You bought a flat in Paris or the inner suburbs as an investment, found a tenant, and for a while the rent arrived every month. Then the payments stopped. One month becomes three, your emails go unanswered, and you start wondering what a British owner can actually do inside the French legal system after Brexit. The short answer is reassuring: your rights as a landlord are exactly the same as those of a French owner. No statute gives you fewer remedies because you hold a British passport, and no court will treat your lease differently because the rent used to cross the Channel. The longer answer is more demanding. France protects sitting tenants with one of the most formalistic eviction procedures in Europe. Every step runs through a court officer, every notice must contain specific compulsory warnings, and a single missing sentence can get your whole case thrown out. This guide walks you through the procedure in the order you will actually meet it: the formal demand for payment, the people you must notify, the court hearing, the grace periods the judge can grant, the winter truce, and the physical eviction. It explains each French term the first time it appears, quotes the exact legal texts you will rely on, and shows you where landlords most often lose cases they should have won.<\/p>\n
The foundation of the whole procedure is a document called the commandement de payer, a formal demand for payment served by a commissaire de justice. The commissaire de justice is a sworn court officer, formerly called the huissier de justice, who alone can serve the procedural acts that move an eviction forward. A recorded-delivery letter from you, however firmly worded, is not a commandement de payer and starts no legal time limit. If you live in London and manage the flat from there, instruct a commissaire de justice practising where the property sits, or ask your managing agent to do so under a written authority. The cost of service is modest. The cost of skipping it is the loss of your case.<\/p>\n
The reason this document matters so much is that almost every residential lease in France must contain a termination clause, known as the clause r\u00e9solutoire, and that clause can only operate through the commandement. The statute provides: \u00ab Tout contrat de bail d’habitation contient une clause pr\u00e9voyant la r\u00e9siliation de plein droit du contrat de location pour d\u00e9faut de paiement du loyer ou des charges aux termes convenus ou pour non-versement du d\u00e9p\u00f4t de garantie. Cette clause ne produit effet que six semaines apr\u00e8s un commandement de payer demeur\u00e9 infructueux. \u00bb Source: article 24 of Act No. 89-462 of 6 July 1989, on L\u00e9gifrance<\/a>. Read that time limit carefully. Many English-language guides still say the tenant has two months to pay after the demand. That was the old law. Since the reform of 2018, the period is six weeks, and a commissaire de justice working from an outdated template can still cost you months if the commandement has to be re-served.<\/p>\n The same article lists what the demand must contain, on pain of nullity, meaning the court must treat a defective demand as if it never existed. It must state: \u00ab La mention que le locataire dispose d’un d\u00e9lai de six semaines pour payer sa dette \u00bb (Source: article 24 of Act No. 89-462 of 6 July 1989, on L\u00e9gifrance<\/a>) and carry: \u00ab L’avertissement qu’\u00e0 d\u00e9faut de paiement ou d’avoir sollicit\u00e9 des d\u00e9lais de paiement, le locataire s’expose \u00e0 une proc\u00e9dure judiciaire de r\u00e9siliation de son bail et d’expulsion \u00bb (Source: article 24 of Act No. 89-462 of 6 July 1989, on L\u00e9gifrance<\/a>). It must also reproduce: \u00ab La mention de la possibilit\u00e9 pour le locataire de saisir, \u00e0 tout moment, la juridiction comp\u00e9tente aux fins de demander un d\u00e9lai de gr\u00e2ce sur le fondement de l’article 1343-5 du code civil. \u00bb (Source: article 24 of Act No. 89-462 of 6 July 1989, on L\u00e9gifrance<\/a>). Each of these sentences must actually appear in the act. The general law of termination clauses points the same way: \u00ab La clause r\u00e9solutoire pr\u00e9cise les engagements dont l’inex\u00e9cution entra\u00eenera la r\u00e9solution du contrat. La r\u00e9solution est subordonn\u00e9e \u00e0 une mise en demeure infructueuse, s’il n’a pas \u00e9t\u00e9 convenu que celle-ci r\u00e9sulterait du seul fait de l’inex\u00e9cution. La mise en demeure ne produit effet que si elle mentionne express\u00e9ment la clause r\u00e9solutoire. \u00bb Source: Civil Code, article 1225, on L\u00e9gifrance<\/a>. In practice, ask your commissaire de justice to send you a copy of every commandement before it is served and check the three warnings yourself. If the clause r\u00e9solutoire is not expressly mentioned, the demand produces no effect.