You own a flat in Lyon, a cottage in the Dordogne or a studio in Paris, and the rent has stopped arriving. The tenant promises payment next month, then stops answering. As a British owner letting a French home after Brexit, you face a procedure that is strict, sequential and unforgiving of shortcuts: a formal demand with compulsory wording, a court hearing before a specific judge, a State notice, and only then — months later — a lawful eviction. Skip a step, or use the wrong form of words, and your case is thrown out and the clock restarts. This guide walks you through the exact route: the six-week commandement de payer (formal demand to pay served by a commissaire de justice, the enforcement officer formerly called huissier), the hearing before the juge des contentieux de la protection (the protection-litigation judge who hears residential letting cases), the two-month wait after the order to vacate, the winter truce, and the tax position on the rents you recover. Every decisive rule below is quoted from the statute or judgment that creates it, so you can check each step against the official text.
I. My French tenant has stopped paying — how do I force payment and end the lease?
French law does not allow a landlord to change the locks, cut off utilities or simply declare the lease over. The lease ends through the clause résolutoire, the termination clause that every residential lease must contain, and that clause only takes effect after a formal demand that follows Article 24 of the Law of 6 July 1989 to the letter. Since the reform of 27 July 2023, the timetable is six weeks, not two months — a change many British owners, and even some agents, still miss. Get the demand right and the court must record the termination; get it wrong and the demand is void (nulle) and everything built on it collapses.
A. The six-week formal demand: what the commandement de payer must say or it is void
Article 24 of the Law of 6 July 1989, the statute governing residential lettings, provides that every tenancy of a dwelling contains a clause giving automatic termination (résiliation de plein droit) for failure to pay rent or charges on the agreed dates, or for failure to pay the deposit. But the statute immediately adds the brake: “Cette clause ne produit effet que six semaines après un commandement de payer demeuré infructueux.” In plain terms, the termination clause produces no effect until six weeks after a formal demand to pay, served by a commissaire de justice, has gone unanswered. The general law of contract says the same thing in its own words: “La mise en demeure ne produit effet que si elle mentionne expressément la clause résolutoire.” A demand that does not expressly invoke the termination clause is legally weightless, and the background principle is stated in Article 1224 of the Civil Code: “La résolution résulte soit de l’application d’une clause résolutoire soit, en cas d’inexécution suffisamment grave, d’une notification du créancier au débiteur ou d’une décision de justice.”
The 2023 reform did more than shorten the period. It dictates the exact contents of the demand: “Le commandement de payer contient, à peine de nullité :” six items, and missing any one of them voids the document. The demand must state that “le locataire dispose d’un délai de six semaines pour payer sa dette”; give the monthly amount of rent and charges; give an itemised account (décompte) of the debt; warn that failure to pay or to ask for time to pay exposes the tenant to court proceedings for termination and eviction; give the address of the departmental housing solidarity fund (fonds de solidarité pour le logement); and tell the tenant that grace periods can be asked from the court at any time. The official Service-Public guide for tenants confirms the same six-week timetable from the other side of the fence (loyers impayés et expulsion du locataire). If your agent prepared the demand using an old template that still says two months, have it re-done: an outdated template is the single most common reason British landlords lose the first round.
Two further traps catch foreign owners in particular. First, if a guarantor (caution) guaranteed the lease — a parent, a bank guarantee, or the Visale scheme — the demand must be served on the guarantor “dans un délai de quinze jours à compter de sa signification au locataire”, failing which the guarantor cannot be pursued for penalties or late interest. Diarise the fifteen days from the date of service on the tenant, not from the date you learn of the arrears. Second, for individual landlords the demand triggers a social early-warning system: where the tenant has been continuously in arrears for two months, or the debt equals twice the monthly rent excluding charges, the enforcement officer must report the demand to the departmental commission for the prevention of evictions (CCAPEX). The statute describes the trigger as the situation where “le locataire est en situation d’impayé de loyer ou de charges locatives sans interruption depuis une durée de deux mois ou lorsque la dette de loyer ou de charges locatives du locataire est équivalente à deux fois le montant du loyer mensuel hors charges locatives”. A social and financial assessment (diagnostic social et financier) follows. This is not your enemy: a documented assessment showing a tenant who will not engage strengthens your file before the judge.
