Your mother has lived in the Dordogne for fifteen years. After a fall and a hospital stay, the doctors say she can no longer live alone, and the local care home (établissement d’hébergement pour personnes âgées dépendantes, universally shortened to EHPAD) offers a room at more than 2,000 euros a month. You live in Kent, your sister lives in Lyon, and within weeks two letters arrive: the home sends its draft residence contract (contrat de séjour) with a bill, and the département (the county-level authority that funds social care in France) asks about your incomes. Who pays what, in which order, and what can you challenge? This guide sets out the French rules as they apply to a British family after Brexit: the three-part EHPAD tariff, the allocation personnalisée d’autonomie (the personal independence allowance, known as APA), the children’s maintenance duty (obligation alimentaire), and the ways to contest a bill, a refusal or a recovery claim. Every decisive rule below is quoted from the statute or decision that states it.

I. How much does a French care home cost and who pays first?

A. What the monthly EHPAD bill is made of: accommodation, dependency and care

A French care home does not charge a single all-inclusive price. Its budget is split by statute into three sections, and each section has a different payer. Understanding this split is the first step, because most disputes come from confusing the three. The care section is financed by a lump sum that takes account of the average dependency level of the residents: the Code states that establishments are financed by “Un forfait global relatif aux soins prenant en compte notamment le niveau de dépendance moyen et les besoins en soins requis des résidents“, and that “Le montant du forfait global de soins est arrêté annuellement par le directeur général de l’agence régionale de santé” (article L. 314-2 of the Code de l’action sociale et des familles). In practice this means nursing care is paid through the health insurance system and never appears on the resident’s invoice as such. What the resident — or the family — pays is principally the accommodation tariff (tarif hébergement) plus a share of the dependency tariff (tarif dépendance), the share depending on the resident’s assessed level of dependency and income.

No one may be admitted without a written contract. The statute provides that these establishments “ne peuvent héberger une personne âgée sans qu’au préalable un contrat écrit ait été passé avec cette personne ou son représentant légal” (article L. 342-1 of the Code de l’action sociale et des familles). A welcome booklet (livret d’accueil) with the residents’ charter of rights and the house rules must be handed over, and “Un contrat de séjour est conclu ou un document individuel de prise en charge est élaboré avec la participation de la personne accueillie” (article L. 311-4 of the Code de l’action sociale et des familles). For a British family this is the moment to slow down: the contract fixes the daily rate, the billing terms, the deposit or guarantee (cautionnement) the home may ask a child to sign, and the notice conditions for leaving. Once signed, the price is not frozen, but later increases are capped: “Le prix du socle de prestations et les prix des autres prestations d’hébergement sont librement fixés lors de la signature du contrat. Ils varient ensuite, dans des conditions fixées par décret, dans la limite d’un pourcentage fixé au 1er janvier de chaque année par arrêté des ministres chargés des personnes âgées et de l’économie” (article L. 342-3 of the Code de l’action sociale et des familles). Any increase above that ceiling can be refused, and any clause charging separately for a service that belongs to the basic bundle is deemed unwritten.

The courts apply the signed contract strictly against the family when no fault of the home is shown. In a judgment of 5 June 2025 (n° 23/04877), the Amiens Court of Appeal dealt with a resident admitted to a private EHPAD in northern France: “Un contrat de séjour a été régularisé le 18 novembre 2020 pour l’accueil de M. [P] [K].” The daily rate was “Le prix de la journée était fixé à la somme de 80,23 euros toutes taxes comprises.“, with a guarantee signed the same day by the son (CA Amiens, 1st civil chamber, 5 June 2025, n° 23/04877). The family had alerted the home to applications for residential social assistance (aide sociale à l’hébergement, ASH), APA and housing benefit only after signing, the home later terminated the contract, and the family’s claim against the home failed: “après avoir considéré qu’aucune faute imputable à la SARL LA Valouise n’était caractérisée, il a rejeté les demandes formées par M.et Mme [K].” The lesson for British relatives is practical and harsh: sign nothing before the aid applications are filed, never treat a guarantee as a formality, and keep written proof of every step, because mediation — which the home accepted in that case — may lead nowhere and the contract will be enforced as written.

B. Can a British resident get the APA allowance: age, dependency level and settled residence

The APA is the main public help that reduces the dependency part of the bill, whether the parent stays at home or enters a care home. The statute opens it widely: “Toute personne âgée résidant en France qui se trouve dans l’incapacité d’assumer les conséquences du manque ou de la perte d’autonomie liés à son état physique ou mental a droit à une allocation personnalisée d’autonomie permettant une prise en charge adaptée à ses besoins” (article L. 232-1 of the Code de l’action sociale et des familles). It is granted on request, within tariffs set by regulation, to “toute personne attestant d’une résidence stable et régulière et remplissant les conditions d’âge et de perte d’autonomie, évaluée à l’aide d’une grille nationale, également définies par voie réglementaire“, and it has “le caractère d’une prestation en nature” (article L. 232-2 of the Code de l’action sociale et des familles).

