Pack tonight: a written procuration signed by your sister plus a copy of her ID (the lease is in her name, and some residences will not sign the form with anyone else), her attestation d'assurance habitation, and a phone charger. The insurance certificate is the classic reason keys don't get handed over — if she hasn't taken a policy yet, it takes ten minutes online this evening and costs about €4 a month for a studio.
The lease is signed, so today isn't a decision — it's a record. The état des lieux d'entrée is the only document standing between her and an argument over the deposit when she moves out. Anything not written down today is, by default, damage she caused.
- Write like a lawyer, not a tenant. "Bon état" protects nobody. Every defect gets a location, a size and a nature: rayure de 15 cm sur le plan de travail, côté évier. If the agent writes something vague, ask them to make it specific before you sign.
- The furniture inventory is a separate legal document. A furnished let requires an inventaire et état détaillé du mobilier. Count everything and check condition. The legal minimum for a meublé includes bedding with a duvet or blanket, blackout at the window, cooking rings, an oven or microwave, a fridge with a freezer compartment, enough crockery and utensils, a table, seating, storage, lighting and cleaning equipment. Anything on that list that isn't there is the residence's problem — but only if it's noted today.
- Test, don't look. Hot and cold at every tap, how fast the shower drains, the flush, every socket with your charger, every light, the fridge (is it actually cold), the extractor, the window catches and any shutter or blind, the front door lock from both sides. Hold a tissue to the ventilation grille — if it doesn't hold, the VMC is dead and that matters far more in a studio than people think.
- Run the heating for five minutes. Yes, at 37 °C. Today is the only chance to find out it doesn't work before October, and you have the legal window for it: heating faults can be added to the état des lieux right up to the end of the first heating season.
- Meters. Photograph the electricity meter index and serial number, and the water meter if there's an individual one. Then ask outright whether utilities are a fixed forfait inside the charges or billed on consumption — student residences do both and the answer changes what she needs to set up.
- Count the keys on the form. Flat key, building key or vigik badge, mailbox key, mailbox number, laundry token or card. The number handed over should be written down, because the number returned will be checked.
- Photos and video. One slow narrated walkthrough, then close-ups of every defect you've noted. Write photos annexées on the form so they're formally part of it, and send the lot to your sister the same evening.
- Don't leave without a signed copy. Both parties sign, each keeps one. A PDF by email is fine, but get it before you walk out — chasing it from Paris is a different sport.
- You have ten days afterwards. Under the 2016 decree she can ask for the état des lieux to be amended within ten days of signing if something was missed. So today isn't your only shot — but the request has to be in writing.
Ask before you go: which day the rent leaves the account and by what method; whether the charges are a provision that gets reconciled or a flat forfait; the notice period (one month for a furnished let); who the on-site contact is and when they're actually there; the wifi credentials; how parcels are handled; and — the one everyone forgets — whether they'll issue the attestation de loyer she needs for her CAF housing benefit application. Bring her RIB in case they can start it today.
The heat is a free stress test. Note which way the studio faces, what floor it's on, whether the window opens properly and whether there's anything to block the sun. She arrives in early September, when 30 °C is still normal here. If the ventilation or the shutters don't work, that's not a comfort gripe — it's a defect, and it goes on the form.