You rented a flat in Lyon, Toulouse or Paris, you gave notice, you scrubbed the oven, you handed back the keys, and then the deposit never came back. Or it came back light by several hundred euros, with a one-line invoice for repainting and cleaning attached. For British tenants in France, this is the most common end-of-tenancy shock, and the language barrier makes it worse: the deduction letter arrives in French, cites articles you have never read, and counts on you giving up from London. French law does not operate a separate track for British tenants. Once you rent a home in France as your main residence, the same tenancy statute governs you as any French tenant, and Brexit changed nothing in that statute. That statute gives you short, precise refund deadlines, a closed list of what the landlord may deduct, and an automatic monthly penalty when the landlord pays late. This guide explains when and how much your landlord must return after you hand back the keys, what deductions a French judge will accept, how the entry and exit inventories decide who pays for damage, and which letter, conciliation and court claim gets your money back when the landlord refuses to pay.

I. When and how much must your landlord return after you hand back the keys in France?

A. How the one-month and two-month refund deadlines work in France

The starting point is the deposit itself, called the dépôt de garantie in French. French law caps it strictly. For an unfurnished letting, the statute provides that “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.” (Article 22 of the law of 6 July 1989 on Légifrance). That cap means one month of rent excluding charges, and the same article adds that “Au moment de la signature du bail, le dépôt de garantie est versé au bailleur directement par le locataire ou par l’intermédiaire d’un tiers.” (Article 22 of the law of 6 July 1989 on Légifrance). If you rent a furnished flat as your main home, the ceiling is higher but still fixed: “Par dérogation à l’article 22, le montant du dépôt de garantie exigible par le bailleur est limité à deux mois de loyer en principal.” (Article 25-8 of the law of 6 July 1989 on Légifrance). The official service-public guidance confirms these ceilings in English, stating that the deposit must not exceed one month’s rent excluding charges for an unfurnished home and two months’ rent excluding charges for a furnished home, and that the landlord cannot increase it during the lease or at renewal (service-public.fr, security deposit in a residential lease). Any clause in your lease that demands more than these ceilings is caught by the statutory list of abusive clauses, which deems unwritten any term that requires the tenant to pay sums on moving in beyond those provided for by the deposit and rent-advance rules (Article 4(o) of the law of 6 July 1989 on Légifrance).

The refund clock starts when you hand back the keys, and French law gives the landlord two possible deadlines. The default deadline is two months. The statute states: “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, déduction faite, le cas échéant, des sommes restant dues au bailleur et des sommes dont celui-ci pourrait être tenu, aux lieu et place du locataire, sous réserve qu’elles soient dûment justifiées.” (Article 22 of the law of 6 July 1989 on Légifrance). Keys handed over in person or sent by recorded delivery both start the clock, and the same sentence tells you the landlord may only subtract sums that are properly documented. To make that possible, the statute continues: “A cette fin, le locataire indique au bailleur ou à son mandataire, lors de la remise des clés, l’adresse de son nouveau domicile.” (Article 22 of the law of 6 July 1989 on Légifrance). Give your new address in writing when you return the keys, keep proof of it, and send it again with your first demand letter if you move back to Britain, because the late-payment penalty described below is lost if the delay comes from your failure to transmit that address.

The shorter deadline of one month applies when the exit inventory is clean. The statute states: “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, déduction faite, le cas échéant, des sommes restant dues au bailleur et des sommes dont celui-ci pourrait être tenu, en lieu et place du locataire, sous réserve qu’elles soient dûment justifiées.” (Article 22 of the law of 6 July 1989 on Légifrance). The état des lieux, the inventory of condition drawn up at check-in and check-out, therefore decides which deadline binds your landlord. If the two inventories match, the landlord has one month from the return of the keys. If they differ, the landlord has two months. Either way, the English-language official guidance confirms the same structure: return within one month where the inventories agree, within two months where they do not, with the keys returned in person against a receipt or by recorded delivery (service-public.fr, security deposit in a residential lease).

