Your Paris tenant has not paid rent for two months. From London, New York or Geneva, the temptation is to fly over, change the locks, or send a strongly worded email giving notice. In France, every one of those reflexes is a legal trap: only a court can terminate a residential lease for unpaid rent, and only a commissaire de justice (court enforcement officer, formerly huissier de justice) can physically remove a tenant. This guide walks foreign landlords through the complete 2026 timeline — the six-week commandement de payer (formal order to pay), the court hearing, and the enforcement phase with its two-month waiting period and the winter truce — so you can calendar each step, avoid the formal errors that sink cases, and understand what a French judge will actually decide.
French rental enforcement is strictly procedural, and the procedure changed recently: since the Act of 27 July 2023, the key deadlines are counted in six weeks, not the two months older English-language guides still mention. The winter truce (trêve hivernale) runs from 1 November to 31 March, which makes October the worst month to discover arrears — and the best month to act. Every rule below is anchored in the statute in force in October 2026 and in recent decisions of the Cour de cassation (France’s supreme court for civil matters).
I. The Six-Week Trigger: Turning Arrears into a Court-Ready Case
Under Article 7 of the Act of 6 July 1989, the tenant’s first duty is simple: “Le locataire est obligé : a) De payer le loyer et les charges récupérables aux termes convenus” — the tenant must pay the rent and recoverable charges on the agreed terms.. That sentence, in the version in force since 15 June 2025, is the foundation of every arrears case. But a missed payment does not terminate anything by itself. The lease contains a mandatory termination clause — the clause résolutoire (automatic termination clause) — and Article 24 of the same Act states that “Cette clause ne produit effet que six semaines après un commandement de payer demeuré infructueux.” — the clause takes effect only six weeks after an unsuccessful order to pay. Those six weeks are the most important period in the whole procedure, for both sides.
A. Serving a Valid Commandement de Payer
The commandement de payer is not a reminder letter: it is a formal act served by a commissaire de justice, and it must reproduce the termination clause and contain six mandatory statements, failing which it is void. Article 24 requires, on pain of nullity: the statement that the tenant has six weeks to pay; the monthly amount of rent and charges; an itemised statement of the debt; a warning that without payment — or without applying for payment delays — the tenant faces court termination and eviction proceedings; notice of the right to apply to the departmental housing solidarity fund (fonds de solidarité pour le logement), with its address; and notice of the right to ask the court at any time for a grace period under Article 1343-5 of the Civil Code. A commandement that omits any of these, misstates the debt breakdown, or fails to reproduce the clause is liable to be annulled — and with it, months of procedure collapse. General civil law reinforces this strictness: “La mise en demeure ne produit effet que si elle mentionne expressément la clause résolutoire.” — a formal notice is effective only if it expressly mentions the termination clause.
Two parallel notifications run alongside the commandement, and foreign landlords frequently miss both. First, if the lease is guaranteed by a caution (guarantor), the commandement must be served on the guarantor within fifteen days of service on the tenant; otherwise the guarantor cannot be held liable for penalties or late interest. Check your guarantee paperwork now: a bank guarantee, a garant who is a relative, or an institutional guarantee each has its own enforcement path, but the fifteen-day notice is the common lock on the door. Second, once arrears have run uninterrupted for two months, or the debt equals twice the monthly rent excluding charges, the commissaire de justice must report the case — for individual landlords and family property companies — to the local eviction-prevention coordination commission (CCAPEX, commission de coordination des actions de prévention des expulsions locatives), with the occupants’ contact details and socio-economic situation. This report triggers a social and financial assessment (diagnostic social et financier) that the judge will later receive before the hearing. It is not optional, and it is the officer — not you — who files it, which is one more reason to instruct a local commissaire de justice early rather than managing the file from abroad by email.
Practical checklist before the six weeks expire: verify the debt statement line by line (rents, charges récupérables (recoverable service charges), housing benefit deducted or not), confirm the guarantor was notified within fifteen days, keep proof of every payment and every exchange, and continue to accept partial payments only with written advice — a private repayment plan signed inside the six-week window can, as shown below, defeat the termination entirely if the tenant honours it. Do not change the locks, cut utilities, or remove the tenant’s belongings: self-help eviction (voie de fait) exposes you to criminal liability and damages, however clear the arrears. Ask your officer to confirm in writing that all six mandatory statements appear in the act and that the debt breakdown distinguishes current rent, arrears and charges; Paris judges check this routinely, and a statement that lumps everything into a single undifferentiated balance is the most common ground for annulment pleaded by tenants’ counsel.
B. What the Tenant Can Still Do Inside the Six Weeks
The six weeks are not a countdown to automatic eviction; they are a last-chance window the law equips generously. The tenant may pay the full arrears — in which case the clause never takes effect. The tenant may apply to the housing solidarity fund for emergency aid. And, crucially, the tenant may ask the court for payment delays. A 2009 decision of the Third Civil Chamber of the Cour de cassation shows how seriously judges take a genuine repayment effort: the Court approved judges who had held that “le locataire, bénéficiaire d’un plan d’apurement dans le délai de deux mois du commandement, avait respecté ses engagements” — the tenant, granted a debt-clearance plan within two months of the order, had honoured his commitments., rejecting the landlord’s termination claim even though some instalments had arrived a few weeks late. The facts dated from 2005, under the former two-month rule, but the principle is intact under the current six-week regime: a repayment plan agreed promptly and substantially honoured blocks the clause.
