You have the keys to a flat in Lyon, Bordeaux or the 11th arrondissement. The rent leaves your French bank account on time every month, the état des lieux (the check-in inventory of condition) sits in a drawer, and life in France finally feels normal after Brexit. Then one of two letters arrives: the landlord keeps half your deposit for repainting you never damaged, or a congé (a formal notice to quit) tells you to leave so the owner can move in. For a British tenant, the shock is doubled by unfamiliar procedure, French legal vocabulary and the fear that, as a foreigner, you have fewer rights. You do not. Since Brexit changed your immigration status, it changed nothing about your protection as a tenant: the same statute, the loi n° 89-462 du 6 juillet 1989, shelters you exactly as it shelters a French neighbour, from the deposit to the winter truce. This guide explains, in plain English, how to get your dépôt de garantie (security deposit) back with the 10% monthly penalty for delay, who really pays for repairs, how to challenge a landlord’s congé, and what stops an eviction in mid-winter. Every key rule is quoted from the official text, and two very recent decisions of the Cour de cassation (France’s supreme court for civil matters) show how judges apply them.
I. Your Money at Both Ends of the Tenancy: Getting the Deposit Back and Splitting the Repairs
A. How British tenants recover the dépôt de garantie, plus 10% per month of delay
The dépôt de garantie is the sum you hand over when you sign the lease, meant to guarantee that you will meet your obligations as tenant. Article 22 of the 1989 Act caps it strictly: “il ne peut être supérieur à un mois de loyer en principal.” One month’s rent, no more, for a standard unfurnished letting. If your landlord demanded two or three months, that demand itself was unlawful, and you can raise the point from the start. Keep the proof of payment and the receipt, because everything afterwards turns on paperwork.
When you leave, the clock starts on the day you hand the keys back, in person against a receipt or by lettre recommandée avec accusé de réception (registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt). Article 22 then sets two different deadlines. Where the check-out inventory matches the check-in inventory, the deposit must come back fast: it is returned “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, déduction faite, le cas échéant, des sommes restant dues au bailleur”. Where the two inventories differ, the landlord gets longer, but not much longer: return falls due “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”. In both cases, every deduction must be “dûment justifiée” (properly evidenced). A bare line on a letter saying “repainting: 800 euros” is not justification. The landlord must produce the comparison between the two états des lieux, plus invoices or estimates, and can only deduct sums you genuinely still owe: unpaid rent or charges, damage beyond fair wear and tear, or a provision for service charges awaiting the building’s annual statement of accounts.
Miss those deadlines and the sanction is automatic and expensive. Article 22 provides that the deposit still owed “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 for every month of delay begun, running as of right. On a rent of 1,200 euros, three months of delay adds 360 euros to what you recover, without you having to prove any particular loss. That penalty is your main lever, so date everything: the key handover, the first written demand, and every reply.
A decision of the Cour de cassation of 12 February 2026 (pourvoi n° 24-21.258) makes the point brutally clear for landlords who claim they “already paid”. In that case, after the tenant vacated a furnished flat on 11 March 2021, the landlord said he had posted a refund cheque on 9 April 2021 and therefore met the deadline, even though the cheque was never cashed and the tenant denied receiving it. The supreme court disagreed and quashed the lower court’s ruling. It recalled the rule first: “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.” Then it held: “En statuant ainsi, sans constater que le bailleur justifiait de la réception du chèque par le locataire, qui la contestait, le juge a violé les textes susvisés.” Sending a cheque proves nothing; the landlord must prove you received the money. If your former landlord tells you the transfer “must have got lost”, the law is on your side: no proven receipt, no valid refund, and the 10% penalty keeps running.