The courts read these time limits literally, which is precisely why you must too. In a residential case decided on 12 October 2023, the Third Civil Chamber of the Court of Cassation had to decide whether a pandemic-era suspension of termination clauses saved a tenant served during the health emergency. The Court refused to stretch the text by a single day: “Le report des effets des clauses résolutoires prévus par l’article 4 de l’ordonnance n° 2020-306 du 25 mars 2020 n’est applicable que lorsque le délai de deux mois laissé au locataire, destinataire d’un commandement de payer visant la clause résolutoire insérée au bail pour défaut de paiement du loyer ou des charges aux termes convenus, pour apurer sa dette, expire au cours de la période juridiquement protégée instituée entre le 12 mars et le 23 juin 2020.” That case (pourvoi No 22-19.117) was decided under the former two-month wording, but its lesson survives the 2023 reform intact: judges apply the statutory period exactly as written. Count six weeks from the date of service shown on the officer’s report, and do not file before it expires.
Practical checklist before the six weeks run out: instruct a commissaire de justice local to the property (your Paris lawyer can appoint one anywhere in France); verify the lease actually contains the termination clause and the monthly rent figure is correct; confirm the itemised account deducts any housing aid paid directly and any part-payments; serve the guarantor within fifteen days; and keep paying your own charges — co-ownership fees, insurance, property tax — because a landlord in breach on building safety or decency obligations hands the tenant a defence. If the tenant pays everything within the six weeks, the clause never takes effect and the lease continues; bank the lesson, consider rent-guarantee insurance (garantie des loyers impayés) for the future, and move on.
B. Taking the case to court: which judge, the State notice and the three-year payment plan
If the six weeks expire unpaid, the next step is a court summons (assignation) asking the judge to record (constater) that the termination clause has taken effect, order eviction, and award the arrears. Jurisdiction is fixed and cannot be contracted around: residential letting disputes belong to the juge des contentieux de la protection sitting at the tribunal judiciaire for the place where the property stands. The Judicial Organisation Code states that “Le juge des contentieux de la protection connaît des actions dont un contrat de louage d’immeubles à usage d’habitation ou un contrat portant sur l’occupation d’un logement est l’objet, la cause ou l’occasion”, and the same judge hears “des actions tendant à l’expulsion des personnes qui occupent aux fins d’habitation des immeubles bâtis sans droit ni titre”. For a British owner living in London, Manchester or Edinburgh, this means the case is always heard in France, near the flat — budget for representation by a French-bar lawyer and, if you wish to attend, for travel. Proceedings are in French; sworn translations of your English-language exhibits (bank statements, correspondence) avoid adjournments.
The summons itself carries a formality that sinks unprepared files: it must be notified to the State representative in the department (préfet) so that a social assessment can be completed before the hearing. The statute attaches the sanction of inadmissibility: the summons is notified “au représentant de l’Etat dans le département” and “au moins six semaines avant l’audience”, “A peine d’irrecevabilité de la demande”. Your enforcement officer handles this electronically, and the appointed body prepares the diagnostic social et financier, hearing both sides, and sends it to the judge before the hearing. Build this into your timetable: six weeks for the demand, plus at least six weeks between the summons and the hearing, plus the court’s own listing delay. From first arrears to judgment, six to nine months is realistic in a busy court such as Paris, Bobigny or Lyon.
At the hearing, expect the tenant to ask for time to pay. The Civil Code gives every judge a general power to “reporter ou échelonner, dans la limite de deux années, le paiement des sommes dues”, taking account of the debtor’s situation and the creditor’s needs. In residential arrears cases the special statute goes further: the judge may “accorder des délais de paiement dans la limite de trois années”, provided the tenant is in a position to clear the debt and has resumed paying the full current rent before the hearing date. In practice this means a tenant who re-starts paying the rent and offers a credible repayment schedule will usually obtain a suspension of the termination clause for up to three years — and if the schedule is kept, the clause never takes effect. Do not treat this as defeat: a court-approved schedule converts a non-paying tenant into a paying one under judicial supervision, with eviction revived automatically on default. Oppose schedules that are manifestly unrealistic by producing the rent ledger, proof of repeated broken promises, and evidence of the tenant’s means where you have it. The judge may also verify of his own motion every element of the debt and your compliance with the property’s decency obligations, so arrive with a clean file: the lease, the rent account from day one, the demand and its proof of service, the guarantor’s service, and proof that the dwelling meets the decency standard.
