Europe
Student accommodation regulation in France (2026)
France does have a legal figure: the résidence universitaire of Article L631-12 of the Code de la construction et de l'habitation (Construction and Housing Code), with a contract of one year at most and no right to stay on or to sublet. What the market calls a résidence services étudiante has no article of its own and is let under the Act of 6 July 1989, as a furnished let or a bail mobilité. Here are the texts on Légifrance, data protection and what the rule leaves out.
The short answer
| What | Rule | Who applies it |
|---|---|---|
| Type of accommodation | Construction and Housing Code, Art. L631-12 | The operator; the housing-benefit agreement needs the prefect's authorisation |
| Contract with the resident | Art. L631-12 in a résidence universitaire; outside it, Act no. 89-462, Arts. 25-3 to 25-18 | Operator and resident; in a dispute, the courts |
| Decent housing | Decree no. 2002-120, Art. 4 | The landlord of the furnished let or bail mobilité (Art. 6 of Act 89-462) |
| Data protection | GDPR and the Loi Informatique et Libertés | The CNIL |
| AI and internal whistleblowing | Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, Art. 50; Act no. 2016-1691, Art. 8 | Whoever builds the assistant; companies with 50 or more employees |
What they are called and how they differ
La résidence universitaire est un établissement destiné au logement collectif à titre de résidence principale dans des immeubles comportant à la fois des locaux privatifs, meublés ou non, et des locaux affectés à la vie collective. Cet établissement accueille des étudiants, des personnes de moins de trente ans en formation ou en stage et des personnes titulaires d'un contrat de professionnalisation ou d'apprentissage. ("A university residence is an establishment for collective housing as a main residence, in buildings with both private premises, furnished or not, and premises for communal life. It houses students, people under thirty in training or on an internship, and holders of a vocational training or apprenticeship contract.")
- Résidence universitaire: the university residence in the paragraph quoted; exceptionally, also teachers and researchers. It may hold a housing-benefit agreement (Art. L. 831-1) if the department's prefect grants it a specific authorisation.
- CROUS housing: allocated by the regional centres of the œuvres universitaires (student services network) (Education Code, Art. L822-1).
- Résidence services étudiante: a trade name, for what other markets call PBSA. No article in the texts cited defines it.
The contract with the resident
In a résidence universitaire, L631-12 sets the frame: a contract of one year at most, renewable if the conditions are still met, with no right to stay on and no assignment or subletting. Since 2022, vacant places may take short stays (Art. L631-12-1).
Outside it, Act no. 89-462 of 6 July 1989 offers two contracts for furnished housing that is the main residence; its furnished-letting title excludes logements-foyers (hostel-type housing) and housing under an agreement with the State on occupancy and allocation (Art. 25-3).
- Bail meublé (furnished let, Art. 25-7): in writing, on a standard contract set by decree, for at least one year and renewed tacitly; with a student it may run for nine months, and then it is not renewed.
- Bail mobilité (Arts. 25-12 to 25-18, created by the ELAN Act, no. 2018-1021, Art. 107): for people in higher education, training, apprenticeship, an internship, civic service or a temporary assignment; one to ten months, neither renewable nor tacitly extended (Art. 25-14).
The latest reform of the bail mobilité, Act no. 2025-1129 of 26 November 2025 (in force since the 28th), only affects the "résidences à vocation d'emploi" (employment-linked residences) of Art. L631-16-1, where it runs from one week to eighteen months.
The building and decent housing
L631-12 describes the building: private premises and premises for communal life. Every home let furnished or on a bail mobilité has to be decent, because Art. 6 of the 1989 Act applies to both (Arts. 25-3 and 25-12), and Decree no. 2002-120 requires at least one main room of 9 m² with a 2.20 m ceiling, or a volume of 20 m³ (Art. 4).
Municipalities or groups of municipalities that ask for it take on building and major repairs of premises for students, and Île-de-France has a regional scheme (L822-1). The texts cited set no fire-safety regime of its own for the résidence universitaire, and this page does not cover it.