In practice, move in this order. First, photograph everything on arrival and departure and keep both états des lieux; British tenants often discover too late that the check-in report was vague, which lets the landlord attribute old marks to them. Second, demand the balance in writing by registered letter as soon as the one-month or two-month deadline passes, calculating the 10% penalty month by month; the administration’s deposit-refund guide describes these same steps. Third, if the landlord will not pay, apply to the juge des contentieux de la protection (the protection-litigation judge of the local tribunal judiciaire, the court that hears rented-housing disputes). Before that, the commission départementale de conciliation (the county conciliation board) offers a free attempt at settlement, and in Paris its opinion carries real weight with landlords who want to avoid court. Interest never runs in your favour on the deposit itself – Article 22 says plainly that the deposit “ne porte pas intérêt au bénéfice du locataire” – but the 10% monthly uplift is far more generous than interest, so never let a late refund slide.
B. Who pays for repairs: your menues réparations, the landlord’s décent home
Many British tenants arrive with the English assumption that the landlord fixes everything inside the flat. French law divides the bill differently, and misunderstanding the split is how deposits get eaten. Article 7 of the 1989 Act lists what you, the tenant, must do, including this: “De prendre à sa charge l’entretien courant du logement, des équipements mentionnés au contrat et les menues réparations ainsi que l’ensemble des réparations locatives définies par décret en Conseil d’Etat, sauf si elles sont occasionnées par vétusté, malfaçon, vice de construction, cas fortuit ou force majeure”. Day-to-day upkeep, minor repairs and the whole catalogue of tenant repairs defined by regulation fall on you – unless they are caused by age and wear (vétusté), defective workmanship, a construction defect, accident or force majeure.
The regulation in question is décret n° 87-712 du 26 août 1987, and its opening definition is worth memorising: “Sont des réparations locatives les travaux d’entretien courant, et de menues réparations, y compris les remplacements d’éléments assimilables auxdites réparations, consécutifs à l’usage normal des locaux et équipements à usage privatif.” Routine servicing and small repairs following normal use are yours: tap seals and washers, light bulbs and fluorescent tubes, radiator bleed keys and minor adjustments, grease and cleaning of extractor hoods, re-sealing a shower joint, polishing parquet scuffed by chairs, servicing the boiler’s annual check where the lease assigns it to you, and replacing like with like when a cheap fitting wears out through ordinary use. What is not yours is anything stemming from age, faulty installation or the building itself: a twenty-year-old boiler that dies, wiring that was never brought up to standard, a window frame rotten through, damp rising through the walls. Those belong to the owner, and no clause in the lease can move structural age onto you, because the vétusté exception is built into the statute itself.
Mirror to your duties sits the landlord’s flagship obligation in Article 6: “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.” A decent home, safe for body and health, free of vermin, meeting minimum energy performance and fit for living in. If you are shown a basement flat with no real ventilation, persistent mould the landlord paints over between tenancies, or heating that cannot keep the rooms warm, that is not a repair dispute – it is a failure to deliver a logement décent, and you can require the landlord to bring the property up to standard, through the conciliation board and then the judge if needed. The energy-performance limb now bites hard: the minimum standard has been tightened steadily, and the worst-rated homes are progressively barred from new lettings, so check the diagnostic de performance énergétique (energy report) before you sign.
Two practical habits protect British tenants here. First, report defects in writing the moment they appear, distinguishing what you will fix yourself from what needs the landlord: a dripping tap you re-washer, a leaking roof you report by registered letter with photographs. Silence lets small damage grow into a deposit deduction. Second, take out French home insurance (assurance habitation) from the first day and never let it lapse; leases require it, and an uninsured water leak that floods the neighbour below can turn a 40-euro seal into a five-figure claim. Damp deserves a special word: surface condensation from under-ventilation sits with the tenant who must air the rooms, while water coming through the fabric sits with the owner. When both sides blame each other, an independent damp report taken early decides the argument later.
II. When the Landlord Wants the Flat Back: Challenging the Congé and Surviving Eviction
A. How to challenge a congé for sale, repossession or serious grounds
The congé is the formal notice by which the landlord ends the tenancy at its term. It is not a letter asking you to consider leaving; it is a legal act with compulsory contents and a six-month lead time, and most landlord mistakes happen right there. Article 15 of the 1989 Act sets the frame: “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.” Only three families of reasons exist: repossession (reprise) to live in or house a close relative, sale (vente), or a legitimate and serious ground, typically your own breach such as persistent arrears or anti-social behaviour. A landlord who wants you out because you complain about repairs, because you are British, or because a higher-paying tenant is waiting has no ground at all.
