I. Your French Tenancy Agreement and Deposit: What a British Tenant Must Check Before Signing and After Leaving

Renting a flat in France feels familiar until the paperwork lands on the table. The lease, called a bail, runs for three years if the flat is unfurnished and one year if it is furnished, and it renews by itself unless somebody serves formal notice. The inventory of condition, called the état des lieux, is compared line by line on the way in and on the way out, and every scratch that was not written down on arrival can be charged to you on departure. The security deposit, called the dépôt de garantie, looks like an English deposit but obeys French deadlines and a French penalty of ten per cent of the monthly rent for every month of delay. This guide is written for a British tenant settling in France after Brexit, whether you rent a studio in Paris while you look for a house, or a family flat in Lyon, Bordeaux or Lille for the long term. It explains the lease you sign, the deposit you must recover, the repairs your landlord owes you, and the eviction notice, called a congé, that you can challenge. Every French term is explained when it first appears, every decisive rule is quoted from the statute or the case law, and every remedy ends with the judge who grants it and the paper that starts it.

A. French Rental Contract, État des Lieux and Guarantor: the Checks That Protect Your Deposit Before You Sign

Start with the lease itself. An unfurnished letting of a home used as your main residence, called a location vide, lasts three years and a furnished letting, called a location meublée, lasts one year, and both renew automatically unless the landlord serves a congé or you give your own notice to leave. The contents of the lease are not open to negotiation. Article 3 of the Act of 6 July 1989 lists what the contract must contain, from the description of the flat to the amount of the rent, and anything missing from that list is a weapon you keep for later. Read the lease with that list beside you, because a clause that contradicts the statute is simply unenforceable against you. Article 4 of the same Act wipes out abusive clauses, and French courts apply that provision without hesitation to penalty clauses, automatic charges for drafting the lease, or clauses that impose the landlord’s own insurance on you. If your Paris estate agent tells you that a clause is standard practice, the answer is that standard practice does not survive Article 4.

Then comes the état des lieux, the inventory of condition drawn up on arrival and again on departure. British tenants often treat it as a formality and sign it in five minutes. In France it is the central piece of evidence for everything about the deposit, the repairs and the alleged damage, and the comparison between the two documents decides who pays for what. Insist that every mark, every stain, every tired seal and every ill-fitting window is written down and photographed, because the departure document will be read against the arrival document and silence favours the landlord. If the landlord refuses a joint inspection, the statute provides the answer. As the Court of Cassation recalled in its decision of 16 November 2023, Cass. 3rd civ., 16 November 2023, no. 22-19.422: “si l’état des lieux ne peut être établi contradictoirement et amiablement par les parties ou par un tiers mandaté par elle, il est établi par un huissier de justice, devenu commissaire de justice, sur l’initiative de la partie la plus diligente, à frais partagés par moitié entre le bailleur et le locataire.” In plain English, either side can call in a commissaire de justice, the court officer formerly called a huissier, and the cost is split equally. Never accept an inventory drawn up alone by the landlord after you have left. In that same decision the Court held that “un état des lieux de sortie établi unilatéralement par le bailleur, sans recours à un commissaire de justice, et dont le défaut de contradiction est dû à sa carence, ne peut faire la preuve de dégradations imputables au locataire.” A one-sided departure inventory, drawn up because the landlord was too idle to organise a proper one, proves nothing against you.

The third check before signing is the guarantor, called the garant or caution. A British newcomer rarely has three French payslips and a French tax notice, called an avis d’imposition, so landlords in Paris routinely ask for a Garantme file, a Visale guarantee or a bank guarantee, or for six to twelve months of rent in advance, which you should refuse beyond what the statute allows. Remember the ceiling that protects you from the first day. Article 22 of the Act of 6 July 1989 provides: “Lorsqu’un dépôt de garantie est prévu par le contrat de location pour garantir l’exécution de ses obligations locatives par le locataire, il ne peut être supérieur à un mois de loyer en principal.” One month of rent excluding charges, called un mois de loyer en principal, is the maximum for an unfurnished letting, and the deposit can never be increased during the lease or at renewal. Any demand above that ceiling is unlawful, however politely the agency phrases it.