If instead you want the property back for yourself or to sell with vacant possession, the arrears route is usually faster than a termination notice (congé), but the congé pour reprise deserves a word because many British owners reaching retirement consider moving into their French flat. A landlord’s notice to repossess for personal occupation must state its ground and, for repossession, the name and address of the beneficiary — and the sanction is absolute nullity. The Court of Cassation recalled the formula on 19 December 2019 (pourvoi No 18-20.854): “A peine de nullité, le congé donné par le bailleur doit indiquer le motif allégué et, en cas de reprise, les nom et adresse du bénéficiaire de la reprise”. The same judgment illustrates how strictly courts apply successive statutes over time: “la loi n’ayant point d’effet rétroactif, l’article 15, I de la loi du 6 juillet 1989, dans sa rédaction issue de la loi du 24 mars 2014, n’est pas applicable à un congé délivré avant son entrée en vigueur”. Serve a congé under the law as it stands on the day of service, name the beneficiary precisely (yourself, spouse, civil partner, partner, parent or child), and check the official Service-Public notice guide for the current notice periods and the protections for elderly low-income tenants before you act: Préavis et formalités du congé donné par le propriétaire. Where arrears already exist, most practitioners run the termination-clause action first and keep the congé as a second string.
II. How do I actually get the flat back — and what does the taxman take?
Judgment in hand is not possession. French enforcement law separates the judicial finding from the physical eviction by further delays, a State interview, and a winter ban — and alongside the procedure runs the tax file, because recovered arrears and future rents are taxable in France, with a parallel declaration to consider in Britain. Owners who plan both tracks together recover more and re-let sooner.
A. Eviction after judgment: the two-month wait, the winter truce and the prefect
The starting rule is simple and absolute: “Sauf disposition spéciale, l’expulsion d’un immeuble ou d’un lieu habité ne peut être poursuivie qu’en vertu d’une décision de justice ou d’un procès-verbal de conciliation exécutoire et après signification d’un commandement d’avoir à libérer les locaux.” No court order, no eviction; no commandement de quitter les lieux (order to vacate served by the enforcement officer), no eviction. Self-help — changing locks, removing doors, cutting power — exposes you to criminal liability and damages, however extreme the arrears. Once the judgment is served with the order to vacate, a second clock starts: where the eviction concerns a place lived in by the person evicted, “elle ne peut avoir lieu qu’à l’expiration d’un délai de deux mois qui suit le commandement”. Do not confuse this with the six-week payment period in Article 24: the six weeks protect the tenant before judgment, the two months protect the occupant after judgment. The judge can reduce or remove the two months in narrow cases, notably bad faith, but never assume it.
Then comes the calendar. Winter truce (trêve hivernale): “il est sursis à toute mesure d’expulsion non exécutée à la date du 1er novembre de chaque année jusqu’au 31 mars de l’année suivante”, unless the occupants are rehoused in conditions preserving family unity and needs. An eviction scheduled for late October that slips for any reason — an appeal, an administrative delay, a missing document — waits until April. Factor the truce into every decision: filing in spring gives the procedure a chance to conclude before November; filing in September against a defended case almost guarantees a winter pause. Separately, before any forced eviction with police assistance, the enforcement officer must seek the prefect’s authorisation (concours de la force publique), and the prefect can grant delays for rehousing. If the prefect refuses assistance, the State owes you compensation for the resulting loss — a claim your lawyer quantifies from the judgment debt and the lost rents, filed first as a claim for compensation (recours indemnitaire) and, if refused, before the administrative court.
Tenants have two classic last-minute defences, and your file should pre-empt both. The first is the grace-period request under Article 1343-5 of the Civil Code, which suspends enforcement while granted — counter it as described above with the ledger and evidence of bad faith or serial default. The second is an appeal or a stay: an appeal does not automatically suspend eviction where the judgment ordered provisional enforcement (exécution provisoire), which first-instance eviction judgments routinely carry — check that yours does. If the tenant has already left for England or elsewhere, do not abandon the arrears: the judgment is enforceable against French assets (deposit, bank accounts, wages earned in France) through attachment, and recovery abroad follows the enforcement rules of the country where the assets sit, under the France-UK framework that replaced Brussels I bis. Our firm’s guide to the France-UK double tax treaty and cross-border claims explains how residence, relief and recovery interact for British owners. Throughout, keep every proof of service: French courts verify the chain — demand, summons, State notice, judgment, order to vacate — and a missing link voids what follows.