Form is everything, and Article 15 punishes sloppiness with nullity: “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 ainsi que la nature du lien existant entre le bailleur et le bénéficiaire de la reprise qui ne peut être que le bailleur, son conjoint, le partenaire auquel il est lié par un pacte civil de solidarité enregistré à la date du congé, son concubin notoire depuis au moins un an à la date du congé, ses ascendants, ses descendants ou ceux de son conjoint, de son partenaire ou de son concubin notoire.” Read any congé you receive against that checklist. Does it state the reason? If it is a repossession, does it name the person moving in, give their address, and show they belong to the closed circle of spouse, civil partner, long-standing partner, parent or child? A notice that says only “my daughter needs the flat” without her name and address, or that names a cousin, a friend or a company, is void. And the timing rule is absolute: “Le délai de préavis applicable au congé est de six mois lorsqu’il émane du bailleur.” Served by huissier (now titled commissaire de justice, the enforcement officer) or registered letter, six full months before the end of the lease term. A notice served late does not end the tenancy; it rolls over to the next term.
For a sale, know your extra shield. When the landlord sells with you in place, you normally enjoy a right of first refusal (droit de préemption) on the flat at the price and conditions stated in the notice, with two months to answer. Use it or lose it, but never ignore a sale notice: your reply, or your silence, has legal effect. And where the building is sold to a new owner mid-lease, your tenancy continues untouched; only the identity of the landlord changes, and the new owner inherits the deposit obligation as well.
The deepest protection concerns repossession fraud – the congé given “to house my son” where no son ever moves in. The statute requires that “Lorsqu’il donne congé à son locataire pour reprendre le logement, le bailleur justifie du caractère réel et sérieux de sa décision de reprise.” Real and serious, judged on the facts. A landmark ruling of the Cour de cassation on 12 October 2023 (pourvoi n° 22-18.580) shows exactly how courts test this. The landlord had served a repossession notice in December 2019, the tenants left in June 2021, and the landlord then proved his genuine move with later paperwork: registration on the electoral roll, renovation invoices, utility contracts and a letter to the tax office. The tenants cried fraud, arguing the evidence post-dated the notice. The supreme court upheld the notice and fixed three principles tenants should understand. First, on form: “La cour d’appel a énoncé, à bon droit, que la prescription de la justification dans le congé du caractère réel et sérieux de la décision de reprise, à titre de condition de forme, n’est pas édictée à peine de nullité.” The notice does not have to contain the proof itself; it must state the ground and the beneficiary, and the proof can come later before the judge. Second, on evidence. “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”. Later documents count, provided they prove the intention existed when the notice was served – and note the decisive test: the flat must become the landlord’s genuine main home (résidence principale). Third, the judge “peut, même d’office, vérifier la réalité du motif du congé”, meaning the court can investigate the truth of the reason on its own motion. So challenge a suspicious congé by demanding proof of real occupation: Is the landlord registered for taxe d’habitation there? Are utilities in their name with real consumption? Did the supposed beneficiary ever move in? If the flat is re-let months later at a higher rent, sue for damages for fraudulent notice – the courts award them, and the paper trail you built makes the case.
Your own departure works differently and far faster, which matters if you need to leave Britain-facing admin behind in a hurry. As tenant you can end the lease at any time with three months’ notice, cut to one month in the situations the official guidance lists – notably when the flat sits in a zone tendue (a tight housing market, which includes Paris and much of the inner suburbs), provided your notice letter expressly claims the one-month benefit and cites the legal basis. The administration’s tenant-notice page confirms the split: the standard “préavis est de 3 mois”, while in the listed cases the notice period falls to one month, provided your letter of notice states the address of the rented flat and expressly claims the one-month reduction. Always send your own notice by registered letter or huissier, keep the receipt, and photograph the meter readings on exit day.
