You own a flat in France, you live in London, Manchester or Edinburgh, and you let that flat to a tenant who lives there all year round with their own furniture. That arrangement is called a location vide, an unfurnished letting, and it is the most tightly regulated letting in French law. Since Brexit changed nothing in the substance of landlord and tenant law, the same statute that binds a Parisian landlord binds you: the Act of 6 July 1989 (loi n° 89-462 du 6 juillet 1989 tendant à améliorer les rapports locatifs), which applies to every unfurnished letting of a dwelling used as the tenant’s main home. Your nationality and your residence in the United Kingdom give you no exemption and, symmetrically, they take none of your rights away.

British owners discover this the hard way. A lease copied from an English assured shorthold tenancy, a deposit of two months’ rent, a rent set above the Paris ceiling, a notice to leave served by email: each of these familiar English reflexes is ineffective or unlawful in France, and each of them can cost you months of procedure when the tenant stops paying or refuses to leave. The letting that looked like passive income becomes a file before the juge des contentieux de la protection, the specialist housing judge, with strict time limits running against you.

This guide explains, for a British landlord letting unfurnished after Brexit, what the 1989 Act forces into your lease and how the Paris rent ceiling works (Part I), then what to do when the rent stops coming or when you need the flat back: the six-week formal demand, the termination clause and its suspension by the judge, the notice to leave and its traps, and the enforcement of an eviction through the winter truce (Part II). Throughout, French terms are explained once and then used as the courts use them, and every decisive proposition is tied to the statute or the reported decision that states it, so that you can challenge an invalid demand, an excessive bill or a blocked recovery on solid ground.

I. Your Unfurnished Letting and the Rent You Are Allowed to Charge

An unfurnished letting of a dwelling used as the tenant’s résidence principale (main home) falls under Title I of the Act of 6 July 1989. The statute is d’ordre public: its protective provisions apply even if your lease says otherwise, and a clause that contradicts them is treated as unwritten (réputée non écrite). That is the first shock for a British landlord. The second is duration. Where an English tenancy can run for twelve months, your French lease must run for a minimum of three years when you let as an individual (personne physique), and six years when the landlord is a company or other legal entity, with tacit renewal (tacite reconduction) at expiry if nobody serves notice. The public service states the rule plainly: a lease must be concluded for a minimum of three years where the owner is an individual, and six years where the owner is a legal entity. A shorter term of at least one year is possible only where you plan to take the flat back for family or professional reasons, and that reason must be written into the lease itself.

A. What the 1989 Act Forces Into Your Three-Year Lease and Deposit

The deposit (dépôt de garantie) is the first trap. In England a five-week deposit is routine; in France, for an unfurnished letting, Article 22 of the Act of 6 July 1989 provides that where a deposit secures the tenant’s obligations, it “ne peut être supérieur à un mois de loyer en principal”, it cannot exceed one month’s rent excluding charges. Any lease demanding two months is unlawful on that point, and the excess must be returned. At the end of the tenancy, the same article requires restitution “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”, within one month of the keys being handed back where the outgoing inventory matches the incoming one, and within two months where they differ, after deducting sums duly proved with supporting documents (dûment justifiées). Miss the deadline and the statute punishes you: “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”, the deposit still owed is increased by 10% of the monthly rent for each month of delay begun. The only escape is where the tenant never gave you their new address. The official English-language page confirms the one-month and two-month periods and the 10% monthly increase. Keep every invoice, every quote and every photograph, because a deduction without documentary proof is routinely ordered to be repaid with the penalty on top.

The inventory (état des lieux) is the document that decides those deductions. Drawn up jointly and free of charge at entry and exit, it is compared line by line: what is not recorded at entry is presumed to have been received in good condition, and the tenant answers for deterioration beyond fair wear and tear (vétusté). Where the parties cannot agree, either side may call a commissaire de justice (the court officer formerly called huissier de justice) to draw it up, with the cost shared equally. But the Cour de cassation polices the procedure strictly. In a decision of 26 October 2023 (pourvoi n° 22-20.183), the Third Civil Chamber held: “il résulte de l’article 3-2 de la loi du 6 juillet 1989 que, lorsque les parties n’ont pas été convoquées par lettre recommandée avec demande d’avis de réception adressée au moins sept jours à l’avance, celle qui a pris l’initiative de faire établir l’état des lieux par un huissier de justice ne peut obtenir le remboursement de la moitié de son coût”. In plain terms, if you instruct the court officer without summoning the tenant by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt at least seven days ahead, you pay the whole bill yourself and cannot recover half of it from the tenant. Read the full decision on Légifrance (Cass. 3e civ., 26 October 2023, n° 22-20.183). For a landlord managing from London through an agent, the practical lesson is to diary the registered summons a full fortnight before the Chronicle of exit, and to insist the agent sends proof of posting.