Two Paris points deserve attention at this stage. First, Paris applies a local rent-cap framework, so a rent wildly above comparable flats in the same street can be challenged, and the local tenants’ advice association, ADIL 75, will tell you whether your rent respects the cap before you sign. Second, if you arrive with a long-stay visa and need a French address to complete your residence permit paperwork, remember that the lease is also an administrative asset: keep the signed lease, the état des lieux d’entrée and every rent receipt, called quittance de loyer, because the préfecture asks for proof of address at every renewal. Readers who are still organising their visa and first carte de séjour will find the residence side of the move explained in our guide for British newcomers on French visas, cartes de séjour and challenging a refusal, which pairs naturally with this tenancy guide.

B. Deposit Not Returned After the État des Lieux de Sortie: Deadlines, Proof and the 10 Per Cent Monthly Penalty

The most common dispute for British tenants is also the simplest: the keys were handed back months ago and the deposit has not come back. French law answers with two deadlines, and the comparison of the two états des lieux decides which one applies. Article 22 of the Act of 6 July 1989 provides: “Il est restitué dans un délai maximal d’un mois à compter de la remise des clés par le locataire lorsque l’état des lieux de sortie est conforme à l’état des lieux d’entrée”. One month from the return of the keys when the departure inventory matches the arrival inventory. Where the two documents differ, the same article continues: “Il est restitué dans un délai maximal de deux mois à compter de la remise en main propre, ou par lettre recommandée avec demande d’avis de réception, des clés au bailleur ou à son mandataire”. Two months from the handover of the keys in person or by registered letter. The official English-language guidance on service-public.fr confirms both deadlines and the penalty below, which is useful to quote back to an agency that pretends the rules are different for foreigners.

Deductions are where deposits evaporate, so the burden of proof matters enormously. The statute allows the landlord to deduct only sums that remain due and sums for which he is liable in your place, and only where they are duly justified, called dûment justifiées. In practice that means unpaid rent shown by a ledger, called décompte, and damage shown by comparing the two inventories plus invoices or estimates, called devis ou factures. A global invoice for gardening that does not separate the neglected flowerbeds from the rest will not do, a photograph taken by the landlord alone after your departure will not do, and a list of wear that is really ordinary wear and tear, called vétusté, will not do. Ordinary wear and tear stays with the landlord and can never be charged to the deposit. If you live in a block of flats, called un immeuble collectif, the landlord may keep a provision of up to twenty per cent of the deposit until the annual building accounts are approved, but he must then settle the final balance within the month following that approval, and you can always agree to settle everything immediately instead of waiting.

When the deadline passes, the penalty runs by itself. Article 22 of the Act of 6 July 1989 states: “A défaut de restitution dans les délais prévus, le dépôt de garantie restant dû au locataire est majoré d’une somme égale à 10 % du loyer mensuel en principal, pour chaque période mensuelle commencée en retard.” Ten per cent of the monthly rent excluding charges for every month of delay begun, automatically, without any formal notice. The only escape for the landlord is where you failed to give your new address when returning the keys: “Cette majoration n’est pas due lorsque l’origine du défaut de restitution dans les délais résulte de l’absence de transmission par le locataire de l’adresse de son nouveau domicile.” Always leave your new address in writing on the day you return the keys, ideally in the departure inventory itself and again by email, because agencies lose paper with remarkable regularity. And do not let the landlord stop the clock with a trick. On 12 February 2026 the Court of Cassation held that sending a cheque is not paying: the landlord who posted a cheque that was never received and never cashed had not returned the deposit at all, and the ten per cent monthly increase kept running. Cass. 3rd civ., 12 February 2026, no. 24-21.258 states: “Il résulte du second qu’à défaut de restitution dans le délai de deux mois à compter de la remise des clés, le dépôt de garantie restant dû au locataire est majoré d’une somme égale à 10 % du loyer mensuel principal, pour chaque période mensuelle commencée en retard et que la majoration court de plein droit à l’issue du délai de deux mois suivant la remise des clés.” The increase runs as of right, called de plein droit, from the expiry of the two months. If your former landlord claims he sent a cheque you never saw, the answer is the same: a cheque that never reached your account is not restitution, and every month begun adds another ten per cent.