One group gets reinforced armour: tenants over sixty-five with modest income. The statute bars the landlord from serving notice without offering rehousing within a defined area, and extends the shield to older occupants living in the home. If you are a retired Briton on a UK state pension renting in France, check this protection before accepting any congé at face value – your age and income may make the notice unenforceable as served.
B. The eviction shield: the commandement, the two months, and the winter truce
Even a valid congé does not let the landlord change the locks. In France only a judge can order you out, and only a commissaire de justice can enforce it – a landlord who cuts the power, removes the door or dumps your belongings on the pavement commits an offence, whatever the arrears. The road to a lawful eviction has mandatory stages, and each one buys you time and arguments.
The starting gun is the commandement de quitter les lieux (the formal order to leave served by the enforcement officer). From that service, Article L. 412-1 of the enforcement code freezes everything: “Si l’expulsion porte sur un lieu habité par la personne expulsée ou par tout occupant de son chef, elle ne peut avoir lieu qu’à l’expiration d’un délai de deux mois qui suit le commandement”. Two clear months during which nobody can physically remove you. Use them actively: pay what you can and keep every receipt, apply for housing benefit (aide personnalisée au logement) if your income qualifies, contact the commission départementale de conciliation, and see the social services (assistante sociale) of your mairie (town hall), whose report can support a request for extra time. If the dispute is about arrears rather than the end of a lease, an earlier commandement de payer (order to pay) gives you two months to clear the debt or seek a payment plan before the court stage – never ignore it, because paying within the deadline stops the termination clause (clause résolutoire) from operating.
Next comes the court summons (assignation) before the juge des contentieux de la protection. Go, with your file: lease, notices, payment records, photos, medical certificates if health is at stake, proof of applications for social housing. The judge can do far more than order or refuse eviction. The court can stagger a rental debt over up to three years, suspend the termination clause while you pay, and grant grace periods (délais de grâce) to leave, weighing your good faith, your income, your children’s schooling and the season. British tenants sometimes assume the hearing is a formality; it is the decisive moment of the whole case, and representation by an avocat (lawyer) is worth its cost when your home is at stake.
Then the calendar itself protects you. Article L. 412-6 of the enforcement 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.” From 1 November to 31 March, the trêve hivernale (winter truce) suspends every unexecuted eviction unless you have been properly rehoused as a family. The bailiff cannot come, the prefecture will not lend police assistance, and any attempt to force you out during the truce is unlawful. Diarise the dates: a judgment ordering you out in October cannot be enforced until April, which gives you five months to find a solution, negotiate departure terms (protocole d’accord) or secure social housing. The truce does not cancel the debt or the judgment, but it converts winter from a catastrophe into a timetable.
In Paris and the inner suburbs, add three local reflexes. First, rents fall under the encadrement des loyers (rent cap): if your rent exceeds the local reference ceilings, you can challenge it within months of signing, and an overcharged rent strengthens every negotiation. Second, the Paris conciliation board and the ADIL 75 housing advice agency give free, expert guidance before you pay for a lawyer – take your lease and notices to them early. Third, keep the préfecture and the mairie informed once an eviction judgment exists: rehousing applications (demande de logement social) and, where the situation is grave, a DALO application (droit au logement opposable) create the official record that judges and prefects rely on when granting delays or ordering rehousing.
Conclusion
A British tenant in France holds the same shield as any tenant: a deposit capped at one month and returnable within one or two months with a 10% monthly penalty for delay; a repairs split where routine upkeep is yours but age, defects and decency are the landlord’s; a congé that must state a lawful reason, name the beneficiary and arrive six months early, failing which it is void; an eviction that no one may carry out without a judge, a two-month freeze after the commandement, and a winter truce from November to March. The February 2026 supreme-court ruling on the phantom cheque and the October 2023 ruling on the genuine-but-late-proved repossession show judges looking past appearances to the reality of receipt and residence. Keep every paper, send everything by registered letter, photograph every room, and challenge in time – the procedure rewards the tenant who can prove, not the tenant who can shout.