Even after the six weeks expire without full payment, the judge keeps a broad power that surprises many foreign owners. Article 24(V) allows the court — at the tenant’s request, the landlord’s request, or on its own motion — to grant payment periods of up to three years, provided the tenant is in a position to clear the debt and has resumed paying the full current rent before the hearing date. This is more generous than the general two-year ceiling of Article 1343-5 of the Civil Code, whose logic it extends: “La décision du juge suspend les procédures d’exécution qui auraient été engagées par le créancier.” — the judge’s decision suspends enforcement proceedings already commenced by the creditor. The judge may also verify of his own motion every component of the rental debt and whether the dwelling meets the decency standards of Article 6 of the 1989 Act, and must invite the parties to disclose any consumer over-indebtedness (surendettement) proceedings — which open a separate, highly protective track under Article 24(VI), where the court aligns its payment schedule with the over-indebtedness commission’s plan. Landlords should therefore arrive at the hearing with a clean file: exact debt computation, rent receipts (quittances), proof of charges, and evidence the dwelling is decent and the diagnostics were delivered. A recent illustration of judicial scrutiny comes from the Third Civil Chamber’s ruling of 5 March 2026, on a mixed commercial-and-residential lease, recalling that “La clause résolutoire ne joue pas si le locataire se libère dans les conditions fixées par le juge.” — the termination clause does not operate if the tenant pays on the terms set by the judge. Residential judges apply the same verification to tenants’ defences, so expect the court to probe your file, not just the tenant’s bank statements.
Two timing rules complete the picture for this phase. First, act before the debt ages: “Les actions personnelles ou mobilières se prescrivent par cinq ans” — personal actions are time-barred after five years., so each instalment of arrears prescribes five years after its due date — old arrears quietly die if you wait. Second, if the flat appears empty and the tenant has vanished without paying, do not treat the lease as over: Article 14-1 of the 1989 Act provides a dedicated abandoned-dwelling procedure (see II.B), and entering the flat on your own authority remains unlawful.
II. From the Hearing to Physical Recovery of the Flat
Once the six weeks have expired without payment or an enforceable plan, the landlord sues — in practice before the juge des contentieux de la protection (protection-disputes judge) of the tribunal judiciaire (judicial court) where the flat is located. The claim asks the court to declare (constater) that the termination clause has taken effect, order payment of the arrears, fix an indemnité d’occupation (occupation fee, usually set at the rent level) running until the tenant actually leaves, and order eviction. For a landlord based abroad, this stage is typically handled through a French lawyer (avocat) working with your commissaire de justice; the 2022 case below even involved a landlady domiciled in Spain, a configuration Paris courts see routinely. For readers mapping the wider termination landscape — notices to vacate for sale or personal occupation (congé pour vendre, congé pour reprise) — our guide to resolutory and termination clauses in France sets out how those routes differ from the arrears track described here.
A. The Assignation and the Hearing: Formal Traps for Landlords
The assignation (writ of summons) must itself be notified by the commissaire de justice to the State representative in the département (préfet) at least six weeks before the hearing, so that a social and financial assessment is prepared and sent to the judge, the tenant and the landlord informed of the right to request payment delays. Miss this notification, or miscalculate it against the wrong hearing date, and the claim is inadmissible. The Cour de cassation enforces this prerequisite ruthlessly: on 9 February 2022 it quashed an appeal ruling in a residential arrears case — brought by a landlady living in Spain — holding that “à peine d’irrecevabilité de la demande, l’assignation aux fins de constat de la résiliation est notifiée à la diligence de l’huissier de justice au représentant de l’Etat dans le département” — on pain of inadmissibility, the summons must be notified by the enforcement officer to the State representative in the département; the case was decided under the former two-month rule., because the lower court had measured the period against a postponed hearing instead of the date fixed in the summons. The case was decided under the former two-month rule; since the July 2023 reform the period is six weeks, but the lesson is identical and current: calendar the notification against the hearing date stated in the writ, allow a safety margin, and re-notify if the hearing is postponed. Corporate landlords that are not family property companies face an additional admissibility lock: they may not summon the tenant before two months have passed since seizing the CCAPEX, a seizure deemed made once arrears were duly reported to the housing-benefit bodies.
