BOOK I: Commerce in general.

Notwithstanding any clause to the contrary, any contract or agreement by which the owner or operator of a business or craft establishment wholly or partly leases it to a manager who operates it at his own risk is governed by the provisions of this chapter.

The tenant-manager has the status of a trader. He is subject to all the obligations arising therefrom. When the business is a craft establishment, the tenant-manager is registered as a business in the trades and crafts sector in the national register of businesses and is subject to all the obligations arising therefrom.

At the time of the management lease, the debts of the lessor of the business relating to the operation of the business may be declared immediately payable by the commercial court for the location of the business, if it considers that the management lease jeopardises their recovery. The action must be brought, on pain of foreclosure, within three months of publication of the management contract in a medium authorised to…

Until the management lease contract is published, the lessor of the business is jointly and severally liable with the managing lessee for any debts contracted by the latter in connection with the operation of the business.

Article L. 144-7 does not apply to management leases entered into by court-appointed agents, charged in any capacity whatsoever with the administration of a business, provided that they have been authorised for the purposes of the said leases by the authority from which they derive their mandate and that they have complied with the publicity measures provided for. .

The end of the management lease immediately renders payable the debts relating to the operation of the business or craft establishment, contracted by the tenant-manager during the management period.

Any management lease contract or any other agreement containing similar clauses, granted by the owner or operator of a business that does not meet the conditions provided for in the above articles, is null and void. However, the contracting parties may not invoke such nullity against third parties. The nullity provided for in the preceding paragraph shall entail for the contracting parties the forfeiture of any rights they may have…

If the management lease contract includes a sliding scale clause, the revision of the rent may, notwithstanding any agreement to the contrary, be requested whenever, as a result of the operation of this clause, this rent is increased or decreased by more than a quarter in relation to the price previously fixed contractually or by court decision. If one of the elements used to calculate the sliding scale clause disappears,…

The party wishing to request the revision must notify the other party by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt or by extrajudicial act. In the absence of an amicable agreement, the proceedings shall be brought and judged in accordance with the provisions laid down for the revision of the price of leases of buildings or premises for commercial or industrial use. The judge must, taking into account all the elements…

The provisions of articles L. 144-11 and L. 144-12 do not apply to leasing transactions relating to goodwill or craft businesses mentioned in 3° of l’article 1er de la loi n° 66-455 du 2 juillet 1966 relative aux entreprises pratiquant le crédit-bail. The provisions of Article L. 144-9 do not apply where the lessee-manager who has leased a business or a craft establishment under a finance lease exercises the purchase…