Bail Mobilité in France for Americans: Who Can Sign, Deposit, Length and Notice

The bail mobilité (mobility lease) is a French lease for a furnished home that runs from 1 to 10 months, cannot be renewed and carries no security deposit. It is not open to everyone: on the day the lease starts you must be in professional training, higher education, an apprenticeship, an internship, civic service, a job transfer or a temporary work assignment, which leaves out a retiree, a tourist or a visitor who simply wants a few months in France. This guide covers who qualifies, the length, the deposit and Visale, the rent, notice, the contract, the alternatives and how to stay on, as the official pages stood on October 12, 2026. For the standard contracts, see how a French lease works, clause by clause. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Rules change, and your situation may differ: always verify current requirements with the relevant French authorities or a licensed professional.

What Is a Bail Mobilité?

A bail mobilité is a short-term lease of a furnished home, signed for 1 to 10 months with a tenant whom service-public describes as a temporary occupant. It was created by the ELAN law of November 23, 2018 (law n° 2018-1021, article 107) and has been in force since November 25, 2018.

Its rules are seven articles, 25-12 to 25-18, of the law of July 6, 1989 on residential leases. Article 25-12 makes them mandatory (d’ordre public) and extends to this lease general articles of that law, such as the forbidden clauses (article 4), the sharing of agency fees (article 5) and the documents a landlord may ask for (article 22-2). The reference page is service-public’s rules of the bail mobilité, verified on June 6, 2025, which also exists in English under the name mobility lease. ANIL, the national housing information agency, publishes a leaflet dated April 2026.

Who Can Sign One: The Seven Situations the Law Names

Only a tenant who is in one of seven situations on the date the lease takes effect can sign a bail mobilité, and must prove it with a document. That date is the day the lease starts, which can differ from the day it is signed.

The list says nothing about nationality, age or visa. An American on a student long-stay visa, an intern with a signed agreement or an employee transferred to France by an employer fits it as a French tenant would. Service-public’s examples of proof are the apprenticeship contract, the internship agreement (convention de stage) and the training agreement. The law sets no closed list, so agree with the landlord which paper will back the reason written in the lease.

Which Americans Are Outside the List

If you are in none of the seven situations, you cannot sign a bail mobilité, however short your stay and however solid your income. That is the position of a tourist spending up to 90 days in France without a visa, a retiree on a visitor visa, or a newcomer who only wants time to look.

Remote workers and freelancers should not assume the last line of the table covers them: the official pages define the temporary assignment only through ANIL’s two examples, and choosing to spend some months in France is not being sent there. Ask the ADIL, the free housing information agency of your département, before signing.

What is left depends on the stay:

• Up to 90 days: a tourist rental. Service-public states that the same guest cannot total more than 90 consecutive days of rental in a calendar year.
• A home you will live in: an ordinary furnished lease, the contract for a main residence (a home occupied at least eight months a year), which you can leave at any time with one month’s notice. It is the lease of an American retiring in France.
• In between: the official pages read for this guide describe no contract made for a stay of four to eight months outside the seven situations. That is another question for the ADIL.

How Long a Bail Mobilité Lasts, and Whether It Can Be Extended

A bail mobilité lasts at least 1 month and at most 10 months, and it can be neither renewed nor tacitly continued. Article 25-14 allows its length to be changed once, by a written amendment (avenant), provided the total stays within 10 months.

ANIL’s example: a lease of one month extended by two months makes three in all. There is no second amendment.

One change is pending. A law of November 26, 2025 allows a term of one week to 18 months when the home is part of a résidence à vocation d’emploi (a residence for people in work). Service-public states that a decree must be published first, and its page still said so on October 12, 2026.

Which Homes Qualify: Furnished, Decent, Main Home or Not

The home must be furnished and decent, and it need not be your main residence: ANIL’s comparison of lease types says a bail mobilité can cover a main or a secondary home.

Furnished means the legal minimum listed by service-public: bedding, shutters or curtains in the bedrooms, a cooktop, an oven or microwave, a refrigerator with a freezer or freezer compartment, dishes and utensils, a table, seats, shelves, light fittings and cleaning equipment. Decent means a minimum surface, minimum equipment, a ceiling on energy consumption, no danger to health or safety and no pests. Two kinds of housing are excluded: logements-foyers (residences that combine private rooms and shared facilities) and housing under an agreement with the State, which ANIL sums up as social housing.

A furniture inventory and a move-in inspection are signed at key handover. Damage can be claimed even without a deposit, so follow the method for a move-in inspection that protects you. You must also insure the rental risks, and may sublet only with the landlord’s written agreement.

What the Lease Must State, and What a Missing Line Changes

The lease must be in writing, and three lines decide what it is: the duration, the reason that entitles you to a bail mobilité, and a sentence stating that the contract is a bail mobilité governed by Title I ter of the law of July 6, 1989. If one is missing, article 25-13 says the contract falls under the rules of the ordinary furnished lease.