Data protection and WhatsApp
The GDPR applies as it stands; the Loi Informatique et Libertés completes it "dans le cadre du règlement" (within the framework of the Regulation, Art. 1) and makes the CNIL the supervisory authority (Art. 8). The CNIL publishes the consolidated text; if it differs, the Légifrance version prevails. For a residence that answers on WhatsApp:
- say in the first message who the controller is, what the data is used for and on what basis (GDPR, Art. 13);
- bind by contract every provider that processes the messages on its behalf (Art. 28);
- if any data leaves the European Economic Area, do it with an Art. 46 safeguard, such as the standard contractual clauses of Decision (EU) 2021/914.
The full route is in the GDPR guide for residences; what changes is the national law alongside the Regulation, not the Regulation.
What the rules do not say
Worth knowing
L631-12 says who lives in a résidence universitaire and how long the contract lasts, but it does not say which services are provided, requires no house rules or staff and sets no room price. Nor does it use the expression "résidence services": the 1989 Act regulates letting the home, not the services that come with it.
The bail mobilité is not a student contract: it also serves internships, civic service or a work assignment, and it does not renew when it ends. For a whole academic year, the law offers the nine-month furnished let, which does not renew tacitly either, or the one-year let.
What Bedel does
Bedel handles the residence's WhatsApp and replies in the language of whoever writes, French included; what a machine should not decide goes to a person's phone (handing over to people). The data is stored in the European Union, in Ireland, and the AI model runs in the United States under the Standard Contractual Clauses. Whatever French law and the CNIL change in the contract and the processing is discussed before signing.
Frequently asked questions
Is my private residence a résidence universitaire?
It depends on what it is, not on what it is called. Article L631-12 defines the résidence universitaire as a collective housing establishment, with private premises and communal premises, for students, people under thirty in training and apprentices. To hold a housing-benefit agreement it also needs a specific authorisation from the department's prefect. "Résidence services" does not appear in the texts cited.
How long can a student's contract last?
In a résidence universitaire, one year at most, renewable if the resident still meets the conditions. Outside it, a furnished let lasts at least a year with tacit renewal, or nine months without renewal if the tenant is a student (Art. 25-7 of the 1989 Act). The bail mobilité runs from one to ten months and is not renewed (Art. 25-14).
Can I let empty rooms over the summer?
In a résidence universitaire, yes, within limits. Since February 2022, Article L631-12-1 allows the operator to let premises still vacant after 31 December for stays shorter than three months ending no later than 1 October of the following year, in particular to priority groups. When they are freed, they are offered first to students and the other residents covered by L631-12.
Who supervises residents' data in France?
The Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertés, the CNIL, which Article 8 of the Loi Informatique et Libertés designates as national supervisory authority for GDPR purposes. That Act completes the European Regulation rather than replacing it: information to residents, the legal basis and transfers outside Europe still follow the GDPR articles.
Does a residence need an internal whistleblowing channel?
If it employs 50 or more people, yes. Article 8 of Act no. 2016-1691, known as Sapin II, as worded since September 2022, requires private-law legal persons with at least fifty employees to set up an internal procedure for collecting and handling reports, after consulting staff representatives and under conditions set by decree.
Other countries
- United KingdomFour systems in one country: in England, membership of an approved management code weighs on whether a student building is an HMO and on which contract is signed; data follows UK GDPR.
- IrelandA figure of its own: student specific accommodation, within tenancy law and under the RTB since 2019, whether signed as a lease or as a licence.
- PortugalRules of its own for the building since January 2022 (Decree-Law 14/2022 and Ordinance 35-A/2022); the contract is a Civil Code tenancy and data goes through the GDPR and Law 58/2019.
- ItalyThe "struttura residenziale universitaria" has a legal definition (Legislative Decree 68/2012, Art. 13), split into collegi and residenze; letting a flat to students comes under Art. 5 of Law 431/1998.
- GermanyNo residence act: section 549(3) of the BGB cuts back tenant protection in a Studenten- oder Jugendwohnheim, and building rules and the data authority depend on each Land.
- NetherlandsNo residence act: Book 7 of the Civil Code gives student lettings the campus contract and the fixed-term contract, and the Bbl sets its own measurements for student housing.
- BelgiumThree student tenancy regimes, one per region, with different terms, deposits and exits; data protection and whistleblowing, by contrast, are federal.
- SpainThe starting point in Spain: which rule governs the legal figure, the contract, the building, the data and the AI of a student residence, with the guide for each.