The procedure for recovering the money is graduated and cheap. Start with a formal demand by registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt, called lettre recommandée avec accusé de réception, giving notice to return the deposit plus the monthly increases. If nothing moves, seize the departmental conciliation board, called the commission départementale de conciliation, which hears these disputes without any filing fee and is designed exactly for this. Article 20 of the Act of 6 July 1989 provides: “Il est créé, auprès du représentant de l’Etat dans chaque département, une commission départementale de conciliation composée de représentants d’organisations de bailleurs et d’organisations de locataires, en nombre égal. La commission rend un avis dans le délai de deux mois à compter de sa saisine et s’efforce de concilier les parties.” Its jurisdiction expressly covers “Les litiges relatifs à l’état des lieux, au dépôt de garantie, aux charges locatives et aux réparations”, so your deposit dispute is its core business, and its opinion, called avis, often unlocks payment without a court. If conciliation fails, the claim goes to the housing judge, called the juge des contentieux de la protection, at the tribunal judiciaire of the place where the flat is situated, so in Paris the tribunal judiciaire de Paris. Deposit claims below the ceiling for simplified procedure move quickly there, and the ten per cent increases plus interest are ordered as a matter of course once the dates are proved by your key-handover receipt and your letters.

II. Staying in the Home: Repairs, Unpaid Rent and How to Challenge a Congé or an Expulsion

A. Landlord Refuses Repairs or Lets an Unfit Flat: Decent Housing, Court Orders and Rent Suspension

British tenants are often surprised by how much French law puts on the landlord. The starting point is the Civil Code itself. Article 1719 of the Civil Code provides: “Le bailleur est obligé, par la nature du contrat, et sans qu’il soit besoin d’aucune stipulation particulière : 1° De délivrer au preneur la chose louée et, s’il s’agit de son habitation principale, un logement décent.” The landlord must deliver a decent home, called un logement décent, fit for living in, and must maintain it in a condition suited to the agreed use and let you enjoy it peacefully. Article 6 of the Act of 6 July 1989 spells out what decent means today: “Le bailleur est tenu de remettre au locataire un logement décent ne laissant pas apparaître de risques manifestes pouvant porter atteinte à la sécurité physique ou à la santé, exempt de toute infestation d’espèces nuisibles et parasites, répondant à un niveau de performance minimal au sens de l’article L. 173-1-1 du code de la construction et de l’habitation et doté des éléments le rendant conforme à l’usage d’habitation.” No manifest risks to health or safety, no infestation, a minimum energy performance, and the fittings that make a home a home. The energy performance diagnosis, called the diagnostic de performance énergétique or DPE, which Article L. 126-26 of the Construction and Housing Code defines around measured or estimated energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, must be handed to you with the lease, and the worst-rated flats are progressively banned from new lettings. If the DPE attached to your lease shows one of the worst ratings, ask ADIL or a lawyer immediately, because the landlord may have let you a flat he had no right to let.

Your own obligations mirror the landlord’s and are worth knowing so that no repair dispute is turned against you. Article 7 of the Act of 6 July 1989 provides: “Le locataire est obligé : a) De payer le loyer et les charges récupérables aux termes convenus”, and it continues with the peaceful enjoyment of the premises, liability for damage occurring during the tenancy, routine repairs, called réparations locatives, and home insurance, called assurance habitation. Take out home insurance from the first day and keep every certificate, because the landlord can terminate for lack of insurance and because the Civil Code makes tenants answerable for fire. Article 1733 of the Civil Code provides: “Il répond de l’incendie, à moins qu’il ne prouve : Que l’incendie est arrivé par cas fortuit ou force majeure, ou par vice de construction.” Without proof of accident, force majeure or a building defect, the tenant answers for fire damage, which is why French leases universally require insurance and why you should never let the policy lapse.