<\/p>\n Two further points catch British landlords by surprise. First, if someone stood guarantor for the tenant, a person called the caution, the demand must be served on that guarantor within fifteen days of service on the tenant: \u00ab le commandement de payer est signifi\u00e9 \u00e0 la caution dans un d\u00e9lai de quinze jours \u00e0 compter de sa signification au locataire. A d\u00e9faut, la caution ne peut \u00eatre tenue au paiement des p\u00e9nalit\u00e9s ou des int\u00e9r\u00eats de retard. \u00bb (Source: article 24 of Act No. 89-462 of 6 July 1989, on L\u00e9gifrance<\/a>). Miss that fortnight and the guarantor escapes the penalties and late interest, even if the rest of your case succeeds. Second, once arrears have run uninterrupted for two months, or the debt reaches twice the monthly rent without charges, the commissaire de justice must report the demand to the local prevention body, the CCAPEX, the commission de coordination des actions de pr\u00e9vention des expulsions locatives, the commission that coordinates action to prevent evictions. This report is automatic and works in your favour: it creates the official record that you acted early and lets the social services contact the tenant before positions harden.<\/p>\n One warning belongs here, because it shapes everything that follows. The tenant can apply to the court for extra time to pay at any point, even very late in the proceedings. The Court of Cassation, the Cour de cassation, France’s highest civil court, has held: \u00ab Qu’en statuant ainsi, alors qu’aucun d\u00e9lai n’est impos\u00e9 au preneur pour saisir le juge d’une demande de d\u00e9lais de paiement et de suspension des effets de la clause r\u00e9solutoire, la cour d’appel a viol\u00e9 le texte susvis\u00e9 ; \u00bb (Court of Cassation, Third Civil Chamber, 16 February 2011, appeal No. 10-14.945: full decision on courdecassation.fr<\/a>). The same decision recalls the old wording of the rule, that the clause \u00ab ne produit effet que deux mois apr\u00e8s un commandement de payer demeur\u00e9 infructueux \u00bb, which has since become six weeks, but the procedural lesson is unchanged: you cannot count on the tenant running out of time to ask for mercy. Build your file from day one as if a judge will read it with sympathy for the tenant, because one will.<\/p>\n While the six weeks run, resist every temptation to take matters into your own hands. Changing the locks, removing the front door, cutting off electricity or water, or moving the tenant’s belongings to the pavement exposes you to criminal liability for trespass and unlawful entry, and it will poison your civil case. Keep paying the building charges, keep a clean rent ledger, called a d\u00e9compte locatif, showing every sum due and every euro received, and keep copies of every reminder you sent. If you hold rent-guarantee insurance, called garantie des loyers impay\u00e9s, notify the insurer within the time limit printed in your policy, often within days of the first missed payment. Late notification is the most common reason insurers refuse to pay.<\/p>\n If the six weeks expire without full payment, the lease is eligible for termination, but you still cannot go to court the next morning. French procedure forces you to warn the public authorities first, so that eviction remains the last resort. The summons that asks the court to record the termination, called the assignation aux fins de constat de la r\u00e9siliation, must be notified to the pr\u00e9fet, the representative of the State in the d\u00e9partement, the French administrative district, at least six weeks before the hearing. The pr\u00e9fet then refers the tenant to the social support services for a financial and social assessment, known as the diagnostic social et financier. Fail