That fallback protects you: an ordinary furnished lease runs one year, renews automatically and can be ended by the landlord only at its term, with three months’ notice.

The lease also states the landlord’s name and address, your name, the date it takes effect, the description and habitable surface of the home, the rent and how it is paid, the last rent paid by the previous tenant if they left less than 18 months before signing, the works done since, and a sentence saying that the landlord may not ask for a security deposit.

The annexes are those of a furnished rental (diagnostic file, inspection reports, furniture inventory, extracts of the co-ownership rules), and service-public’s list of forbidden clauses, verified on October 1, 2026, covers the bail mobilité.

Deposit, Guarantor and Visale

No security deposit (dépôt de garantie) may be asked on a bail mobilité: article 25-17 forbids it in one sentence. The landlord may ask for a guarantor instead, and in French la caution is the guarantor, not the deposit.

Service-public’s bail mobilité page says a tenant can use Visale, the free guarantee granted by Action Logement, students included, and its Visale page, verified on January 23, 2026, sets the terms:

• The lease: a bail mobilité is covered if it contains a termination clause (clause résolutoire).
• The timing: you request Visale before signing, Action Logement sends a “visa” within a few working days, and the landlord validates the guarantee deed.
• The rent, charges included: up to 1,940 euros in Île-de-France and 1,575 or 1,365 euros elsewhere, depending on the commune (1,000 euros, then 840 or 680 euros, for a student or apprentice who cannot document resources).
• The cover: unpaid rent and charges, plus damage to the home up to two months of rent and charges.

Eligibility is the delicate point. Service-public sorts tenants by age and job: anyone aged 30 or under, then private-sector employees hired or transferred within the last six months, holding a job offer starting within three months, or earning no more than 1,710 euros net a month. Action Logement, on its own site, presents the signature of a bail mobilité as a route of its own, whatever the tenant’s age. Run the test on visale.fr before counting on it, with the paid guarantors that accept American income as a fallback.

In a shared apartment, a clause making roommates or their guarantors liable for one another is deemed unwritten.

Rent, Rent Control and Charges

The rent is set freely and cannot be revised during the lease, within two limits that depend on the address. Charges are a flat amount (forfait) paid with the rent, with nothing added or refunded afterwards.

• Tight zones. In a zone tendue, the landlord cannot freely raise the rent when the tenant changes, which is why the lease shows the previous tenant’s rent.
• Reference rents. Service-public lists where the level of the rent is capped: Paris, Bordeaux, Lille with Hellemmes and Lomme, Lyon and Villeurbanne, Montpellier, the communes of Est Ensemble, Plaine Commune and the Pays Basque, and part of Grenoble-Alpes Métropole. ANIL specifies that the cap applies to a bail mobilité when the home is the tenant’s main residence. The official pages on this experiment run to November 24, 2026, so check the official simulator and, for the capital, our guide to renting in Paris.
• Charges. The amount and the frequency of the forfait are written in the lease, article 25-18 rules out any later adjustment, and the amount cannot be clearly out of proportion with the last breakdown of actual charges.

At signing, with no deposit, you pay the first rent and, through an agency, your share of the fee: at most 12.10 euros per square meter in a very tight zone, 10.09 euros in a tight zone and 8.07 euros elsewhere, plus up to 3.03 euros per square meter for the move-in inspection, per service-public’s page on agency fees, verified on January 12, 2026. Nothing is owed before the signature: a request for money to reserve the home is one of the red flags of a rental scam.

Notice: You Can Leave at Any Time, the Landlord Cannot

You can end a bail mobilité at any time with one month’s notice, under article 25-15. The landlord cannot end it before its term: ANIL states that the only route is to ask a judge to terminate the lease if the tenant fails in an obligation.

Your notice is valid as a registered letter with return receipt, an act served by a commissaire de justice, or a letter handed over against a receipt. Service-public is explicit that a plain email is not valid, even if the landlord answers it. The month starts when the landlord receives the letter, not when you send it: see how French registered mail works. Rent and charges are due for the whole notice, unless another tenant moves in earlier with the landlord’s agreement.

Service-public publishes a model notice letter for the bail mobilité, and our guide to moving out of a French apartment covers the exit inspection. If the home is sold, the lease continues with the new owner.

What Happens at the End, and How to Stay in the Same Home

On its end date the lease simply stops: the landlord has no notice to give, and ANIL states that the tenant must leave. To stay, there are two routes, and both need the landlord’s agreement.

1. The amendment, if the lease has not been amended yet and the total stays within 10 months.
2. A new lease. Article 25-14 makes a new lease on the same furnished home an ordinary furnished lease, so a second bail mobilité there is not an option.

The ordinary furnished lease changes the terms: one year, renewed automatically (nine months, without renewal, for a student); a deposit of up to two months’ rent excluding charges, which the landlord may now ask for; charges as a flat amount or as provisions adjusted each year; a contract that follows the official model lease. Your notice stays at one month.