When the landlord does nothing about a leaking roof, a dead boiler in January, mould that keeps returning or wiring that trips the whole flat, do not stop paying the rent on your own initiative, because withholding rent without a court order exposes you to termination for arrears. The correct sequence is a registered letter describing each defect, setting a deadline and warning of court action, then, if nothing moves, an application to the juge des contentieux de la protection asking for works, a rent reduction and, where the flat is indecent, suspension of the rent until the works are done, with or without payment into court, called consignation. The judge fixes the nature of the works and the deadline, can cut the rent in the meantime, and must send his order to the préfet where the flat fails the decent-housing standard, which concentrates the landlord’s mind wonderfully. In the most serious cases the courts go further and protect the tenant against eviction itself. On 4 June 2026 the Court of Cassation quashed an eviction ordered after a congé for serious and legitimate reason where the studio measured only 8.84 square metres and had already been judicially declared indecent. Cass. 3rd civ., 4 June 2026, no. 24-16.993 holds: “ne constitue pas un motif légitime et sérieux de congé la réalisation de travaux par le bailleur destinés à remédier à l’indécence du logement dont il avait connaissance lors de la conclusion du bail.” Works to cure an unfitness the landlord already knew about when he signed the lease are not a serious and legitimate reason to end it. The Court recalled in the same decision the bedrock rule from Article 1719 of the Civil Code: “Lorsque des locaux loués à usage d’habitation sont impropres à cet usage, le bailleur ne peut se prévaloir de la nullité du bail ou de sa résiliation pour demander l’expulsion de l’occupant.” A landlord who lets an unfit home cannot use the nullity or the termination of the lease to throw you out of it. For a British tenant shown a charming 9-square-metre chambre de bonne under the eaves of a Paris building, that ruling is worth more than any charm offensive: measure the main room, check the DPE, and refuse any flat that cannot lawfully be lived in.

B. Eviction Notice, Congé pour Vendre or Rent Arrears in France: the Winter Truce, Delays and How to Challenge

The letter every tenant fears in France is the congé, the notice by which the landlord refuses renewal at the end of the lease. For an unfurnished flat the landlord must give six months’ notice before the end of the three-year term, and the congé is valid only if it relies on one of three grounds: repossession for himself or a close relative, called reprise pour habiter, sale of the flat, called congé pour vendre, or a serious and legitimate reason, called motif légitime et sérieux, most often persistent arrears. The Court of Cassation restated the rule on 12 October 2023 in Cass. 3rd civ., 12 October 2023, no. 22-18.580: “lorsque le bailleur donne congé à son locataire, ce congé doit être justifié soit par sa décision de reprendre ou de vendre le logement, soit par un motif légitime et sérieux, notamment l’inexécution par le locataire de l’une des obligations lui incombant.” Every congé must state its ground, and a congé for repossession must name the beneficiary and the family link, failing which it is void, called nul. The same decision adds: “Le délai de préavis applicable au congé est de six mois lorsqu’il émane du bailleur.” Six months when it comes from the landlord, against one month or three months when notice comes from you depending on the area and your situation.

A congé pour vendre carries a right of first refusal, called droit de préemption, for the sitting tenant: the offer to sell must be served with the congé at a stated price, and you have two months to accept or refuse, then a further two months to complete if you accept. Check the price against comparable sales in the building and the street, because an inflated price designed to make you decline can be evidence that the sale ground is a sham. A congé pour habiter must reflect a genuine intention to live in the flat as a main home, and the courts verify that intention. In the October 2023 decision the Court approved judges who examined electoral registration, building works invoices and utility contracts to test whether a widower returning to his home region genuinely meant to live in the repossessed flat, The Court added that “le juge peut, même d’office, vérifier la réalité du motif du congé” (Cass. 3rd civ., 12 October 2023, no. 22-18.580). The judge can verify on his own motion, called d’office, whether the ground is real. If the landlord relets or sells within a short time after a congé pour habiter, keep every advertisement, every photograph and every testimony, because a fraudulent congé, called congé frauduleux, opens a claim for damages and, in some configurations, a challenge to the eviction that followed. A British tenant who receives a congé six months after moving in should therefore never assume resistance is futile: demand the exact ground, check the names and the deadlines, and put the file before the conciliation board and then the judge.