In practice the official guidance (service-public.fr, APA page) sets four cumulative conditions: be at least 60 years old, be assessed in dependency groups GIR 1 to 4 on the national grid (GIR 1 being the most dependent, GIR 4 the least within the eligible range), reside in France on a stable and regular basis, and — for foreign nationals — hold a carte de résident or a titre de séjour. For a British parent this is where Brexit matters administratively: the file must show lawful residence, in practice the Withdrawal Agreement residence card together with proof of settled living in France such as tax notices, utility bills and health cover. A British passport alone does not prove regularity, and a parent shuttling between Kent and the Dordogne without a French home base risks failing the stability test. Prepare the residence evidence with the same care as the medical evidence.

The amount is not automatic: a medico-social team draws up a personal help plan (plan d’aide), and the applicant has ten days to accept it or request changes before the département notifies its decision (service-public.fr, APA page). In a care home the APA covers part of the dependency tariff according to the resident’s GIR and income, with the lowest incomes paying only the GIR 5–6 base and higher incomes contributing a sliding share.

Two practical traps deserve emphasis. First, hospital stays suspend the home-care APA: if the parent is hospitalised for more than thirty days, suspension starts on the thirty-first day, but the suspension itself can be contested, first through the friendly appeal and then before the courts (service-public.fr, APA page). Families moving a parent between hospital, home and care home should therefore track admission and discharge dates and keep every notification, since each decision carries its own two-month prior-appeal deadline counted from notification (service-public.fr, APA page). Second, the APA cannot simply be combined with every other benefit: it cannot be cumulated with certain disability allowances, though a person receiving the complementary benefit for recourse to a third party may still file an APA application in order to choose the better of the two (service-public.fr, APA page). Before accepting any plan, ask the medico-social team in writing which benefits were excluded and why.

If the APA is refused, reduced, suspended — for example from the 31st day of a hospital stay — or withdrawn, the decision must be challenged first through a compulsory prior administrative appeal (recours administratif préalable obligatoire) before the departments services, within two months of notification of the contested decision (service-public.fr, APA page). Miss that two-month window and the later court action is inadmissible, so diary the notification date the day the letter arrives. Readers dealing with a parent who has lost mental capacity should also read our guide on protection measures, English lasting powers of attorney and the French mandat de protection future, because an incapacitated applicant needs a properly empowered representative to file and defend the APA claim.

II. Can the care home or the département make the children pay?

A. The children’s maintenance duty towards a parent in need: needs measured against means

When the parent’s pensions, savings and APA leave a shortfall on the EHPAD bill, French law turns to the children. The Civil Code states the principle in one sentence: “Les enfants doivent des aliments à leurs père et mère ou autres ascendants qui sont dans le besoin” (article 205 of the Civil Code). Aliments here means maintenance in the broad sense — money for accommodation, food and care — and it binds sons and daughters alike, including British children of a British parent living in France, once the French court has jurisdiction. The duty is reciprocal between generations, but it is strictly proportionate: “Les aliments ne sont accordés que dans la proportion du besoin de celui qui les réclame, et de la fortune de celui qui les doit” (article 208 of the Civil Code). Need on one side, means on the other: a comfortably-off child of a destitute parent pays more than a struggling child of a parent who still owns a house.

Two points decided by the Court of Cassation matter enormously in EHPAD cases. First, when the département has advanced residential social assistance and then sues the children to recover the family share, the case is judged under family maintenance law, not under social assistance rules. The Court held, in a case about a father accommodated in an EHPAD since 2007 with the county council claiming a monthly contribution from the son, that “quelles qu’en soient les modalités, et alors même qu’il s’agirait du recours prévu par l’article L. 132-7 du code de l’action sociale et des familles, l’action exercée contre un débiteur d’aliments a toujours pour fondement les dispositions du code civil régissant la dette d’aliments, et notamment l’article 208 du code civil selon lequel les aliments ne sont accordés que dans la proportion du besoin de celui qui les réclame et de la fortune de celui qui les doit“, adding that “cette appréciation n’est pas soumise aux règles d’attribution de l’aide sociale” (Cass., 1st civil chamber, 4 November 2015, n° 14-25.377, published in the Bulletin). So the département cannot simply pass on its bill: it must prove the parent’s state of need before the family judge (juge aux affaires familiales), measured under article 208.

Second, in that same decision the Court approved judges who look at the parent’s real resources, including capital that could produce income: it upheld an appeal court which had taken into account “les revenus que pourrait lui procurer une gestion utile de son patrimoine” after finding that the resident owned property, and concluded that his state of need was not demonstrated. (Cass., 1st civil chamber, 4 November 2015, n° 14-25.377) For British families this cuts both ways. A parent who owns a Dordogne house but claims to be unable to contribute may be told to sell or rent it before the children are pursued. Conversely, children who are asked to pay should demand a full accounting of the parent’s side — pensions received in France and in the United Kingdom, rental income, savings, property — because need must be proved, not assumed. The competent court for fixing the contribution is the family judge of the parent’s place of residence, and the judge may attach an indexation clause to the maintenance pension of his own motion under article 208.