B. Recovering arrears, declaring the rent in France and letting again lawfully
Money first. The judgment orders the arrears, contractual interest, and usually an occupation payment (indemnité d’occupation) equal to the rent until actual departure. Enforce it by attachment of the tenant’s bank account (saisie-attribution), attachment of wages (saisie des rémunérations), or recovery from the guarantor duly served within the fifteen-day limit. Where the tenant is insolvent, the debt can be declared in over-indebtedness proceedings (surendettement), where the judge’s three-year schedule under Article 24 may interact with the commission’s measures — take advice before writing anything off, because rental debts survive many restructurings in part. Any rent-guarantee insurer pays under the policy terms and is subrogated to your rights; notify it at the first missed payment, not at judgment, since late notification is the standard ground for refusing cover.
Tax follows the money. Rents from an unfurnished French letting are taxable in France as property income. Article 14 of the General Tax Code provides that “sont compris dans la catégorie des revenus fonciers”, including “Les revenus des propriétés bâties, telles que maisons et usines”, and the tax authority applies that category to non-residents letting unfurnished French property (see the international guidance for non-resident landlords). Two regimes exist. Under the micro-regime, which the guidance opens to non-residents whose 2025 gross property income per tax household stays at or below 15,000 euros excluding charges, you simply report the gross on return 2042 (box 4BE) with no annexe 2044, and a 30 per cent flat allowance for charges is applied automatically to give the taxable amount (same guidance). Above that line, or by election, the actual-expenses regime (régime réel) applies with return 2044, deducting works, management fees, insurance and loan interest. Social levies (prélèvements sociaux) apply on top of income tax for most British owners since Brexit, subject to the treaty and to affiliation to another EEA/Swiss health scheme where relevant — verify your S1 and affiliation position before assuming an exemption. On the British side, declare the same rents to HM Revenue and Customs and claim treaty relief there: the UK taxes its residents on worldwide income and gives credit for French tax under the France-UK treaty (see GOV.UK — Tax on foreign income). Keep the French assessment, the ledger and the judgment together: they are the proof HMRC will ask for.
Re-letting lawfully closes the loop. Re-advertise at a lawful rent (Paris, Lyon, Lille and other tight zones apply rent caps — encadrement des loyers — with the reference rent set by prefectoral order each year); prepare the mandatory technical file (dossier de diagnostic technique: energy performance, lead, gas, electricity, noise); take a deposit within the legal ceiling and return it within the statutory period after the inventory of fixtures (état des lieux) comparison; and insure the gap with a rent-guarantee policy or a compliant individual guarantor rather than stacked cumulative guarantees, which the statute restricts. If you engaged a letting agent (administrateur de biens), give written management authority and require monthly reporting plus immediate notice of any missed payment — the six-week clock runs from service, and every week lost before instructing the enforcement officer is a week added to an unpaid occupation. For owners in Paris and the inner suburbs, where court lists are longest and bailiff fees highest, a local agent plus a Paris-bar lawyer is not a luxury but the difference between a nine-month procedure and an eighteen-month one.
Conclusion
A British landlord in France holds exactly the same legal weapons as a French one — the compulsory termination clause, the protection-litigation judge, attachment of debts and earnings — but the procedure grants no indulgence to distance, language or unfamiliarity. Serve a demand that states the six-week period, the monthly rent, the itemised debt, the warning, the solidarity-fund address and the right to ask for grace, or it is void. Serve the guarantor within fifteen days. Notify the prefect at least six weeks before the hearing. Expect the tenant’s request for up to three years to pay, and defeat only the unrealistic ones. After judgment, respect the two-month wait and the 1 November–31 March truce, enforce the arrears by attachment, declare the rents in France under the micro or actual regime, and claim your treaty credit in Britain. Each link in that chain is a decided rule with a quoted text — which is why files prepared against the official wording succeed, and improvised ones restart at zero.