to notify the pr\u00e9fet in time and your summons is inadmissible, meaning the court will declare it void without even looking at the merits. The leading case makes the point bluntly. The Court of Cassation quashed a decision that had accepted an earlier notification as sufficient, holding: \u00ab Qu’en statuant ainsi, alors que toute assignation tendant \u00e0 la r\u00e9siliation du bail doit \u00eatre notifi\u00e9e au pr\u00e9alable \u00e0 la commission, peu important qu’elle ait \u00e9t\u00e9 ant\u00e9rieurement saisie dans le cadre d’une pr\u00e9c\u00e9dente proc\u00e9dure, la cour d’appel a viol\u00e9 le texte susvis\u00e9 ; \u00bb (Court of Cassation, Third Civil Chamber, 18 June 2014, appeal No. 13-15.049: full decision on courdecassation.fr<\/a>). The named commission has since been replaced in this role by the CCAPEX and pr\u00e9fet route described above, but the principle the case states has only grown stronger: every single termination action needs its own prior notification, and pointing to an earlier file from a previous dispute will not save you.<\/p>\n The guarantor needs attention at this stage too. Serving the commandement on the caution within fifteen days preserves your claim to penalties and interest against that person, but recovering the main debt from the guarantor still requires suing them properly, usually in the same proceedings. If the guarantee was given by a company or a bank, check whether the guarantee deed caps the amount or the duration. Many British parents who guarantee a student’s Paris studio are surprised to learn that their commitment is enforceable in France under French formalities, not under English notions of fairness, and equally many landlords discover too late that the guarantee expired after one year.<\/p>\n Time limits cut both ways, so calendar them from the start. Claims for back rent are personal actions for money, and the Civil Code provides: \u00ab Les actions personnelles ou mobili\u00e8res se prescrivent par cinq ans \u00e0 compter du jour o\u00f9 le titulaire d’un droit a connu ou aurait d\u00fb conna\u00eetre les faits lui permettant de l’exercer. \u00bb Source: Civil Code, article 2224, on L\u00e9gifrance<\/a>. In plain terms, each missed monthly rent has its own five-year clock. Landlords who let arrears drift for years while hoping the tenant will catch up can find the oldest months time-barred. Sue within the period, and each new missed month starts its own clock. Keep the ledger month by month so your lawyer can show the court exactly which sums are still recoverable.<\/p>\n A short note on geography, since most British-owned rental flats sit in Paris and the inner ring. In Paris the pr\u00e9fet to notify is the pr\u00e9fet de police de Paris, and the case goes to the tribunal judiciaire de Paris, the Paris local court. Waiting times for a hearing there are counted in months, not weeks, so the six-week notification to the pr\u00e9fet should be sent the moment your lawyer drafts the summons, not the week before the target hearing date. If your flat is in the Petite Couronne, the three inner-ring d\u00e9partements around Paris, the same logic applies to the tribunal judiciaire of that d\u00e9partement. Your commissaire de justice must in any event practise within the jurisdiction where service happens, which is another reason to use a local officer rather than trying to run the procedure from London.<\/p>\n Finally, remember that the British side of your life does not pause while the French case runs. Rents from a French flat are taxable in France first, and the France-United Kingdom double tax treaty then decides how the United Kingdom treats the same income. Our companion guide explains the treaty credit, the social charges and the declaration forms in detail (see our guide for British residents declaring United Kingdom rental income in France: British Resident in France with UK Rental Income<\/a>). On the United Kingdom side, residents must also declare foreign rental income to HM Revenue and Customs under the foreign income rules (see Tax on foreign income on gov.uk<\/a>). Keep the tax file and the eviction file separate in your mind: the tenant’s arrears do not suspend your duty to declare the rents due, and the tax office will not wait for the court.