Two further essentials complete the lease. First, the limitation period: you may claim any arrears of rent or charges for three years, even after the tenant has left, but after three years the debt is time-barred, so a London-based owner who lets files sleep loses money silently. Second, the rent review: during the lease the rent may only be revised once a year by reference to the indice de référence des loyers (IRL, the official rent reference index), and only if the lease contains a review clause; without that clause, no increase is possible until renewal. At renewal in a capped zone such as Paris, any increase above the index is tightly controlled, as explained below.

B. How Much Rent You May Charge in Paris, and How the Tax Office Takes Its Share

Paris applies the encadrement des loyers, the rent cap. Every year the prefect sets, for each category of dwelling, a reference rent (loyer de référence), a lower rent and an increased reference rent (loyer de référence majoré), which is the maximum. Your lease must state the reference rents in force at signature, and the basic rent (loyer de base, rent excluding charges and excluding any supplement) must not exceed the increased reference rent. The official page for Paris states the rule and the tenant’s remedy: where the basic rent exceeds the increased reference rent, the tenant may demand a reduction and repayment of the overpaid sums. If your lease omits the increased reference rent altogether, the tenant has one month from the start of the lease to serve you with a formal demand (mise en demeure) by registered letter to add it. A complément de loyer (rent supplement) above the ceiling is lawful only under two cumulative conditions: the basic rent already equals the increased reference rent, and the flat has unusual features of location or comfort compared with similar dwellings, such as an exceptional view or a vast terrace. An ordinary well-kept flat in a good arrondissement does not qualify, and judges strike down supplements drafted in vague terms such as “charming area” or “quiet building”. See the official detail on the Paris rent for a residential lease.

The cap follows the dwelling, not the owner, so your British residence changes nothing, and the same applies to the annual IRL revision. What your residence does change is the tax treatment of the rents. France taxes the rents where the property stands, under Article 6 of the France–United Kingdom double tax convention of 19 June 2008, and you declare them in France even though you live in Britain. As a non-resident letting unfurnished, the tax office confirms you may use the micro-foncier simplified scheme where your gross annual rental receipts do not exceed 15,000 euros: you simply enter the gross rents on return n° 2042 (box 4BE), and a flat 30% allowance for expenses is applied automatically, with no annexe n° 2044 to complete. Above that threshold, or by election, the régime réel applies: you deduct your actual expenses (management fees, insurance, repairs, property tax, loan interest) on return n° 2044 and carry the net result to return n° 2042, with any deficit in principle set against your other French rental income. The election for the real scheme, made by filing a n° 2044 on time, is irrevocable for three years, so a landlord facing a heavy repair bill should elect before the deadline rather than after. The official guidance is set out on impots.gouv.fr for non-residents letting unfurnished. Social charges (prélèvements sociaux) apply on top of income tax under the rules for non-residents, and the rents must also be reported to HMRC, with credit for the French tax under the treaty: keep the French assessment (avis d’imposition) as your proof. If instead you let the flat furnished for short tourist stays, different registration, permission and tax rules apply, described in our guide to renting out a French second home furnished after Brexit.

II. When the Rent Stops or You Need the Flat Back

Unpaid rent (loyers impayés) and recovery of the dwelling are where British landlords lose the most money, usually by acting under English reflexes: changing the locks, cutting off utilities, or serving an invalid notice and discovering a year later that the procedure must restart from zero. French law forbids self-help absolutely and channels everything through the commissaire de justice and the housing judge. The good news is that the procedure, reformed by the Act of 27 July 2023 on squats and unpaid rents, is mechanical if you follow each step in order and keep the paper trail. The bad news is that each step has a time limit, and the judge may suspend the termination of the lease where the tenant resumes paying and asks for time. This Part walks through the arrears procedure (A) and then the ending of the lease and the enforcement of departure, including the winter truce (B).

