Leaving a French rental property is often harder than entering it. A British tenant may have returned the keys, closed the utility accounts and gone back to the United Kingdom, yet still be waiting for the money paid at the start of the tenancy. In French law, that money is the dépôt de garantie, meaning the rental deposit. It is not the same as a guarantor, even though both are sometimes called a “caution” in everyday French.

Brexit does not remove the protection given by French residential-tenancy law. The decisive questions are usually practical: when were the keys returned, did the exit condition report match the entry report, what deductions has the landlord actually justified, and can the tenant prove the payment and the address supplied for repayment? A landlord cannot replace those questions with a vague statement that the property needed “renovation”. Conversely, a tenant cannot safely treat the deposit as the final month’s rent or assume that every deduction is unlawful.

This guide deals with the recovery of a deposit from a French residential tenancy after departure. It covers the one-month and two-month deadlines, charges, damage, normal wear, an unpaid cheque, a formal demand, conciliation and a claim before the French protection litigation judge. It also explains how a British tenant can preserve evidence and conduct the case from abroad.

I. How does the French rental deposit work for a British tenant after Brexit?

A. Which deadline applies when the keys are returned?

The first task is to identify the contract. A normal French residential tenancy is called a bail d’habitation. The person renting the property is the locataire, or tenant, and the owner or agency is the bailleur, or landlord. The rules discussed here mainly concern a furnished or unfurnished tenancy used as the tenant’s main home and governed by the French law of 6 July 1989. A seasonal holiday letting, a business lease, a room let under a different legal regime or a tenancy that is not the tenant’s main residence may require a separate analysis.

At the beginning of the tenancy, the landlord may have received a dépôt de garantie, the sum intended to secure the tenant’s obligations. In an unfurnished tenancy it cannot normally exceed one month’s rent excluding charges. In a furnished tenancy it can normally reach two months’ rent excluding charges. A bail mobilité, or mobility lease, follows a different rule and does not use a rental deposit in the same way. The word “deposit” in this article therefore means money paid to the landlord and repayable at the end of the tenancy, not a promise by a third-party guarantor to pay rent.

The governing rule is Article 22 of the law of 6 July 1989 on residential tenancies. It states, in the official wording, that the deposit is returned within “« 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 »”. Where the exit condition report is consistent with the entry condition report, the period is reduced to one month. The same provision also says that deductions are allowed only for sums “« sous réserve qu’elles soient dûment justifiées »”.

This produces a calendar that should be calculated from the actual handover of the keys, not from the date on which the tenancy file was closed by an agency. If the exit report is compliant, the landlord normally has one month. If it records differences that may support a deduction, the landlord normally has two months. The report is the état des lieux, which means the condition report prepared when the tenant receives and returns the property. The date on which the tenant moved furniture out is not necessarily the date that starts the clock. The evidence should identify the moment when the keys were physically handed over, posted by recorded delivery or formally received by a judicial officer.

The written condition reports matter because Article 3-2 of the same law requires that an état des lieux be established at the delivery and return of the keys, in the same form and with a copy for each party. The current text explains that it is made “« contradictoirement et amiablement par les parties ou par un tiers mandaté par elles »”. If the parties cannot prepare it together, a commissaire de justice—a French judicial officer, formerly called a huissier—can establish it after the required notice. A tenant who was abroad for the exit appointment should preserve the agency’s invitation, the signed report, photographs, videos and any email recording who had the keys.

The one-month rule is not a licence for the landlord to wait for an internal accounting process that has nothing to do with the condition of the property. The two-month rule is not an automatic right to retain the entire deposit. It is the maximum period for the relevant account to be settled, and any remaining amount must still be returned. In a building subject to co-ownership, Article 22 allows a properly justified provisional retention for charges, but the provision cannot exceed 20% of the deposit. The landlord must then complete the account after the annual co-ownership accounts are approved and return the balance.

A British tenant should record four dates in a single table:

1. the date on which the tenancy ended;
2. the date and method by which the keys were returned;
3. the date on which the entry and exit condition reports were signed or received; and
4. the date on which the landlord received the tenant’s new address and bank details.

That table is more useful than a series of unexplained screenshots. It also prevents a common mistake: counting the deadline from the date on which the tenant sent a casual email rather than from the date on which the keys were returned.

Brexit does not change this timetable. A British national who has a Withdrawal Agreement Residence Permit (WARP), called a titre de séjour accord de retrait in French, may have residence rights preserved if they were living in France before 1 January 2021. A British national who arrived later may rely on another residence permit or visa. Those immigration categories can affect the right to live or work in France, but they do not authorise a landlord to keep a rental deposit without a justified legal basis. The GOV.UK guide to living in France directs British nationals to the relevant French residence, housing and professional authorities; the tenancy dispute itself remains governed by the French contract and housing rules.