<\/p>\n The hearing takes place before the tribunal judiciaire where the flat is located. Your lawyer will ask for three things: a finding that the termination clause has operated, an order that the tenant pay the arrears with interest, and an order to leave, backed by a monthly occupation payment, called the indemnit\u00e9 d’occupation, until the tenant actually goes. The tenant will often ask for the opposite: time to pay and suspension of the termination clause. Expect the judge to take both sides seriously. The statute arms the judge with a broad power of mercy: \u00ab Le juge peut, compte tenu de la situation du d\u00e9biteur et en consid\u00e9ration des besoins du cr\u00e9ancier, reporter ou \u00e9chelonner, dans la limite de deux ann\u00e9es, le paiement des sommes dues. \u00bb And the same article adds: \u00ab La d\u00e9cision du juge suspend les proc\u00e9dures d’ex\u00e9cution qui auraient \u00e9t\u00e9 engag\u00e9es par le cr\u00e9ancier. \u00bb Source: Civil Code, article 1343-5, on L\u00e9gifrance<\/a>. A two-year repayment schedule is therefore always on the table where the tenant shows an ability to pay going forward. If the tenant resumes paying the current rent in full before the hearing and sticks to the schedule the judge sets, the statute provides: \u00ab Si le locataire se lib\u00e8re de sa dette locative dans le d\u00e9lai et selon les modalit\u00e9s fix\u00e9s par le juge, la clause de r\u00e9siliation de plein droit est r\u00e9put\u00e9e ne pas avoir jou\u00e9. \u00bb (Source: article 24 of Act No. 89-462 of 6 July 1989, on L\u00e9gifrance<\/a>). Only if the tenant defaults again does the clause revive with full effect.<\/p>\n The tenant’s strongest substantive defence has nothing to do with sympathy and everything to do with your own conduct. Under French law a party may refuse to perform where the other side seriously fails first: \u00ab Une partie peut refuser d’ex\u00e9cuter son obligation, alors m\u00eame que celle-ci est exigible, si l’autre n’ex\u00e9cute pas la sienne et si cette inex\u00e9cution est suffisamment grave. \u00bb Source: Civil Code, article 1219, on L\u00e9gifrance<\/a>. This is the exception d’inex\u00e9cution, the defence of non-performance. Tenants invoke it where the flat is unfit, the heating has been dead for months, or the landlord never carried out promised compliance works, and argue that withholding rent was a lawful answer to the landlord’s own breach. The landlord’s underlying duties are strict: \u00ab Le bailleur est oblig\u00e9, par la nature du contrat, et sans qu’il soit besoin d’aucune stipulation particuli\u00e8re : 1\u00b0 De d\u00e9livrer au preneur la chose lou\u00e9e et, s’il s’agit de son habitation principale, un logement d\u00e9cent. \u00bb and \u00ab 2\u00b0 D’entretenir cette chose en \u00e9tat de servir \u00e0 l’usage pour lequel elle a \u00e9t\u00e9 lou\u00e9e \u00bb. Source: Civil Code, article 1719, on L\u00e9gifrance<\/a>. The Court of Cassation confirmed the danger for landlords very recently, quashing an appeal decision that had enforced a termination clause without examining whether the tenant had stopped paying precisely because the landlord had failed to carry out agreed compliance works on the premises (Court of Cassation, Third Civil Chamber, 5 March 2026, appeal No. 24-15.820: full decision on courdecassation.fr<\/a>). That case concerned commercial premises, but the principle it applies is general. The practical lesson for a British landlord is direct: keep the flat in repair, answer complaints in writing, keep the invoices for every intervention, and never give the tenant a genuine repair grievance in the months when rent stops. A boiler you refused to fix can cost you the eviction.<\/p>\n Two more defences appear regularly. The tenant may file with the over-indebtedness commission, the commission de surendettement, which can suspend the enforceability of the rental debt while it examines the file. You will be invited to comment, so respond with a clear statement of the debt and the payment history. Or the tenant may simply show that the debt is far smaller than you claim, for example because housing benefit, called aide personnalis\u00e9e au logement, was paid directly and misallocated, or because charges were never properly reconciled. This is why the monthly d\u00e9compte matters: a judge faced with a confused account will grant generous delays, while a judge shown a clean ledger and a tenant who never engaged will terminate. If you are unsure how the tenant’s mirror-image rights work, our tenant-side guide shows exactly what advice tenants receive in these cases (see British Tenant Renting in France: Deposit, Repairs and Eviction Defence<\/a>). Reading it will tell you what your opponent is preparing.