You have just signed the authentic deed for a Paris apartment, and the keys come with a sitting tenant who has no intention of leaving. For many foreign buyers this is the most unpleasant surprise in French property law: the sale does not end the lease, the tenant’s contract continues against you on exactly the same terms, and you cannot simply ask the occupant to leave because you are the new owner. French residential leases are built to survive a change of landlord, and recovering the flat requires a formal statutory notice, served at the right moment, in the right form, for one of the reasons the statute allows \u2014 or the lease renews itself without you.<\/p>\n
This guide explains how a foreign owner lawfully recovers a tenanted home in France: the two notices that can end the lease at its term, the tenants the statute shields even from a valid notice, and the procedural traps \u2014 timing, service, proof, and the winter suspension of evictions \u2014 that most often defeat foreign landlords. The framework is cong\u00e9<\/em> (formal notice to end the lease) under Article 15 of the Law of 6 July 1989<\/a>, four recent Cour de cassation rulings that fix how courts apply it, and the general lease rules of the Civil Code. Figures and deadlines below concern ordinary unfurnished residential leases; furnished lets, social housing, and commercial leases follow different regimes. Readers looking for an overview of how a purchase is structured should also see our real estate practice in Paris<\/a> before planning the recovery around completion.<\/p>\n French law starts from a principle the Civil Code states plainly: “Si le bailleur vend la chose lou\u00e9e, l’acqu\u00e9reur ne peut expulser le fermier, le m\u00e9tayer ou le locataire qui a un bail authentique ou dont la date est certaine”, meaning that where the landlord sells the rented property, the buyer cannot expel a tenant holding an authentic lease or a lease with a certain date (Article 1743 of the Civil Code<\/a>). In practice every residential lease signed through an agent or registered in any verifiable way meets that condition, so the buyer steps into the seller’s shoes and the lease runs to its term. An unfurnished residential lease lasts three years and renews itself tacitly for the same period unless one party serves a valid cong\u00e9<\/em> (notice) at least six months before the term. The statute allows the landlord only three families of reasons: taking the home back to live in it or house a close relative, selling it, or a serious and legitimate ground such as persistent breach by the tenant. The notice must state its reason, on pain of nullity, and the six-month clock is strict: “Le d\u00e9lai de pr\u00e9avis applicable au cong\u00e9 est de six mois lorsqu’il \u00e9mane du bailleur”, the notice period for a notice served by the landlord is six months (Article 15, I, of the Law of 6 July 1989<\/a>, version in force since 29 July 2023). A notice served five months and three weeks before the term is not merely late; it is ineffective, and the lease renews.<\/p>\n The cong\u00e9 pour vendre<\/em> (notice to sell) is the route for the owner who bought the flat as an investment and now wants to sell it empty, or who bought it occupied at a discount and intends to resell. It must state the price and conditions of the planned sale, again on pain of nullity, because the notice operates as a standing offer to the tenant: “Le cong\u00e9 vaut offre de vente au profit du locataire : l’offre est valable pendant les deux premiers mois du d\u00e9lai de pr\u00e9avis”, the notice counts as an offer of sale to the tenant, valid during the first two months of the notice period (Article 15, II, of the Law of 6 July 1989<\/a>). The tenant therefore gets first refusal at your stated price during those two months, and this is where foreign sellers most often miscalculate: pitch the price artificially high to discourage the tenant and you will struggle to sell to anyone else at that figure; pitch it low and the tenant may accept.<\/p>\n If the tenant accepts, the timetable becomes unforgiving for both sides. The tenant has two months from sending the acceptance to complete the authentic deed, extended to four months where the reply states that a loan is needed, and the lease is prolonged until that deadline expires. If the sale is not completed in time, the acceptance is void by operation of law and the tenant loses every right to remain \u2014 the statute provides that “l’acceptation de l’offre de vente est nulle de plein droit et le locataire est d\u00e9chu de plein droit de tout titre d’occupation”, as Article 15, II, of the Law of 6 July 1989<\/a> provides, meaning the acceptance is void as of right and the tenant is deprived as of right of any right of occupation. A buyer-owner should therefore calendar three dates from the notice: the end of the tenant’s two-month acceptance window, the end of the completion window, and the end of the six-month notice itself, because each triggers a different consequence.