The person who owes the money may also change during the tenancy. Article 22 provides that, after a sale or other transfer of the rented premises, repayment is the responsibility of the new landlord. A change of managing agent does not make the deposit disappear. The tenant should identify the owner shown on the last rent receipt, the agency acting at the end of the tenancy and, if the property was sold, the new landlord. A letter sent only to the former agency may not be enough to protect the claim if the agency no longer holds the funds.

Payment itself must also be analysed. A landlord may say that a cheque was written, an online transfer was initiated or an instruction was given to the bank. That does not necessarily prove that the deposit reached the tenant. In Cour de cassation, Third Civil Chamber, 12 February 2026, no. 24-21.258, the Court dealt with a cheque that had not been cashed. It held: “« sans constater que le bailleur justifiait de la réception du chèque par le locataire, qui la contestait, le juge a violé les textes susvisés »”. For a tenant now living in the United Kingdom, this is particularly practical. Keep the envelope, postal tracking, bank statement, cheque image and every message about the alleged repayment. A payment instruction and an effective repayment are not automatically the same event.

The tenant should also provide a reliable address and bank account at the time the keys are returned. Article 22 excludes the late-payment increase when the delay is caused by the tenant’s failure to provide a new address. A British tenant who has moved to the UK should therefore send the full postal address, a usable email address and bank details in writing, and keep proof that the landlord received them. If the tenant later changes bank account, the change should be sent by a traceable message rather than buried in an informal exchange.

The deposit is not a substitute for the final rent. The official Service-Public explanation of the rental deposit states that the tenant must pay the rent and charges until the end of the tenancy and must not deduct the deposit from the last instalment. A tenant who stops paying the last month because the landlord has not repaid an earlier deposit may create a separate rent debt. The two claims should be kept separate, even when the landlord’s conduct has been frustrating.

B. Which deductions and evidence can the landlord lawfully rely on?

Where the dispute requires a tailored review of the lease, condition reports, deductions and recovery strategy, see the firm’s French rental-deposit dispute service. That service page is a practical internal reference; the present article remains focused on the cross-border position of a British tenant after Brexit.

Article 22 does not give the landlord a general right to make the property “better” at the tenant’s expense. A deduction must relate to a sum owed by the tenant or to a sum that the landlord must pay in the tenant’s place, and it must be properly supported. The official evidence normally includes the entry and exit condition reports, dated photographs, an invoice, a quotation, a judicial officer’s report, a rent or charges statement, or a documented claim for unpaid rent. A spreadsheet prepared by the landlord alone may help explain the calculation, but it does not automatically establish that the tenant caused the damage or that the amount is reasonable.

Article 1353 of the French Civil Code sets out the allocation of proof: “« 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. »” In this setting, the tenant proves the lease, the deposit, the key handover and the failure to repay. The landlord who says that a repair, charge or rent balance extinguishes part of the repayment obligation must produce the material basis for that position.

The condition report is normally the first comparison. Article 3-2 requires a report at entry and exit, and Article 7 of the same residential-tenancy law makes the tenant responsible for damage and loss occurring during the tenancy, subject to the statutory exceptions. The text describes the tenant’s duty to answer for damage unless the tenant proves that it arose through force majeure, the landlord’s fault or the act of a third party whom the tenant did not introduce into the property. It also places ordinary maintenance and minor tenant repairs on the tenant, except where age, defective construction, an accidental event or force majeure explains the problem.

That does not make every difference between the two reports chargeable. Paint fading, small marks consistent with ordinary use, an old appliance reaching the end of its life and a defect already recorded at entry may be vétusté, meaning normal wear and age. The parties may have an agreed obsolescence schedule, sometimes called a grille de vétusté, which reduces the chargeable value of an item as it ages. The landlord should not use a new invoice to charge the tenant for the full replacement of an old item without addressing age, condition and improvement.

The landlord’s own duties matter as well. Article 6 of the law of 6 July 1989 says that the landlord must provide decent accommodation and maintain the premises in a condition suitable for the contractual use. The current wording requires the landlord to provide a “« logement décent ne laissant pas apparaître de risques manifestes pouvant porter atteinte à la sécurité physique ou à la santé »”. A deposit cannot be used to transfer the landlord’s structural, plumbing, heating or safety obligations to the tenant. If a British tenant reported leaks, damp, defective heating or unsafe electrical equipment during the tenancy, those messages may be relevant both to the alleged deduction and to a separate claim.