<\/p>\n One technical distinction is worth making because British owners often let furnished. The six-week article 24 procedure described above governs unfurnished homes, the bail d’habitation vide. Furnished lets, the location meubl\u00e9e, follow the general law of termination clauses, where the demand must still expressly mention the clause to have effect, under article 1225 quoted above, but the special six-week and pr\u00e9fet-notification machinery works differently. If your flat is let furnished, ask your lawyer to confirm which regime each step follows before anything is served. Serving an unfurnished-lease commandement on a furnished tenant, or the reverse, is exactly the kind of error that gets cases declared void.<\/p>\n Winning the judgment is not the same as recovering the flat. The court orders the tenant to leave, but the tenant gets a minimum period to go voluntarily. Once the commissaire de justice serves the order to leave, called the commandement de quitter les lieux, the statute provides: \u00ab Si l’expulsion porte sur un lieu habit\u00e9 par la personne expuls\u00e9e ou par tout occupant de son chef, elle ne peut avoir lieu qu’\u00e0 l’expiration d’un d\u00e9lai de deux mois qui suit le commandement \u00bb. Source: Code of Civil Enforcement Procedures, article L. 412-1, on L\u00e9gifrance<\/a>. During those two months the tenant can ask the enforcement judge, the juge de l’ex\u00e9cution, for more time: \u00ab Le juge peut accorder des d\u00e9lais renouvelables aux occupants de lieux habit\u00e9s ou de locaux \u00e0 usage professionnel, dont l’expulsion a \u00e9t\u00e9 ordonn\u00e9e judiciairement, chaque fois que le relogement des int\u00e9ress\u00e9s ne peut avoir lieu dans des conditions normales. \u00bb Source: Code of Civil Enforcement Procedures, article L. 412-3, on L\u00e9gifrance<\/a>. Those grace periods run from one month to one year: \u00ab La dur\u00e9e des d\u00e9lais pr\u00e9vus \u00e0 l’article L. 412-3 ne peut, en aucun cas, \u00eatre inf\u00e9rieure \u00e0 un mois ni sup\u00e9rieure \u00e0 un an. \u00bb Source: Code of Civil Enforcement Procedures, article L. 412-4, on L\u00e9gifrance<\/a>. The judge weighs the good or bad faith of the occupant, the ages, health and family situations on both sides, the efforts the tenant has made to find new housing, and the time needed for rehousing. A tenant who pays the occupation indemnity and shows genuine search efforts will usually get several months. A tenant who pays nothing and ignores every letter will get the minimum.<\/p>\n Then comes the calendar trap that shocks foreign owners every year: the winter truce, called the tr\u00eave hivernale. The statute orders: \u00ab Nonobstant toute d\u00e9cision d’expulsion pass\u00e9e en force de chose jug\u00e9e et malgr\u00e9 l’expiration des d\u00e9lais accord\u00e9s en vertu de l’article L. 412-3, il est sursis \u00e0 toute mesure d’expulsion non ex\u00e9cut\u00e9e \u00e0 la date du 1er novembre de chaque ann\u00e9e jusqu’au 31 mars de l’ann\u00e9e suivante, \u00e0 moins que le relogement des int\u00e9ress\u00e9s soit assur\u00e9 dans des conditions suffisantes respectant l’unit\u00e9 et les besoins de la famille. \u00bb Source: Code of Civil Enforcement Procedures, article L. 412-6, on L\u00e9gifrance<\/a>. In plain English, no physical eviction of a dwelling between 1 November and 31 March unless the occupants are rehoused. The truce does not cancel the debt and does not cancel the judgment. Interest and the occupation indemnity keep running. But the removal itself waits for April. Factor this into every decision: a judgment obtained in September may be enforced in weeks, while the same judgment obtained in late October can mean five more months of waiting. Starting early in the year is not just good practice, it is money.