Published in the Journal Officiel on 18 June this year, the so-called Pinel law on craft trades, commerce and very small businesses has brought a number of changes to the status of commercial leases. This is not an in-depth reform, but a series of small, disparate changes whose usefulness and relevance are sometimes highly debatable.
It is regrettable to see that this Pinel law is of the same ilk as Madame Duflot's Alur law, i.e. a self-righteous law that is not adapted to reality.
It is self-righteous because it strengthens the protection of shopkeepers, which is laudable but will end up doing them a disservice by creating an imbalance of rights and obligations between lessees and lessors. It should be noted that the legislator did not wait for Sylvia Pinel to lay down rules to ensure the long-term future of a retailer's business. Because of the significant rights it grants to the lessee, a commercial lease is a very heavy burden on the property, so much so that it is often referred to as commercial property.
A law that is out of step with reality, because it fails to take account of the specific features of the business world, the need to simplify the law and the inadequate financial resources of local authorities to meet the objectives of the law.
This reform distils a multitude of new and often superfluous provisions into an already dense system. It is therefore very time-consuming for professionals and parties to commercial leases to incorporate all these standards, and makes it difficult to understand the amended status.