Article 20-1 of the law provides a route where the property is not decent. It states that, when the home does not satisfy the relevant parts of Article 6, the tenant may ask the owner to bring it into compliance without invalidating the existing contract; if there is no agreement or answer within two months, the departmental conciliation commission may be involved. The official text of Article 20-1 is useful when the landlord calls a condition that was caused by a building defect a “tenant repair”. A deposit dispute and a decency claim are not identical, but the evidence can overlap.

The requirement to show an actual loss is reinforced by Cour de cassation, Third Civil Chamber, 27 June 2024, no. 22-21.272. In that decision, the Court held that, “« sans constater qu’un préjudice pour les bailleurs était résulté de la faute contractuelle de la locataire »”, the judge could not award damages. The practical point is not that a landlord must always complete the works before making any claim. It is that a deduction must correspond to a proven loss, not merely to the existence of an alleged failure or to a wish to improve the property. The comparison between the reports, the age of the item, the quotation or invoice and the work actually required should be visible.

The Court reached a related conclusion in Cour de cassation, Third Civil Chamber, 10 September 2020, no. 19-10.033. It stated: “« le dépôt de garantie est restitué par le bailleur 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 »”. In that case, the court could not award the full deposit and the late penalties while failing to take account of a proven amount due for repairs. The rule works both ways: a landlord may deduct a genuine, justified debt, but an unexplained deduction cannot be treated as established merely because it appears in the landlord’s account.

The 2024 case should also stop a tenant from arguing that every quotation is automatically worthless. A quotation may be evidence of the likely cost, especially where the property must be made safe quickly. The dispute concerns the link between the condition report and the alleged work, the tenant’s responsibility, the age and state of the item, the necessity of the work and the amount claimed. A judge can distinguish a justified repair from an improvement, a routine maintenance cost or an unproved estimate.

Charges require a separate calculation. If the property is in a collective building and charges were paid by provisional payments rather than a fixed package, the landlord may need to wait for the co-ownership accounts. The law nevertheless limits the provisional retention and requires a final adjustment. A demand should ask for the charge statement, the period concerned, the co-ownership approval date and the basis on which the landlord says the amount is recoverable from the tenant. “Annual accounts are not ready” is not a complete answer when the landlord has kept the whole deposit for years.

The tenant’s evidence should be assembled before sending a demand. For a British tenant, the file should include the signed tenancy, proof of the deposit payment, rent receipts, entry and exit reports, the key-handover proof, photographs, inventory of furniture in a furnished property, meter readings, the landlord’s deductions, repair messages, the new postal address, bank details and the landlord’s alleged repayment evidence. If the deposit was paid from a UK account, keep the bank statement showing the amount, date, currency and recipient. If the landlord quotes a sum in pounds while the legal debt is in euros, record the exchange rate and the date used. A short explanatory schedule can prevent a judge from having to reconstruct the currency movement from raw statements.

A British tenant who signed an English-language summary should still check the French contract. The French version may define the rent, charges, notice period, furnished status, guarantor and deposit differently. If the landlord sends a French quotation or condition report, retain the original and prepare an English working translation. In a court file, the original document remains important; a translation helps the tenant identify the issue and instruct a French lawyer or representative. Do not overwrite the original PDF with an edited translation.

II. What can a British tenant do after moving back to the UK when the deposit is not returned?

A. How should the demand and the amicable route be prepared?

The first formal step is a mise en demeure, meaning a formal notice requiring the landlord to perform by a stated deadline. A series of friendly emails may show that the tenant tried to resolve the matter, but it may not provide the same clarity as a dated demand sent by recorded delivery. The letter should identify the property, the tenancy, the key-handover date, the deposit amount, the deadline that applied, the amount already repaid, each unexplained deduction and the documents still missing.

The legal foundation for a demand is not limited to Article 22. Article 1103 of the Civil Code states: “« Les contrats légalement formés tiennent lieu de loi à ceux qui les ont faits. »” The tenancy agreement, the mandatory statutory rules and any signed condition report form the starting framework. Article 1344 of the Civil Code explains how a debtor is put in default: “« Le débiteur est mis en demeure de payer soit par une sommation ou un acte portant interpellation suffisante, soit, si le contrat le prévoit, par la seule exigibilité de l’obligation. »” The letter should therefore be explicit about the sum claimed and the action required.