Tenants in blocks of flats meet a third mechanism: the charges provision. Most Paris, Lyon and city-centre flats sit in a copropriété, a jointly owned block with annual service-charge accounts, and the final account for your last year is rarely closed when you leave. The statute allows the landlord, in that situation, to keep back part of the deposit while waiting for the accounts. It provides that “le bailleur procède à un arrêté des comptes provisoire et peut, lorsqu’elle est dûment justifiée, conserver une provision ne pouvant excéder 20 % du montant du dépôt de garantie jusqu’à l’arrêté annuel des comptes de l’immeuble.” (Article 22 of the law of 6 July 1989 on Légifrance). The balance and final settlement then follow quickly, because the same article requires that they “sont effectuées dans le mois qui suit l’approbation définitive des comptes de l’immeuble.” (Article 22 of the law of 6 July 1989 on Légifrance). The Court of Cassation has drawn the practical consequence of this split timetable: it holds that “il résulte de ce texte que le dépôt de garantie est prévu pour garantir l’exécution de ses obligations locatives par le locataire et que, lorsque les locaux loués se situent dans un immeuble collectif, la régularisation définitive des charges et la restitution du solde, déduction faite, le cas échéant, des sommes restant dues au bailleur et de celles dont celui-ci pourrait être tenu en lieu et place du locataire, interviennent dans le mois qui suit l’approbation définitive des comptes de l’immeuble ;” (Court of Cassation, 3rd civil chamber, 31 May 2018, No. 17-18.069). A landlord who mixes the two timetables, for example by applying the two-month penalty calculation to a balance that legally follows the accounts-approval timetable, misreads the statute, and a judge will correct that reading.

Two further points close the picture on timing. First, the deposit does not earn you interest and cannot be topped up mid-lease: “Le montant de ce dépôt de garantie ne porte pas intérêt au bénéfice du locataire.” (Article 22 of the law of 6 July 1989 on Légifrance). Second, if the flat is sold while you live in it, you do not chase the former owner: “En cas de mutation à titre gratuit ou onéreux des locaux loués, la restitution du dépôt de garantie incombe au nouveau bailleur.” (Article 22 of the law of 6 July 1989 on Légifrance). And where the landlord misses the applicable deadline, the sanction is automatic and monthly: “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.” (Article 22 of the law of 6 July 1989 on Légifrance). The Court of Cassation confirmed very recently that this uplift runs on its own once the two-month point passes: “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.” (Court of Cassation, 3rd civil chamber, 12 February 2026, No. 24-21.258). The only statutory escape for the landlord is your own silence about where to send the money: “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.” (Article 22 of the law of 6 July 1989 on Légifrance). Send the address, keep the proof, and every month started late adds ten per cent of the monthly rent excluding charges to what you are owed.

B. What your landlord may lawfully deduct from your deposit in France

The same sentence that sets the refund deadlines closes the list of permitted deductions. The landlord may subtract only two categories: sums you still owe under the lease, and sums the landlord had to pay in your place, and only with proper documentary proof, since restitution is made “déduction faite, le cas échéant, des sommes restant dues au bailleur et des sommes dont celui-ci pourrait être tenu, aux lieu et place du locataire, sous réserve qu’elles soient dûment justifiées.” (Article 22 of the law of 6 July 1989 on Légifrance). In practice, that covers unpaid rent and charges for your occupation period, the annual service-charge adjustment once the block accounts are approved, and the cost of repairing damage that is genuinely yours, proved by the two inventories and backed by estimates or invoices. The official English-language guidance describes exactly this method: at the end of the lease the owner may deduct from the deposit the costs arising from the tenant’s failings, relying on the entry and exit inventories and justifying each sum with an estimate, invoices, or a documented claim for unpaid rent (service-public.fr, security deposit in a residential lease). A bare line billing 900 euros for repainting, with no invoice, no estimate and no inventory comparison does not meet the statutory standard of sums “dûment justifiées”.

The burden of proof point matters because landlords often invert it. Under the Civil Code, “Celui qui réclame l’exécution d’une obligation doit la prouver. Réciproquement, celui qui se prétend libéré doit justifier le paiement ou le fait qui a produit l’extinction de son obligation.” (Article 1353 of the Civil Code on Légifrance). The Court of Cassation applies that allocation directly to deposits: “celui qui réclame l’exécution d’une obligation doit la prouver et, réciproquement, celui qui se prétend libéré doit justifier le paiement ou le fait qui a produit l’extinction de son obligation.” (Court of Cassation, 3rd civil chamber, 12 February 2026, No. 24-21.258). Concretely, the landlord who keeps 600 euros for cleaning must prove the flat needed that cleaning beyond normal use, with the exit inventory, dated photographs and an invoice. You do not have to prove the flat was clean; the landlord has to prove it was not, and to put a documented price on putting it right.

