Si le préavis change, l’agence devra reporter l’état des lieux.

In French, after si meaning if, you normally do not use the future tense for a real condition.

So French says:

• Si le préavis change, ...
• literally: If the notice period changes, ...

Then the main clause can use the future:

• ..., l’agence devra ...

This is a very common pattern:

• Si tu viens, je serai content.
  = If you come, I’ll be happy.

So the structure here is:

• si + present tense
• future in the main clause

Préavis usually means notice or notice period.

In housing or employment contexts, it often refers to the amount of notice that must be given before leaving, ending a contract, moving out, and so on.

So in this sentence, le préavis is probably the required notice period connected to the rental situation.

A learner should be careful not to assume it always means a vague warning. In practical French, it often has a formal or legal sense.

Because agence starts with a vowel sound, la becomes l’ before it.

This is called elision.

So:

• la agence → not correct
• l’agence → correct

The same thing happens with many words:

• l’école
• l’homme
• l’entreprise

Even though agence is feminine, French still uses l’ before a vowel.

Devra is the simple future form of devoir for il / elle / on.

Here, the subject is l’agence, so French uses the third-person singular future:

• devoir = to have to / must
• l’agence devra = the agency will have to / must

A quick comparison:

• je devrai = I will have to
• tu devras = you will have to
• il / elle devra = he/she/it will have to
• nous devrons = we will have to

So devra does not mean should here. It means something stronger: will have to.

No. In this sentence, reporter means to postpone, to put back, or to reschedule.

So:

• reporter une réunion = to postpone a meeting
• reporter un rendez-vous = to reschedule an appointment

That makes reporter a word learners often misunderstand, because it looks like the English verb to report.

If you want to report in the sense of giving information, French often uses other verbs depending on context, such as signaler, rapporter, or faire un rapport.

Here, reporter l’état des lieux means to postpone/reschedule the inspection.

L’état des lieux is a fixed expression, especially common in housing and rentals.

It refers to the official inspection or inventory of the condition of a property, often done:

• when someone moves in
• when someone moves out

Literally, it means something like the state of the place(s), but in real usage it is best understood as a rental inspection or property condition report.

Even though lieux is plural, the whole expression is treated as a standard set phrase:

• faire un état des lieux
• reporter l’état des lieux
• signer l’état des lieux

This is because état des lieux is an established expression.

Historically and structurally, des here is part of the phrase meaning something like state of the premises / place. You should really learn état des lieux as one chunk, rather than trying to build it word by word every time.

French has several expressions like this where the most natural approach is to memorize the whole phrase.

So for learners, the best rule is:

• learn l’état des lieux as a fixed term used in renting/property contexts

Because si in a normal conditional sentence takes the indicative, not the subjunctive.

So:

• Si le préavis change, ... → correct

French uses the subjunctive after certain triggers like emotion, doubt, necessity, or specific conjunctions, but si meaning if is not one of them in this kind of sentence.

That is why change here is just the regular present indicative form of changer.

Because French sentence order here is straightforward:

• l’agence = subject
• devra = conjugated verb
• reporter = infinitive
• l’état des lieux = object

This is the normal pattern when using a conjugated modal-like verb plus an infinitive:

• L’agence devra reporter l’état des lieux.
• subject + future of devoir
  • infinitive + object

You see the same structure in sentences like:

• Je vais partir.
• Nous pouvons commencer.
• Elle doit attendre.

So once devoir is conjugated, the next verb stays in the infinitive: reporter.

Yes. In fact, will have to is often the most natural way to understand devra.

• l’agence devra reporter... can be understood as
• the agency will have to postpone/reschedule...

English must is possible, but will have to often matches the French future of devoir more naturally.

So if a learner is trying to connect the grammar:

• devra = future of must/have to
• very often best rendered as will have to

Yes, but not in this sentence.

French si can mean:

1. if
   
   • Si le préavis change...

and in some contexts:

2. whether
   
   • Je ne sais pas si elle vient.
     = I don’t know whether she’s coming.

Here, though, it is clearly the conditional if introducing a condition for what the agency will do.