<\/p>\n When the day finally comes, only the commissaire de justice can carry out the removal, with the tenant’s furniture inventoried and placed under the proper procedure, and with police assistance where the pr\u00e9fet has granted it, a step called the concours de la force publique. If the tenant has vanished, a separate procedure for recovery of abandoned dwellings applies, with its own notices and inventory, and you must not simply re-let and throw the remaining belongings away. The official tenant-facing procedure is described step by step by the public service (see Unpaid rent and tenant eviction on service-public.fr<\/a>). Reading the same page the tenant reads keeps you one step ahead and reminds you of each notice the tenant will receive.<\/p>\n After recovery, two files remain open. First, the money: the judgment for arrears can be enforced against wages and bank accounts through the commissaire de justice, and against the guarantor within the limits of the guarantee, always inside the five-year limitation recalled above. Second, the flat: have the checkout inventory, the \u00e9tat des lieux de sortie, drawn up promptly, quantify any damage beyond normal wear, and offset lawfully against the security deposit, the d\u00e9p\u00f4t de garantie, with reasons and receipts. Our rental-income guide covers how to report the recovered sums and the unpaid months on the French return (see our rental income guide: British Resident with UK Rental Income<\/a>). Close the tax loop the same year you close the court file.<\/p>\n Put the whole timeline end to end and the logic of the French system becomes clear. Act at the first missed payment with a polite but written reminder, and mandate a commissaire de justice as soon as a second month goes unpaid. Let the six-week commandement run with all its compulsory warnings, make sure the guarantor is served within fifteen days, and let the automatic report to the prevention commission create your paper trail. Notify the pr\u00e9fet at least six weeks before the hearing, sue for the arrears before any month turns five years old, and arrive at the tribunal judiciaire with a clean ledger, proof of a well-maintained flat, and a realistic view of the repayment schedule the judge can impose. After judgment, expect the two-month order to leave, possible grace periods of one month to one year, and the winter truce from November to March. None of this turns on Brexit: British landlords use the same courts, the same officers and the same articles as everyone else. What decides these cases is never nationality. It is preparation, formal exactness, and speed. Start the formal procedure while the debt is small, keep every notice letter-perfect, and keep the flat in a condition no tenant can complain about, and the system that looks so protective of tenants will deliver your termination, your money order and, in the end, your flat.<\/p>\n Our office offers a telephone consultation within 48 hours with a lawyer of the firm for British landlords facing unpaid rent in France. Call 06 46 60 58 22<\/a> or write via our contact page<\/a>. We assist landlords across Paris and \u00cele-de-France with formal demands, hearings and eviction enforcement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" British landlord whose French tenant stopped paying? The six-week formal demand, court termination, winter truce and eviction explained, with remedies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":251031309,"featured_media":16299,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kj_source_type":"","_kj_official_id":"","_kj_official_url":"","_kj_judilibre_id":"","_kj_jur":"","_kj_lieu":"","_kj_chambre":"","_kj_rg":"","_kj_date":"","activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"federated","footnotes":""},"categories":[80312,80314],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2126553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-british-desk","category-decryptage"],"yoast_head":"\nB. The guarantor, the pr\u00e9fet and the prevention commission: who you must notify and when<\/h3>\n
II. From the Court Hearing to the Eviction \u2014 What the Judge Can Order and What Can Still Stop You<\/h2>\n
A. At the hearing: back rent, termination and the tenant’s last-minute defences<\/h3>\n
B. After the judgment: the two-month wait, the winter truce and getting your flat back<\/h3>\n
Conclusion<\/h2>\n
Need a quick opinion on your case<\/h2>\n