Ordinary wear is the boundary most disputes turn on. French law does not make the tenant an insurer of the flat against time. The Civil Code provides that the tenant “Il répond des dégradations ou des pertes qui arrivent pendant sa jouissance, à moins qu’il ne prouve qu’elles ont eu lieu sans sa faute.” (Article 1732 of the Civil Code on Légifrance). Liability turns on fault and on deterioration, not on the slow ageing of materials under normal use: faded paint after eight years, a worn carpet path, small nail holes filled before departure and taps resealed by time are the landlord’s ageing stock, while cigarette burns, a cracked washbasin, a door kicked in or grease-blackened walls beyond normal cooking marks are damage a judge will lay at the tenant’s door. Where the parties signed an agreed wear schedule (grille de vétusté) with the lease, the judge applies it; where they did not, the judge compares the two inventories and apportions. The Court of Cassation illustrated that comparison method in a dispute about a cellar: having found that no key to the cellar had ever been handed to the tenants and that outside evidence showed the cellars could not be matched to flats and were used by strangers, it approved the appeal court for holding that “si l’état des lieux d’entrée ne comportait aucune mention relative à la cave donnée à bail, les locataires n’étaient pas responsables de son encombrement.” (Court of Cassation, 3rd civil chamber, 26 October 2023, No. 22-20.183). No mention in the entry inventory and no means of use means no tenant liability.

Certain deductions are forbidden outright because the lease term that would authorise them is deemed unwritten. The statute opens the list with the formula “Est réputée non écrite toute clause :” (Article 4 of the law of 6 July 1989 on Légifrance). Three entries matter most at check-out. A clause “Qui autorise le bailleur à percevoir des amendes ou des pénalités en cas d’infraction aux clauses d’un contrat de location ou d’un règlement intérieur à l’immeuble ;” is deemed unwritten (Article 4(i) of the law of 6 July 1989 on Légifrance). A clause “Qui impose au locataire la facturation de l’état des lieux de sortie dès lors que celui-ci n’est pas établi par un commissaire de justice dans le cas prévu par l’article 3-2 ;” is deemed unwritten (Article 4(k) of the law of 6 July 1989 on Légifrance). And a clause “Qui impose au locataire le versement, lors de l’entrée dans les lieux, de sommes d’argent en plus de celles prévues aux articles 5 et 22 ;” is deemed unwritten (Article 4(o) of the law of 6 July 1989 on Légifrance). So a lease that bills you a fixed 250 euros for the exit inventory, or that kept an extra “guarantee month” on top of the legal deposit, cannot ground a deduction, and a penalty for leaving the flat dusty is not a contractual fine the landlord may invent.

One deduction deserves a warning because it surprises British tenants who leave early: rent to the end of the notice period. Giving notice (congé) ends the lease but does not end the rent on the day you carry your boxes out. The Court of Cassation states the rule plainly: “lorsque le locataire a notifié le congé, il est redevable du loyer et des charges pendant tout le délai de préavis, l’acceptation de la remise des clés et la rédaction d’un état des lieux de sortie, qui n’établissent que la libération des lieux, ne suffisant pas à caractériser la renonciation non équivoque du bailleur au paiement de l’intégralité des loyers échus pendant le préavis.” (Court of Cassation, 3rd civil chamber, 4 June 2026, No. 25-13.387). If your notice period runs to 22 July and you hand back the keys on 1 July, the landlord may lawfully deduct the rent and charges up to 22 July from the deposit unless the flat is re-let sooner with the landlord’s agreement or the landlord unequivocally waived the balance. Check the deduction letter for this item before calling it abusive: a line charging rent to the end of the notice period is usually lawful, while a repaint unconnected to any inventory difference usually is not.

II. How do you challenge an unfair deposit deduction and make the French judge order payment?

A. How the entry and exit inventories decide who pays for damage in France

Everything at check-out is a comparison between two documents. The entry inventory taken when you moved in and the exit inventory taken when you left decide which marks were already there, which appeared during your tenancy, and therefore which the landlord may charge to the deposit. French law organises this comparison with unusual precision. The statute requires that the inventory follow procedures set by decree, in as many copies as there are parties, at key handover and key return, and that “Il est établi contradictoirement et amiablement par les parties ou par un tiers mandaté par elles et joint au contrat de location.” (Article 3-2 of the law of 6 July 1989 on Légifrance). Contradictoirement means both sides present, or properly represented, walking the flat together; amiablement means by agreement rather than imposed by one side. Be there in person, or mandate someone you trust in writing, and never sign an exit inventory whose descriptions you dispute without writing your reservations on the document itself. A signed inventory without reservations binds you; detailed written reservations keep the argument alive.