Unpaid rent follows a separate track built around the termination clause, called the clause résolutoire. Article 24 of the Act of 6 July 1989 provides: “Tout contrat de bail d’habitation contient une clause prévoyant la résiliation de plein droit du contrat de location pour défaut de paiement du loyer ou des charges aux termes convenus ou pour non-versement du dépôt de garantie. Cette clause ne produit effet que six semaines après un commandement de payer demeuré infructueux.” Every lease contains automatic termination for unpaid rent or charges, but it takes effect only six weeks after a formal demand to pay, called commandement de payer, that has gone unanswered. That demand must contain, on pain of nullity, the six-week warning, the monthly rent and charges, the itemised debt, the warning of court termination and expulsion, and the details of the solidarity housing fund, called the fonds de solidarité pour le logement, which can grant emergency aid. The moment you receive a commandement de payer, apply to that fund through your département, ask the landlord in writing for a payment plan, called plan d’apurement, and see an advice centre, because paying or obtaining time within the six weeks stops the clause from operating. Even after the clause has operated, only a judge can order expulsion, and the judge can still grant grace periods, called délais de paiement, of up to three years where your situation allows recovery, so attend every hearing with proof of income, proof of job-seeking or medical evidence as appropriate.

Where an eviction judgment exists, French law still slows the bailiff down. No removal from an occupied home can occur until two months after the order to leave, called commandement de quitter les lieux. Article L. 412-1 of the Code of Civil Enforcement Procedures provides that “elle ne peut avoir lieu qu’à l’expiration d’un délai de deux mois qui suit le commandement”. The enforcement judge can extend that period: Article L. 412-2 of the same Code states that “le délai prévu à l’article L. 412-1 peut être prorogé par le juge pour une durée n’excédant pas trois mois” where expulsion would cause exceptionally harsh consequences, considering the season or the weather. Then comes the winter truce, called the trêve hivernale, which suspends all unexecuted expulsions from 1 November to 31 March. Article L. 412-6 of the same Code provides: “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, à moins que le relogement des intéressés soit assuré dans des conditions suffisantes respectant l’unité et les besoins de la famille.” No eviction without rehousing that respects the unity and needs of the family. For a British family with children in a Paris school, these delays are not technicalities: they are the months in which the fund, the mairie, the préfecture and the judge assemble a solution, from social housing applications to supervised repayment plans. Squatters and violent partners are excluded from these protections, but an ordinary tenant in arrears is fully covered.

A final Paris note closes this part. Eviction and deposit cases for Paris flats go to the tribunal judiciaire de Paris, where the juge des contentieux de la protection sits, and the Paris conciliation board hears the same deposit, charges, repair and congé disputes as everywhere else, with filings that cost nothing. The board’s two-month opinion regularly settles congé disputes where the ground is thin, and judges in Paris see fraudulent-congé patterns often enough to recognise them. Build your file as a Paris judge expects: the lease, both états des lieux with photographs, every quittance, every registered letter with its green receipt, the commandement and its date, proof of your payments since, and a short chronology in French with dates. A British tenant who arrives with that bundle is treated exactly like a French tenant, which is precisely the point: after Brexit your passport changed the visa rules, but inside a French lease you hold the same rights as any tenant, and the same judges enforce them.

Conclusion

A French tenancy rewards the tenant who writes everything down and observes every deadline. Sign nothing without checking the lease against the statute, photograph every corner of the état des lieux, cap the deposit at one month, and leave your new address in writing with the keys. After departure, count one month for a matching inventory and two months otherwise, then claim the ten per cent monthly increase for every month begun, because it runs as of right and a lost cheque changes nothing. During the tenancy, demand a decent home in the terms the statutes use, insure it from day one, and answer every defect with a registered letter before asking the judge for works, a rent reduction or suspension. Against a congé, test the ground, the names and the six months; against arrears, use the six weeks of the commandement to pay, seek aid or agree a plan; against an eviction order, invoke the two months, the judicial extension and the winter truce from November to March. Each of these shields has been tested in the Court of Cassation within the last three years, and each is available to a British tenant on exactly the same terms as a French one. Keep the papers, meet the dates, and the French lease becomes what it was designed to be: a secure home while you build your life in France.