terms, clauses and appendices, written according to the country of the residence;
the signatures, preceded by the words “Read and approved”.

Each page shows the agreement reference, its page number and an initials area.

Good to know

The agreement reflects your data when you download it. After a change (rent, rooms, security deposit, due date…), download it again to get an up-to-date version.

A template adapted to the country of the residence

The agreement template depends on the country of the residence, set in the rental description. The country is shown at the top of the agreement (“Applicable law”), with the texts that govern it.

🇫🇷 FranceLegal

Law no. 89-462 of 6 July 1989 and decree no. 2015-587 of 29 May 2015 (standard agreements). “Furnished housing” section for furnished lettings.

🇨🇲 CameroonCustom

Civil Code applicable in Cameroon, provisions on the letting of things (articles 1708 onwards).

🇸🇳 SenegalCustom

Code of Civil and Commercial Obligations (lease provisions) and residential rent regulations.

🌍 Other African countriesCustom

For the other supported African countries, the agreement follows a generic template: it refers to the legislation in force in the country without citing a specific text. 1-year lease tacitly renewed, 2 months' notice, monthly payment, 2-month security deposit by default with no legal cap, amounts in the local currency.

Important

These templates reflect the main rules of each country but do not replace the advice of a local legal professional (lawyer, notary, bailiff). Rules marked “Custom” reflect common practice, with no legal cap applied.

Lease term

The term written in the agreement depends on the country and the type of letting.

🇫🇷 FranceLegal

Unfurnished: 3 years (individual landlord) or 6 years (company), tacitly renewed.
Furnished and flatshare: 1 year, tacitly renewed.
Student: 9 months, not renewed.

🇨🇲 CameroonCustom

1 year, tacitly renewed unless terminated with 2 months' notice.

🇸🇳 SenegalCustom

1 year, tacitly renewed for the same term unless notice is given 2 months in advance.

Security deposit

The security deposit is expressed as a number of months of rent excluding charges. By default, it matches the value set for the type of letting in the country of the residence.

When creating the unit (Rentals > Units > Add a unit): the Security deposit field is pre-filled according to the selected residence and type of letting. You can change it.
On the unit page: below the rent and charges, change the number of months and click Save. The Reset to the regulatory value button removes your customisation.

When the country sets a legal cap, a higher value is automatically brought back to that cap, on the unit page and in the agreement.

🇫🇷 FranceLegal

Unfurnished: at most 1 month of rent excluding charges.
Furnished, flatshare, student: at most 2 months.
Returned within 1 month if the check-out inventory matches, 2 months otherwise.
No rent in advance may be required.

🇨🇲 CameroonCustom

2 months of rent by default, no legal cap applied.
Months of rent in advance may be added.

🇸🇳 SenegalCustom

2 months of rent by default, no legal cap applied.
Months of rent in advance may be added.

Rent, charges and payment due date

The agreement states the rent, the charges and the payment due date. By default, rent must be paid by the 5th of the month at the latest; you can choose another day (1 to 28) for each tenant:

when adding the tenant, at the Contract step (Rent payment due day field);
later, from the unit page: open the tenant details and click the rent edit icon.

Unpaid (or partially paid) rent becomes late the day after this date: the units list, the tenant profile, the charts and the dashboard take it into account.

🇫🇷 FranceLegal

Monthly payment, in advance.
Annual review based on the INSEE rent reference index (IRL).
Charges: provisions adjusted yearly (unfurnished) or a flat fee (furnished, flatshare).

🇨🇲 CameroonCustom

Quarterly payment, by the due day of the first month of each quarter.
Monthly contribution to shared costs (borehole, caretaking, lighting).

🇸🇳 SenegalCustom

Monthly payment, by the due day.
Utilities paid directly to suppliers; possible contribution to shared costs.

Notice and end of the lease

Notice periods and the procedure for unpaid rent are written according to the country.

🇫🇷 FranceLegal

Tenant: 3 months (unfurnished), reduced to 1 month in some cases (high-demand area, job transfer, job loss…); 1 month (furnished).
Landlord: 6 months (unfurnished) or 3 months (furnished) before the end of the term, to take the property back, sell it or for a legitimate and serious reason.
Termination clause: 6 weeks after an unanswered formal demand for payment.

🇨🇲 CameroonCustom

2 months' notice; the notice period is payable.
Termination 8 days after an unanswered formal notice.

🇸🇳 SenegalCustom

2 months' notice by registered letter or bailiff's writ.
Termination requested from the court 1 month after an unanswered formal notice.

Flatshare

For a flatshare, a flatmate's agreement distinguishes:

the rooms for their exclusive use (their bedroom, a private shower room…), i.e. the rooms dedicated to their flatshare unit;
the shared rooms;
for information, the rooms dedicated to other flatmates, outside the agreement.

On the floor plan, these three categories appear in different colours. If the tenant is not associated with any flatshare unit, a red box says so: associate them from the unit page before the agreement is signed.

🇫🇷 FranceLegal

Joint liability clause: when a flatmate leaves, their liability and their guarantor's end when a new flatmate joins, and at the latest 6 months after the notice takes effect.

🇨🇲 CameroonCustom

Individual agreement for the exclusive rooms and shared use of common rooms, respecting the other flatmates' peace and quiet.

🇸🇳 SenegalCustom

Same individual flatshare clause as in Cameroon.

Appendices and registration

The list of documents to attach to the agreement is shown as checkboxes, so you can check that nothing is missing when signing.

🇫🇷 FranceLegal

Information notice, inventory of fixtures, furniture inventory (furnished).
Diagnostics: energy performance (DPE), risks report, lead (before 1949), electricity and gas (over 15 years old).
Co-ownership rules extracts, guarantee deed.
No mandatory registration.

🇨🇲 CameroonCustom

Inventory of fixtures, furniture inventory (furnished), house rules, guarantee undertaking.
Lease registration at the tenant's expense.

🇸🇳 SenegalCustom

Inventory of fixtures, furniture inventory (furnished), house rules, guarantee undertaking.
Registration under the General Tax Code, at the tenant's expense.

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