A. Unpaid Rent After Brexit: the Six-Week Formal Demand, the Judge and the Suspended Termination Clause

Every residential lease must contain a termination clause (clause résolutoire) providing for automatic termination where rent, charges or the deposit go unpaid. Article 24 of the Act of 6 July 1989, in its version since 29 July 2023, states the mechanism: “Cette clause ne produit effet que six semaines après un commandement de payer demeuré infructueux”, the clause takes effect only six weeks after an unsuccessful formal demand for payment. The six weeks replaced the old two-month period, and many agents’ templates still show the old deadline: a demand citing two months is not invalid for that reason alone, but a demand missing any of the six compulsory statements is void (à peine de nullité). The demand, served by a commissaire de justice, must state the six-week payment period, the monthly rent and charges, the itemised account of the debt, a warning that failure to pay or to seek time exposes the tenant to court termination and eviction, the possibility of applying to the departmental housing solidarity fund (fonds de solidarité pour le logement, FSL) with its address, and the possibility of asking the court at any time for a grace period (délai de grâce) under Article 1343-5 of the Civil Code. Where a guarantor (caution) secures the lease, the demand must be served on the guarantor within fifteen days of service on the tenant, failing which the guarantor cannot be held to penalties or late interest. Check each of these points on receipt of the officer’s draft, because the tenant’s first defence is always the nullity of the demand. The official tenant-side walkthrough of each stage is published on service-public.fr (unpaid rent and eviction), and it is worth reading as the landlord, since it lists exactly the arguments raised against you.

For an individual landlord, which covers most British owners letting directly or through a family property company (société civile formed solely between relatives to the fourth degree), there is an additional automatic safeguard for the tenant that you must anticipate rather than resent. Where the tenant has been continuously in arrears for two months, or the debt equals twice the monthly rent excluding charges, the commissaire de justice must report (signaler) the demand to the local commission for the prevention of evictions (CCAPEX, commission de coordination des actions de prévention des expulsions locatives), which triggers a social and financial assessment. Corporate landlords outside the family-company exception face a heavier preliminary step: they may not issue the court summons (assignation) seeking a finding that the lease has ended until two months after referring the file to the same commission, failing which the claim is inadmissible. Once the six weeks expire unpaid, you summon the tenant before the juge des contentieux de la protection of the court for the place where the flat stands. Before suing over a sum below 5,000 euros, an attempt at conciliation or mediation is compulsory, and the free departmental conciliation commission (commission départementale de conciliation) in Paris hears landlord-tenant disputes of this kind: a summons issued without that step where it was required can be thrown out.

Before the judge, the termination clause does not operate mechanically. The court verifies the validity of the demand, the reality of the debt and the deduction of any housing benefit paid direct, then decides. The tenant may at any moment request a grace period of up to two years under Article 1343-5 of the Civil Code, extended in housing matters, and the judge in eviction proceedings may grant repayment periods of up to three years. Crucially, where the tenant has resumed paying the full current rent before the hearing, the judge may suspend the effects of the termination clause while the court-ordered repayment schedule runs; if the tenant honours the schedule, the clause is deemed never to have operated, and if the tenant defaults again or misses a payment, it recovers its full effect. Over-indebtedness proceedings (surendettement) before the Banque de France commission can likewise freeze or reschedule the rental debt, and the housing judge must then grant the resulting time limits. For the landlord this means the hearing is won with accounts, not adjectives: a clean rent ledger, proof of every reminder, the officer’s receipts, and a realistic repayment proposal put you in the strongest position to obtain either payment or, where the tenant cannot pay, a finding of termination with an order to leave. Challenge an invalid demand early by raising its nullity before the housing judge; challenge an excessive account by producing bank statements and benefit notifications; and never accept a tenant’s promise of payment without a dated, signed writing, because an oral arrangement suspends nothing.