B. Refusing to pay, discharge for grave failure, and recovery from the estate

The duty is not absolute. The statute allows the judge to release a child from all or part of the debt: “quand le créancier aura lui-même manqué gravement à ses obligations envers le débiteur, le juge pourra décharger celui-ci de tout ou partie de la dette alimentaire” (article 207 of the Civil Code). Note the asymmetry the courts enforce: in a 1995 decision the Court of Cassation recalled that “lorsque le créancier a lui-même manqué gravement à ses obligations envers le débiteur, le juge peut décharger celui-ci de tout ou partie de la dette alimentaire” but that “cette faculté ne s’étend pas, sauf l’exception prévue par l’article 303, alinéa 2, du Code civil, au devoir de secours entre époux” (Cass., 1st civil chamber, 17 January 1995, n° 92-21.599, published in the Bulletin). In plain terms, an abused child may be discharged, while a spouse remains bound by the duty of support — so a surviving British husband or wife in the EHPAD cannot use the same defence against the home as the children can.

A recent Lyon decision shows how the discharge works for EHPAD fees. On 30 June 2026 the Lyon Court of Appeal discharged a daughter from any maintenance duty towards her father for his care home costs, holding that “la qualification de manquement grave au sens de l’article 207, alinéa 2, du code civil peut être retenue sur la base d’attestations concordantes, sans qu’il soit nécessaire d’exiger une preuve documentaire de chaque fait allégué“, and it accordingly “Décharge Mme [U] épouse [O] de toute obligation alimentaire à l’égard de M. [U] au titre de la prise en charge de ses frais d’hébergement au sein de l’EHPAD [Etablissement 1]” (CA Lyon, social chamber D, 30 June 2026, n° 25/04180). The court relied on consistent witness statements describing physical violence, economic exploitation, unworthy living conditions in childhood and a total abandonment of the relationship for over forty years. The practical message is that estrangement alone is not enough — there must be grave, provable failures — but that credible witness evidence can suffice without a medical or documentary record for every fact. A British child who broke contact decades ago for good reasons should gather statements early, from relatives, neighbours or family friends on both sides of the Channel, before the département issues its claim.

Finally, what the family does not pay during the parent’s lifetime may be recovered from the estate. The statute provides that recovery actions are brought, depending on the benefit, by the State or the département: “Des recours sont exercés, selon le cas, par l’Etat ou le département : 1° Contre le bénéficiaire revenu à meilleure fortune ou contre la succession du bénéficiaire ; 2° Contre le donataire, lorsque la donation est intervenue postérieurement à la demande d’aide sociale ou dans les dix ans qui ont précédé cette demande ; 3° Contre le légataire ; 4° A titre subsidiaire, contre le bénéficiaire d’un contrat d’assurance-vie souscrit par le bénéficiaire de l’aide sociale, à concurrence de la fraction des primes versées après l’âge de soixante-dix ans” (article L. 132-8 of the Code de l’action sociale et des familles). For home social assistance and the daily hospital charge, recovery against the estate applies only above a net-asset threshold set by regulation. Three consequences follow for British heirs. First, gifts made within ten years before the assistance application can be clawed back from the donee, which puts many well-meant transfers of the French house to the children at risk — on gifts and the forced share, see our guide to gifting a French house to the children. Second, life assurance (assurance-vie) funded after seventy is reachable in the alternative, a point developed in our guide to assurance-vie after seventy. Third, residential assistance (aide sociale à l’hébergement) for the EHPAD stay is recoverable and requires the resident’s consent where possible: “Toute personne âgée qui ne peut être utilement aidée à domicile peut être accueillie, si elle y consent” in a public or fund-authorised private establishment (article L. 231-4 of the Code de l’action sociale et des familles). Each recovery decision can itself be challenged before the courts, and the ten-year gift window, the regulatory threshold and the exact classification of the benefit paid must be checked line by line before paying anything the département claims.

For a family spread across two countries, evidence is the quiet decisive factor. Assemble a single file, in French or with certified translations, containing the parent’s Withdrawal Agreement card, recent French tax assessments, proof of address and health cover, pension statements from both countries, the residence contract and every letter from the département with its envelope showing the date of receipt. Ask the care home for an itemised invoice separating accommodation from dependency, and ask the medico-social team for the written GIR assessment. None of these papers wins a case by itself, but the Cassation and Lyon decisions above show that judges decide on demonstrated need, demonstrated means and demonstrated facts — and a cross-Channel family that produces its file promptly is far harder to overcharge than one that answers months later.

Conclusion

A British parent’s entry into a French care home sets off a strict payment order: the health system funds nursing care, the APA reduces the dependency share for residents over sixty in GIR 1 to 4 with stable and regular residence, the resident’s own income and capital come next, and only a proven shortfall may be charged to the children in proportion to their means. The département that assists must prove need under the Civil Code rather than impose its own accounting, children facing historic abuse can seek total discharge on consistent witness evidence, and aid accepted today can be recovered tomorrow from the succession, from recent donees or from late-funded life policies. File the APA and assistance applications before signing the residence contract, refuse any price rise above the annual ministerial ceiling, calendar the two-month prior appeal against every refusal, and demand a full statement of the parent’s resources before accepting any family contribution. Taken in that order, each payer pays only what the law truly assigns to them.