Where the parties cannot do it together, the statute sends for an independent officer, the commissaire de justice (the court commissioner who replaced the huissier de justice). The text provides: “Si l’état des lieux ne peut être établi dans les conditions prévues au premier alinéa, il est établi par un commissaire de justice, sur l’initiative de la partie la plus diligente, à frais partagés par moitié entre le bailleur et le locataire et à un coût fixé par décret en Conseil d’Etat.” (Article 3-2 of the law of 6 July 1989 on Légifrance). The safeguard for the absent party is a notice period: “Dans ce cas, les parties en sont avisées par le commissaire de justice au moins sept jours à l’avance, par lettre recommandée avec demande d’avis de réception.” (Article 3-2 of the law of 6 July 1989 on Légifrance). The official guidance confirms that this seven-day recorded-delivery notice is mandatory, that the officer draws up the report even if one party stays away, and that the findings then bind both sides (service-public.fr, security deposit in a residential lease). The cost rule has teeth in both directions. The Court of Cassation held that “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.” (Court of Cassation, 3rd civil chamber, 26 October 2023, No. 22-20.183). A landlord who organises the officer’s visit at short notice pays the whole bill alone.

The entry inventory protects you most when it is detailed, and its absence protects you even more than most tenants realise. The Civil Code provides: “S’il n’a pas été fait d’état des lieux, le preneur est présumé les avoir reçus en bon état de réparations locatives, et doit les rendre tels, sauf la preuve contraire.” (Article 1731 of the Civil Code on Légifrance). Read carefully, this presumption cuts both ways but starts in your favour where there is no entry inventory at all: without one, the landlord asserting damage must overcome the tenant’s ability to show the true initial state by any evidence, photographs, messages and witness statements included, while the official guidance goes further in the refusal scenario, explaining that a landlord who persists in refusing an entry inventory after formal notice must later prove the flat was handed over in good condition before blaming the tenant for anything (service-public.fr, security deposit in a residential lease). If your Paris agency rushed you through check-in with a two-line inventory, say so in your challenge letter, list what it omits room by room, and attach your dated move-in photographs. Judges reason from the documents, and a thin entry inventory plus your photographs beats a thick deduction letter.

Photographs and the paper trail decide close cases, so build them deliberately. At check-in, photograph every wall, floor, appliance and window, with the date recorded, and email the set to the agency the same day so the date is stamped by a third party. At check-out, do the same, attend the walk-through, and write measurable reservations rather than general protests: a note recording two small filled nail holes above the bedroom radiator is evidence, while a general statement that the flat was left in good condition is atmosphere. Keep every estimate and invoice the landlord sends, and ask in writing for the missing ones, because deductions must be documented and the landlord bears the burden of that proof (Article 1353 of the Civil Code on Légifrance). Where the dispute is really about disturbance from next door rather than damage inside your flat, the comparison method is different, and the remedies for persistent disturbance are explained in this guide to how French law handles neighbour noise and other neighbourhood disputes. Do not mix the two claims in one letter: the deposit letter argues inventories and invoices, and nothing else.

B. Which letter, conciliation and court claim gets your deposit back in France

Start with a formal demand letter, sent by recorded delivery with proof of receipt (lettre recommandée avec accusé de réception), because every later step asks what you already demanded in writing. Address it to the landlord or the managing agent, recall the lease address and dates, state the date the keys were returned and the new address you transmitted, and set out the arithmetic line by line: deposit paid, sums you accept as due with the proof attached, sums you dispute and why, the ten per cent monthly uplift for each month started late, and your bank details (RIB) for a transfer. Enclose copies of both inventories, your photographs, and the landlord’s deduction letter with your annotations. Give a firm deadline of fifteen days from receipt. Write in French or in bilingual form if your French is limited; a concise bilingual letter with the article numbers is more effective than a long English-only complaint, and the article numbers are above. From this point on, every exchange goes in writing, and every deadline in this guide is counted from a provable date, because French procedure rewards the party whose file is complete.