B. Ending the Lease and Enforcing Departure: Notice to Leave, Protected Tenants and the Winter Truce

Outside arrears, you recover the flat by congé, the notice to leave served by the landlord, governed by Article 15 of the Act of 6 July 1989. The notice period is six months from receipt, served by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt, by court officer, or handed over in person against receipt: email and ordinary post are worthless. The notice must state its reason, failing which it is void: taking the flat back to live in (reprise pour habiter), selling it (congé pour vendre), or a serious and legitimate reason such as the tenant’s persistent breach. For a personal recovery, the statute is precise: “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 ainsi que la nature du lien existant entre le bailleur et le bénéficiaire”, and the beneficiary may only be you, your spouse, your civil partner (partenaire de PACS), a long-standing partner (concubin notoire), or the ascendants or descendants of either side. The article adds that “le bailleur justifie du caractère réel et sérieux de sa décision de reprise”: you must show a genuine and serious intent to live there as your main home. The Cour de cassation gives landlords a fair evidential rule here. On 12 October 2023 (pourvoi n° 22-18.580), rejecting the tenant’s appeal, the Third Civil Chamber held: “La cour d’appel, qui pouvait tenir compte d’éléments postérieurs dès lors qu’ils étaient de nature à établir cette intention, en a souverainement déduit le caractère réel et sérieux de l’intention du bailleur, au jour de la délivrance du congé, de reprendre le logement pour l’habiter à titre de résidence principale, et a ainsi légalement justifié sa décision”. In other words, the court judges your intent as at the date of the notice but may rely on later evidence, such as electoral registration, works invoices or utility subscriptions, to confirm it. Read the decision on Légifrance (Cass. 3e civ., 12 October 2023, n° 22-18.580). Keep every document that proves your move is real, from the day the notice is served onwards.

For a notice-by-notice walkthrough of each type of congé, with the fraud penalties for a sham recovery, see our companion guide to serving a congé to sell or take back your flat after Brexit.

Selling with a tenant in place obeys its own timetable. A notice to sell must state the price and conditions, failing which it is void, and it operates as an offer of sale to the tenant for the first two months of the notice period; the tenant who accepts has two months to complete, four where a loan is needed. If you bought the flat already tenanted, extra delays protect the tenant: no notice to sell until the end of the first tacit renewal or renewed term where the current lease ends less than three years after your purchase, and no effective recovery for personal occupation until two years after purchase where the lease ends within two years of it. The specially protected tenant (locataire protégé) can defeat even a valid notice: a tenant over 65 with modest income cannot be given notice without an offer of rehousing nearby corresponding to their needs and means, unless you yourself are over 65 or of modest means. Age and income are assessed at the notice date, so verify both before serving. A notice that misstates the beneficiary, omits the price on a sale, or ignores the protected-tenant rule is void, and the tenant’s challenge is brought before the housing judge, who may on their own motion verify the reality of the reason. The Paris conciliation commission and the ADIL de Paris guidance on landlord notices are the first free ports of call where the tenant disputes the notice and you wish to avoid a full trial.

Where the court has found the lease terminated or the notice valid and ordered departure, enforcement still runs through mandatory stages. The judgment is followed by a commandement de quitter les lieux, a formal order to leave served by the court officer, generally giving two months to vacate under Article L412-1 of the Code of Civil Enforcement Procedures; the judge may reduce or extend that period, and the tenant may petition the enforcement judge (juge de l’exécution) for an additional grace period of one month to one year. Then comes the trêve hivernale, the winter truce: under Article L412-6 of the same Code, no eviction from a dwelling may be carried out from 1 November to 31 March inclusive where the tenant has no rehousing solution matching their needs, a rule the official guidance confirms with the exact dates. Eviction also requires the prefect’s prior information and, for the use of public force (concours de la force publique), the prefect’s authorisation, which may be refused and give rise to state-liability compensation instead. Challenge a stalled enforcement by checking each link in the chain: an expired or defective order to leave, a truce-period attempt, or a missing prefectural step each give the enforcement judge grounds to suspend. And where the tenant’s lease has ended but they remain, remember that unauthorised occupation after the deadline can attract a civil fine of up to 7,500 euros, a sanction the judge, not you, imposes.

Conclusion

Letting a French flat unfurnished from Britain after Brexit means accepting a lease you do not draft freely, a Paris rent you do not set freely, and a recovery procedure you cannot shortcut. The 1989 Act gives you powerful tools, the six-week demand, the termination clause, the six-month notice, but each tool works only in its statutory order and within its time limit, and the judge suspends termination where the tenant pays and deserves time. The British landlord who succeeds is the one who keeps the paper the French judge wants to see: the registered summons seven days before the officer’s inventory, the itemised deposit account with invoices, the rent ledger, the reference rents written into the lease, and the dated proof of a genuine plan to live in or sell the flat. Assemble that file before the dispute, serve every notice by the methods the statute recognises, and challenge invalid demands and excessive claims early before the housing court of the place where the property stands. The full residential lease framework is summarised on service-public.fr, with the residential lease essentials on service-public.fr (residential leases) and the deposit rules in English on service-public.fr (security deposit).