<\/p>\n Two court-tested warnings complete the picture. First, where the tenant exercises the pre-emption and a third-party buyer is evicted from the expected purchase, the disappointed buyer sometimes sues the notaire<\/em> (the public officer who authenticates the deed) for having instrumented the sale to the landlord’s chosen buyer. The Cour de cassation rejected that line of attack: “seul le bailleur pouvait se pr\u00e9valoir de la nullit\u00e9 de l’acceptation de l’offre de vente qu’\u00e9dicte l’article 15, II, alin\u00e9a 5, de la loi du 6 juillet 1989”, only the landlord may invoke the nullity of the acceptance of the sale offer laid down by that provision, so a notaire<\/em> who draws up the deed requested by the landlord after the deadline has “manqu\u00e9 \u00e0 aucune de ses obligations professionnelles”, breached none of his professional duties toward the evicted buyers (Cass., 1st civ., 15 January 2015, No. 14-11.019<\/a>). Second, where the flat was sold in successive lots or the landlord tries to bypass the tenant’s right by structuring the deal around it, courts treat such arrangements as fraud on the tenant’s pre-emption and annul the bypass. Before serving a notice to sell, have the price validated against a realistic valuation, confirm that no prior promise to a third party contradicts the offer, and instruct the notaire<\/em> early so the completion window does not expire for lack of a scheduled signing.<\/p>\n Foreign buyers should also note the special timetable that applies precisely because they bought the flat already occupied. Where the current lease ends more than three years after the acquisition, the new owner may give notice to sell at that term; where it ends less than three years after acquisition, notice to sell is only possible at the end of the first tacit renewal or first renewal of the running contract \u2014 which in practice forces the buyer to wait. This anti-speculation mechanism, written into Article 15, I, means an occupied flat bought at a discount cannot always be emptied and resold at the first lease term. Check the acquisition date against the lease term before promising a lender or a future buyer any vacancy date.<\/p>\n The cong\u00e9 pour reprise<\/em> (notice of repossession) is the route for the owner who wants the flat back to live in it personally or to house a defined circle of relatives. The statute lists the only possible beneficiaries exhaustively: the landlord, the spouse, the partner bound by a civil solidarity pact registered at the date of the notice, a notorious cohabitant of at least one year at that date, ascendants and descendants of any of them. The notice must give, on pain of nullity, the name, address, and family link of the beneficiary, and where the landlord repossesses for himself he must show that the decision is genuine and serious. Tenants routinely challenge repossession as a pretext \u2014 alleging the flat will in fact be re-let at a higher rent or sold \u2014 and the judge “peut, m\u00eame d’office, v\u00e9rifier la r\u00e9alit\u00e9 du motif du cong\u00e9”, may verify of his own motion the reality of the reason for the notice and compliance with the article’s obligations (Article 15, I, of the Law of 6 July 1989<\/a>). A repossession that is not followed by genuine occupation exposes the landlord to damages, assessed under the general fault principle of Article 1240 of the Civil Code<\/a>: “Tout fait quelconque de l’homme, qui cause \u00e0 autrui un dommage, oblige celui par la faute duquel il est arriv\u00e9 \u00e0 le r\u00e9parer”, any act whatever that causes damage to another obliges the person at fault to repair it.<\/p>\n The leading recent ruling on proof is forgiving to honest landlords but demanding on substance. In October 2023 the Third Civil Chamber held that “La cour d’appel, qui pouvait tenir compte d’\u00e9l\u00e9ments post\u00e9rieurs d\u00e8s lors qu’ils \u00e9taient de nature \u00e0 \u00e9tablir cette intention, en a souverainement d\u00e9duit le caract\u00e8re r\u00e9el et s\u00e9rieux de l’intention du bailleur, au jour de la d\u00e9livrance du cong\u00e9, de reprendre le logement pour l’habiter \u00e0 titre de r\u00e9sidence principale, et a ainsi l\u00e9galement justifi\u00e9 sa d\u00e9cision”, meaning the court of appeal, which could take account of later evidence capable of establishing that intention, sovereignly deduced from it the genuine and serious character, at the date the notice was served, of the landlord’s intention to take the home back as his principal residence, and thereby gave a legally sufficient basis for its decision (Cass., 3rd civ., 12 October 2023, No. 22-18.580<\/a>). In that case a widowed landlord who wanted to return to his home region proved his project with voter registration, works invoices, utility subscriptions, and a letter to the tax office \u2014 all dated after the notice \u2014 and the Court accepted that later facts may confirm an intention that existed at the date of service. The same decision usefully confirms that the landlord is not required, on pain of nullity, to spell out inside the notice itself the evidence of that genuine and serious character; the nullity sanction attaches to the missing reason, beneficiary details, and deadline, not to the absence of a full evidential file.