If the letter fails, conciliation comes next, and it is the step British claimants most often skip. The official guidance explains that the tenant may go directly to the judge but may first try settlement through a conciliateur de justice (a volunteer justice conciliator), the departmental conciliation commission (commission départementale de conciliation, known as the CDC) or a civil mediator (service-public.fr, security deposit in a residential lease). For deposit disputes, the CDC is the natural forum: it is the specialist board for residential lease disputes, it examines files from both sides, and its written opinion, even when the landlord ignores it, becomes a useful exhibit before the judge. File with the commission of the département where the flat is situated, attach the lease, both inventories, the deduction letter, your estimates or invoices, and your demand letter with its receipt. In Paris and the inner suburbs, where the great majority of rented homes are flats in jointly owned blocks, expect the landlord’s defence to lean on the twenty per cent charges provision described above; answer it by demanding the provisional statement of account and the date the annual accounts were approved, since the final balance must follow within the month after that approval (Article 22 of the law of 6 July 1989 on Légifrance). A landlord who cannot produce the approval date cannot justify keeping the provision.

If conciliation fails or the landlord ignores it, the claim goes to the specialist housing judge, the juge des contentieux de la protection, sitting in the court on which the rented home depends, as the official guidance confirms for tenancy disputes (service-public.fr, security deposit in a residential lease). For a Paris flat, that is the Paris court; for a flat elsewhere in the Île-de-France, it is the court of the place where the flat stands. Your claim asks for the balance of the deposit, the ten per cent uplift for each month started late running from the end of the one-month or two-month deadline as appropriate, and interest. Two recent decisions show how judges handle the defences you will meet. A landlord who claims to have paid by sending a cheque must prove the payment was effective: in the February 2026 ruling, the tenant disputed ever receiving a cheque the landlord said it had posted, the cheque was never cashed, and the court held the landlord to its burden, recalling that “celui qui réclame l’exécution d’une obligation doit la prouver et, réciproquement, celui qui se prétend libéré doit justifier le paiement ou le fait qui a produit l’extinction de son obligation.” (Court of Cassation, 3rd civil chamber, 12 February 2026, No. 24-21.258). Payment in French law is performance actually received, since “Le paiement est l’exécution volontaire de la prestation due.” (Article 1342 of the Civil Code on Légifrance). An uncashed cheque whose receipt is disputed proves nothing, and the uplift keeps running. And a landlord who deducts rent beyond your early departure must prove you owed it: rent runs to the end of the notice period, but only to that end, and early return of the keys alone does not extend it, as the June 2026 ruling confirms for the notice-period rule (Court of Cassation, 3rd civil chamber, 4 June 2026, No. 25-13.387).

A lighter procedural route exists for clear-cut files: the payment-order procedure (injonction de payer). The tenant applies to the judge on paper with the lease, the inventories and the unpaid balance, and the judge may issue an order directing the landlord to pay without a hearing. That is exactly how one reported deposit case began: “Après libération des lieux, la locataire a obtenu une ordonnance enjoignant au bailleur de lui payer une certaine somme en restitution du dépôt de garantie.” (Court of Cassation, 3rd civil chamber, 4 June 2026, No. 25-13.387). The landlord may then lodge an opposition, a formal objection, and the case continues as an ordinary hearing: “Le bailleur a fait opposition à cette ordonnance et a formé des demandes en paiement.” (Court of Cassation, 3rd civil chamber, 4 June 2026, No. 25-13.387). Use this route where the file is documentary and the sums are arithmetic: deposit receipt, two inventories, keys receipt, deduction letter, your computation. Where the case turns on who caused which mark, or on contested cleaning and repair invoices, file directly for a full hearing instead, so the judge can compare the evidence in open court. Either way, bring the complete file, originals and copies, with each deduction answered by an inventory line and a document. Judges in these courts see dozens of deposit files a month; the tenant whose folder mirrors the statute usually leaves with an order.

Conclusion

The French deposit system is strict with landlords and generous to tenants who keep paper. The deposit is capped at one month of rent excluding charges for an unfurnished home and two months for a furnished main home, it must come back within one month where the exit inventory matches the entry inventory and within two months otherwise, only documented sums may be subtracted, and each month started late adds ten per cent of the monthly rent to the balance. The inventories decide damage claims, abusive billing terms are deemed unwritten, an uncashed disputed cheque is not payment, and rent deducted beyond the notice period must be justified to the exact end date of that period. For a British tenant, the practical method is therefore simple: photograph everything at both ends, transmit the new address in writing with the keys, demand the balance by recorded delivery with full arithmetic, try the departmental conciliation commission, and then ask the housing judge to order payment. Handled in that order, with the documents this guide lists, a deposit dispute becomes what the statute intended it to be: a short comparison of two inventories and a shorter computation, ending in a transfer.