At the hearing, three outcomes are possible. The judge may declare the clause acquired and order eviction with an occupation fee — the standard outcome where the debt is established and the tenant neither pays nor qualifies for delays. The judge may grant payment periods of up to three years under Article 24(V), suspending the clause’s effects; if the tenant complies, the lease survives, and only a fresh default revives the termination. Or the judge may dismiss the claim where the debt computation is wrong, the commandement was defective, or mandatory notifications were missed — which is why the file preparation described in Part I decides cases before they are pleaded. Where over-indebtedness proceedings are open and the tenant has resumed paying rent and charges, Article 24(VI) compels the judge to align delays with the over-indebtedness track, up to approval of a recovery plan or a personal-recovery judgment. Tenants’ defences — unfit housing, disputed charges, housing benefit mishandled — must be examined by the court, as the March 2026 ruling recalled, so landlords should treat the hearing as an audit of their own compliance, not a rubber stamp. One final deadline point: keep the five-year prescription in mind when computing the arrears claimed in the writ, and claim the occupation fee from the termination date, not merely from the judgment.
B. After Judgment: Enforcing, Waiting Out the Winter, or Facing an Empty Flat
A termination judgment does not empty the flat. The tenant becomes an occupant sans droit ni titre (occupant without right or title) owing the occupation fee, and physical eviction requires a second act — the commandement de quitter les lieux (order to vacate) — followed by another waiting period: “elle ne peut avoir lieu qu’à l’expiration d’un délai de deux mois qui suit le commandement” — eviction may occur only after a two-month period following the order to vacate.. Only then, if the tenant still refuses to leave, can the commissaire de justice seek police assistance (concours de la force publique) via the préfet. During this phase the judge may still grant the tenant renewable extensions where rehousing cannot occur under normal conditions: “Le juge peut accorder des délais renouvelables aux occupants de lieux habités ou de locaux à usage professionnel, dont l’expulsion a été ordonnée judiciairement, chaque fois que le relogement des intéressés ne peut avoir lieu dans des conditions normales.” — the judge may grant renewable time limits to occupants whenever their rehousing cannot take place under normal conditions. Budget for this: from judgment to actual recovery, several additional months are the norm, not the exception.
Then comes the calendar trap that matters most in October: the winter truce. “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” (“all unexecuted eviction measures are suspended from 1 November each year until 31 March of the following year) — all unexecuted evictions are suspended over winter, unless the occupants are rehoused in conditions meeting the family’s needs and unity. For the 2026–2027 season, that means any eviction not physically completed by 31 October waits until 1 April 2027 — while the occupation fee keeps running but the rent does not come in. The truce does not cancel the debt and does not restore the lease; it only freezes physical removal. Two narrow exceptions exist: no truce where the eviction follows an unlawful break-in into someone’s home by force or threats, and the judge may lift or reduce the truce for occupants who entered other premises by such means. Neither helps an ordinary arrears landlord — which is precisely why serving the commandement in October, rather than waiting to see, can decide whether you recover the flat in winter or in spring.
A distinct scenario deserves its own paragraph because foreign owners meet it often: the tenant who disappears owing rent, leaving the flat apparently empty. Article 14-1 of the 1989 Act provides the reprise des lieux abandonnés (recovery of abandoned premises): the landlord has the commissaire de justice serve a formal demand to justify occupation — which may be included in the Article 7 or Article 24 commandement — and “S’il n’a pas été déféré à cette mise en demeure un mois après signification, le commissaire de justice peut procéder, dans les conditions prévues aux articles L. 142-1 et L. 142-2 du code des procédures civiles d’exécution, à la constatation de l’état d’abandon du logement.” — if the demand goes unanswered one month after service, the officer may formally record the dwelling’s abandonment. The officer draws up a report with an inventory of goods left behind, and the judge who declares the lease terminated authorises auction sale of saleable items and declares the rest abandoned. In Paris practice, where the juge des contentieux de la protection handles heavy dockets and the Paris CCAPEX applies the standard procedural filters, owners who combine the abandonment demand with the arrears commandement from the outset save an entire procedural cycle. Throughout, foreign landlords should keep one address for service in France, answer the CCAPEX and préfet correspondence without delay, and route every step through the local officer and counsel — distance is manageable, but only through representatives empowered to receive and return documents within the six-week clocks. Paris adds practical friction worth pricing into your calendar: the prefecture’s autumn caseload for police assistance lengthens the gap between the end of the two-month post-judgment period and physical removal, and the capital’s tight rehousing market makes extension requests under Article L.412-3 harder to resist; neither changes the statute, but both reward landlords who finish the court phase before November. Readers structuring a French rental investment more broadly — financing, ownership vehicles and tax exposure for non-residents — will find the complementary picture in our Paris real-estate practice for international owners, which is the natural starting point before any single dispute arises.
Conclusion
Evicting a non-paying tenant in France is a three-clock procedure: six weeks from the commandement de payer before the termination clause can take effect, six weeks’ notice of the summons to the préfet before the hearing, and two months from the commandement de quitter les lieux before physical eviction — all of it pausable by the judge’s three-year payment delays and freezable by the 1 November–31 March winter truce. The landlord who serves a formally perfect commandement in October, notifies the guarantor within fifteen days, lets the CCAPEX machinery run, and arrives at the hearing with an exact, prescription-checked debt file will normally obtain termination and an occupation fee; the landlord who improvises — approximate debt, missed préfet notification, self-help entry — hands the tenant the defences the Cour de cassation requires judges to examine. Start the six-week clock now, and the spring will settle the arrears; wait, and the winter will settle the calendar for you.