The demand should usually ask for:

1. the unpaid balance of the deposit;
2. the statutory increase for each late month, where the conditions are satisfied;
3. the documents supporting each deduction, including the condition reports, photographs, quotations, invoices and charge statements;
4. confirmation of the date and method of any alleged repayment; and
5. payment by a traceable method to the tenant’s nominated account.

The statutory increase is calculated on the deposit still owed, at 10% of the monthly rent excluding charges for each started monthly period of delay. The landlord cannot use the tenant’s move back to the UK as an excuse. The exception that matters is the tenant’s failure to communicate a new address. That is why a tenant who has left France should attach proof that the address and bank details were communicated. If the landlord sent a cheque to an old address after receiving the new one, the correspondence and postal tracking may be decisive.

Cour de cassation, Third Civil Chamber, 22 June 2022, no. 21-14.525 confirms the timing of the statutory increase. The Court held that “« la majoration court de plein droit à l’issue du délai de deux mois suivant la remise des clés »”. It rejected the idea that the increase should wait until a summons or a judgment merely because the landlord preferred to rely on the length of the proceedings. The precise one-month or two-month starting period still depends on the exit condition report, but once the applicable deadline has expired, a later demand does not create the delay from nothing.

The demand should not exaggerate. If the landlord has produced an invoice for a genuine charge, claim the balance rather than the gross deposit. If a 20% charges provision is lawfully retained, ask for the final account and claim the remainder. If the condition report records damage, explain why the damage is normal wear, pre-existing, caused by the landlord’s failure or overcharged. A short claim with a transparent calculation is usually stronger than a demand that describes every disagreement as fraud.

The letter should be sent to the correct person. Address the owner named in the tenancy or the current owner where the property was transferred. Copy the agency that managed the tenancy. Use a French address if available, but send a parallel email with the PDF attached and keep the delivery records. From the UK, a French recorded letter can be organised through a representative, a French lawyer or a service that gives reliable proof of delivery. The purpose is not to create a technical trap; it is to remove uncertainty about what was requested, when it was received and which documents were missing.

If the landlord does not pay, the next route depends partly on the amount. For a claim not exceeding €5,000, Article 750-1 of the French Code of Civil Procedure provides that, subject to its exceptions, the court action must be preceded by an attempt at conciliation, mediation or a participatory procedure, “« à peine d’irrecevabilité que le juge peut prononcer d’office »”. The Service-Public procedure for an unreturned deposit directs the former tenant to a conciliator of justice, the departmental conciliation commission or a civil mediator before a claim where the amount is below the threshold. This is not a reason to wait indefinitely: the tenant should keep the proof of the attempt and move on if the landlord refuses to engage.

The departmental conciliation commission is the commission départementale de conciliation, often abbreviated CDC. It is a free administrative conciliation body for residential-tenancy disputes. It may help when the disagreement concerns the deposit, charges or a condition report. The official Service-Public explanation of the CDC warns that, if the tenant signs an agreement giving up part of the deposit, the dispute may be settled on that point. Read any proposed agreement carefully. A British tenant who cannot attend in person should ask whether the hearing can be handled by written submissions, video attendance or a representative, and should confirm the arrangement in writing.

The tenant must continue paying any rent and charges that remain due. The deposit claim should not be used as a reason to stop another tenancy payment. The same discipline applies to a landlord’s demand for additional repairs: acknowledge the issue, request evidence and reserve the tenant’s position, rather than making an admission merely to obtain a quick repayment.

B. When should the tenant bring a claim, and what can be requested?

If conciliation fails, the former tenant can bring the dispute before the juge des contentieux de la protection, the French protection litigation judge who hears many residential-tenancy disputes. The competent court is generally connected to the location of the rented property. The official Service-Public guidance identifies the protection litigation judge of the court for the property and states that the claim to recover a deposit must be made within three years from the date on which the deposit should have been returned. A tenant who has returned to Britain should not assume that leaving France prevents the claim. It changes the practical arrangements for service, documents and attendance, but not the existence of the contractual claim.

The court file should be arranged so that each amount can be checked quickly. A useful order is:

1. a one-page chronology with the tenancy dates and key handover;
2. the tenancy and any amendments;
3. proof of the deposit and rent payments;
4. the entry and exit condition reports, inventory and photographs;
5. the landlord’s deductions and supporting documents;
6. the formal demand and delivery proof;
7. the conciliation or mediation record; and
8. a calculation of the principal, the late increase and any additional loss.

The main request is repayment of the deposit balance. The tenant can add the statutory 10% monthly increase where Article 22 applies. The calculation should state the monthly rent excluding charges, the applicable one-month or two-month deadline, the number of started months of delay and the amount still unpaid. If a part of the deposit was repaid, the calculation should identify the date and amount of that repayment and avoid claiming the same sum twice.