Raise the question in writing well before the end date, since nothing obliges the landlord to keep you. Budget the deposit, and if you rely on Visale, make a new request before signing. The articles do not address a later bail mobilité in another home.

Bail Mobilité vs Furnished Lease, Student Lease and Airbnb

The bail mobilité is the only one of the four contracts that combines a term of a few months, no deposit and the tenant protections of the 1989 law. The price is its closed list of tenants. The table draws on ANIL’s comparison and on service-public’s comparison of lease types, verified on March 6, 2026.

If a host on a booking platform offers you several months “under a bail mobilité”, the label changes your rights only if you are in a listed situation and sign a written lease carrying the three lines above. For a long-term home, follow the seven-day plan from an Airbnb to a signed lease.

Housing Aid, Visa Files and Proof of Address

A bail mobilité opens housing aid only if the home is your main residence, and it serves a visa file or proves your address like any other lease in your name.

• Housing aid. ANIL’s table says yes, under conditions, for a main residence. Service-public’s page on the ALS benefit, verified on July 1, 2026, states that a foreigner needs a valid residence permit, that non-EU students qualify in three cases only, and that the aid is paid from the first day of the month after the file is processed, which can take about two months. On a short lease, apply at once: see how CAF housing benefits work for Americans.
• Visa file. Our guide to proof of accommodation for a long-stay visa ranks a signed lease as the cleanest document, even when it runs less than a year. A bail mobilité signed before departure is such a lease, provided you are in a listed situation on its start date.
• Proof of address. The lease is in your name, and the landlord must give you a free rent receipt (quittance de loyer) on request once the rent is paid in full. See what counts as proof of address in France.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Signing one without being on the list. Income, a visa or a short stay do not replace one of the seven situations.

Paying a deposit anyway. The law forbids it and the contract must say so.

Counting on a renewal. The lease ends on its date: discuss what comes next while you still have time to look elsewhere.

Giving notice by email. The month does not start until a valid notice is received.

Requesting Visale after signing. The request must come before the signature.

Practical Checklist

• Check that you are in one of the seven situations on the day the lease starts, and can prove it
• Read the lease for the duration, the reason and the sentence naming the bail mobilité
• Refuse any security deposit, and pay nothing before signing
• Request Visale before signing, and check that the lease has a termination clause
• Ask what the flat charge covers and whether the electricity contract must be opened in your name
• Insure the home, do the move-in inspection with photos, and ask for a rent receipt every month
• Note the end date, and raise the amendment or the new lease well before it

When to Get Help

For a legal question on the lease in front of you, the ADIL of your département gives free and neutral advice: ANIL lists the local agencies. In a dispute, article 25-12 excludes the bail mobilité from the departmental conciliation commission that handles other leases. The free step before a court is a conciliateur de justice, whose task is to find an amicable settlement.

When the exchange with a landlord or an agency has to happen in French, a dedicated assistant can ask whether a listing is offered as a bail mobilité, query the agency on the lines missing from the draft, and send your notice by registered letter at the end. For the search itself, start with our step-by-step playbook for renting in France as an American.

FAQ

What does bail mobilité mean in English?

Mobility lease, the translation used by the English version of service-public’s page. It is a legal category of its own, not a general word for a short or flexible rental.

Can I rent an apartment in France for 3 months as an American?

Yes, but on a bail mobilité only in a listed situation, such as a higher education program or an internship. Otherwise, a stay of up to 90 days in any 180-day period needs no visa, and a tourist rental can host the same guest for 90 consecutive days at most.

Does Visale work with a bail mobilité?

Yes. Service-public lists the bail mobilité with a termination clause among the leases Visale covers. You must request it before signing, the rent must stay under the ceiling (1,940 euros in Île-de-France, charges included), and the landlord has to accept the guarantee.

Are the bail mobilité conditions different in Paris, Lyon or Nice?

No, the rules are national. What changes with the address is the rent: Paris, Lyon and Villeurbanne are on service-public’s list of reference-rent territories and Nice is not. Our guides to renting in Lyon and renting in Nice give the local rules and budgets.

Is there an official bail mobilité template in PDF?

Service-public’s page offers no model contract among its forms, only two model letters: one to request a rent receipt, one to give notice. ANIL’s leaflet is a PDF summary of the rules, not a contract. Check any document you are handed against the required lines above.

Conclusion

The bail mobilité suits the people it was written for: a student, an intern, a trainee or an employee on a transfer or an assignment gets a furnished home for 1 to 10 months, with no deposit, a fixed rent and the right to leave with one month’s notice. For everyone else it is closed, and the alternatives are a tourist rental for up to 90 days or an ordinary furnished lease.

Before you sign, check the reason, the duration and the sentence naming the bail mobilité, then note the end date: this lease does not renew itself.