Do French renovation grants need to be repaid?
Payments are typically made directly to tradespeople rather than homeowners
The government has recently prioritised a crackdown on fraud relating to energy efficiency grants,
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If we are given grants from the government for energy renovation projects on our home, will we have to repay them when we sell it?
No, you will not have to repay the grants.
Though they are designed to improve the efficiency of France’s housing stock, it is important to note that only a proportion of energy renovation costs are covered by the funding.
Payments are typically made directly to the tradespeople carrying out the work, after homeowners have confirmed that the job has been completed. Tradespeople must be officially registered and hold an RGE (Reconnu garant de l’environnement) certificate.
The government has recently prioritised a crackdown on fraud relating to energy efficiency grants, after recognising that parts of the system were being abused.
Approximately 16% of accepted grant requests in 2024 were audited by inspectors, leading to the identification of 21,439 cases of attempted fraud prior to payment. As a result, €174million was saved.
Almost all the fraud was committed by tradespeople, not homeowners.
There have also been cases in which tradespeople have been taken to court for fraud, fined, and ordered to repay grants that the courts found had been wrongly awarded.
These are the only likely circumstances in which approved grants are either not paid or the state seeks to recover some of the funding.
Anah (Agence nationale de l’habitat), the agency responsible for energy renovation, has implemented additional measures to reassure homeowners of the grant system’s security, including enhanced IT security to reduce the risk of grant accounts being created fraudulently in an individual’s name without their knowledge.
It has also introduced a ‘name and shame’ policy when attempts to defraud are detected, and has made it compulsory for those advertising energy renovation projects to include details of the advice agency France Rénov’ in their promotional material.
Following structural reforms, the agency’s administration of energy advisers is now carried out at local level, rather than nationally.