The landlord’s argument that the deposit was “kept for repairs” should be tested line by line. Cour de cassation, Third Civil Chamber, 26 October 2023, no. 22-20.183 dealt with a situation in which the landlord’s proven rent and repair claims exceeded the deposit. The Court explained that the deposit had to be set against the amounts owed by the tenants. That decision is not a blanket permission to retain a deposit. It means that a tenant should not seek the whole deposit while ignoring an established rent debt or a properly demonstrated repair debt. The calculation must show the net balance.

The reverse argument is equally important. An unverified estimate does not prove that the tenant owes the full amount. The landlord should show the condition difference, the cause, the work required and the amount. A replacement that improves the property should not be charged at full new value without addressing the old item’s age. A charge statement should identify the period and the legal basis for recovery. A claim for cleaning should be linked to the exit condition report and not to an undated photograph taken after the keys were returned.

The 2026 decision in no. 24-21.258 is especially useful where the landlord says that a cheque was sent. The tenant should ask for the cheque copy, the dispatch evidence, the address used and proof of receipt or encashment. If the cheque was never deposited, the tenant can explain the practical consequence: the debt was not necessarily paid. The Court’s reasoning does not remove the need to prove the tenant’s address or to act honestly. It prevents a landlord from treating an unreceived instrument as conclusive payment when the tenant disputes receipt.

The court may also consider evidence of additional loss, but it should be separately identified. A British tenant may have had to pay a second deposit in the UK, incur bank charges, pay translation costs or lose the use of the money. Those costs are not automatically added to the deposit balance. They should be supported by bank records, invoices and a clear explanation of causation. The tenant should distinguish the statutory increase under Article 22 from damages under the Civil Code. The former follows the late repayment rule when its conditions are met; the latter requires proof of a separate loss.

If the dispute includes poor housing conditions, the tenant may ask the judge to distinguish the deposit account from the landlord’s maintenance duties. Article 6 places the duty to maintain non-tenant repairs on the landlord, while Article 20-1 gives the tenant a route to request compliance for an unsuitable home. A landlord cannot justify retaining the deposit by charging the tenant for a defect that was reported during the tenancy and falls within the landlord’s duty. Conversely, a tenant’s failure to clean, a broken item caused by misuse or an unpaid charge can remain chargeable even where another maintenance issue existed.

The tenant should decide early whether a lawyer or French representative is needed. A small, well-documented deposit claim may be handled by the tenant, but a lawyer can be valuable when the landlord counterclaims for repairs, the property has been sold, the tenancy classification is disputed, the tenant is outside France or several documents are in French. The lawyer can also check whether the contract is covered by the 1989 law, calculate the penalty, prepare a French demand and ensure that the procedural route is correct. The tenant should provide the full original file, not only the documents that appear favourable.

A British tenant who remains in France may have an easier practical route to a local judicial officer, conciliator or court registry. A tenant who has returned to the UK should plan for distance from the start. Choose one email address for the case, store the documents in a dated folder, keep originals, provide a reliable service address and ask the court or representative about any attendance requirement. Do not ignore a registered French letter or a court notice because it is difficult to read. The deadline for responding may be shorter than the three-year period for bringing the original deposit claim.

The same method applies in Paris and Île-de-France, although the tenant must identify the tribunal connected to the property rather than choosing a court because the agency’s head office is in Paris. If the property was in Paris, the western suburbs, Seine-Saint-Denis, Val-de-Marne or another department, the department and court should be checked against the property address. The tenant should also preserve any local conciliation request, the agency’s registered address and the identity of the landlord shown in the lease. A British tenant living elsewhere in France or back in the United Kingdom does not lose the claim because the former property was in another department.

Conclusion

A French rental deposit is not a discretionary goodwill payment. For a British tenant, the decisive file is built around the key handover, the entry and exit condition reports, justified deductions, the new address and proof of payment. Article 22 normally gives the landlord one month when the reports match and two months when justified differences exist, with a 10% monthly increase on the amount still due when repayment is late. The landlord may deduct a real and supported rent, charge or repair debt, but cannot charge unexplained improvements or rely on an unreceived cheque as conclusive repayment.

The safest sequence is to calculate the deadline, preserve the original documents, send a precise formal notice, complete the required amicable step for a claim up to €5,000 and then bring the net claim before the protection litigation judge for the property. Moving back to the United Kingdom changes the logistics, not the French legal framework. A clear bilingual evidence bundle and a disciplined calculation usually do more for the case than a long exchange of informal emails.