<\/p>\n For a foreign owner the practical lesson is to build the occupation file from day one and keep living in the flat once recovered. Move your r\u00e9sidence principale<\/em> (principal residence) markers promptly: voter registration where possible, utilities and internet in your name, insurance for an occupied principal home, tax correspondence, and removal invoices. Keep a second home elsewhere if you wish \u2014 the Court expressly accepted that the landlord could establish his principal residence in the recovered flat while keeping a secondary residence in the south \u2014 but the recovered flat must genuinely become the principal home, not a pied-\u00e0-terre visited twice a year. Where repossession is for a child studying in Paris or a retired parent, mirror the same file in the beneficiary’s name and keep proof of the family link current at the notice date, since the one-year cohabitation and PACS-registration conditions are assessed at that date. And where you bought the flat occupied less than two years before the lease term, remember the brake: “lorsque le terme du contrat en cours intervient moins de deux ans apr\u00e8s l’acquisition, le cong\u00e9 pour reprise donn\u00e9 par le bailleur au terme du contrat de location en cours ne prend effet qu’\u00e0 l’expiration d’une dur\u00e9e de deux ans \u00e0 compter de la date d’acquisition”, where the running contract ends less than two years after acquisition, the repossession notice takes effect only at the expiry of two years from acquisition (Article 15, I<\/a>). Serve early, but do not expect the tenant to leave before that two-year line.<\/p>\n Even a perfectly drafted notice fails against certain tenants unless the landlord adds something more: a concrete relocation offer. And even a valid notice followed by a court order does not produce an eviction on demand. Foreign owners who budget six months from notice to vacant possession routinely discover both shields too late.<\/p>\n The strongest shield is age combined with modest means. The statute provides that the landlord may not refuse renewal by notice against any tenant over sixty-five whose annual income falls below the ceiling set for allocated social housing, unless a home matching the tenant’s needs and means is offered within the statutory geographic area; the same protection extends to a tenant supporting a over-sixty-five occupant living habitually in the flat where the household’s combined income stays below the ceiling (Article 15, III, of the Law of 6 July 1989<\/a>). A fourth paragraph grants equivalent protection to recipients of the disability-related allowance it designates. The only statutory exit for the landlord is symmetry of vulnerability: these paragraphs do not apply where the landlord himself is a natural person over sixty-five or with annual income below the same ceiling. Corporate landlords \u2014 including the family soci\u00e9t\u00e9 civile immobili\u00e8re<\/em> (non-trading property company, known as SCI) through which many foreign families hold Paris flats \u2014 can never use that exemption, a point worth weighing before choosing the holding vehicle.<\/p>\n The October 2024 ruling every landlord’s counsel now cites fixed the income-measurement rule that decides most of these cases: “les ressources \u00e0 prendre en compte pour calculer ce montant sont celles per\u00e7ues par le locataire au titre des douze mois qui pr\u00e9c\u00e9dent la d\u00e9livrance du cong\u00e9”, the income to be counted is what the tenant received over the twelve months preceding service of the notice (Cass., 3rd civ., 24 October 2024, No. 23-18.067<\/a>). The landlord SCI in that case argued for the last full calendar year shown on a tax notice; the Court rejected it, confirmed the rolling twelve-month window assessed at the notice date, and \u2014 the landlord having offered no compliant relocation \u2014 annulled the notice outright. Before serving any notice on a tenant who may be over sixty-five, therefore, reconstruct the twelve months preceding the planned service date from pay slips, pension statements, and the latest tax notice, compare the total with the current allocation ceiling for the household size, and if the tenant qualifies, do not serve until a genuinely matching relocation offer exists. An offer must correspond to the tenant’s needs and means and sit within the permitted geographic perimeter; a studio across the metropolitan area for a tenant who raised children in a three-room flat near their doctors will not survive challenge.<\/p>\n One older ruling softens the logistics without softening the duty: “l’article 15 III de la loi du 6 juillet 1989 n’oblige pas le bailleur \u00e0 pr\u00e9senter au locataire prot\u00e9g\u00e9 une offre de relogement en m\u00eame temps qu’il lui d\u00e9livre le cong\u00e9”, Article 15, III does not oblige the landlord to present the relocation offer at the same time as the notice, “et qu’il faut et suffit que l’offre de relogement soit faite pendant la p\u00e9riode de pr\u00e9avis”, and it is necessary and sufficient that the offer be made during the notice period (Cass., 3rd civ., 2 June 2010, No. 09-66.698<\/a>). The offer may therefore follow the notice, but it must arrive before the notice expires and be sufficiently detailed to prove the match with needs and means. In practice, engage a relocation search as soon as the income analysis suggests protection, document each proposal with surface, rent, location, and accessibility features, and keep copies of everything transmitted. Where the tenant’s age is borderline \u2014 sixty-five assessed at the lease expiry \u2014 verify the birth date against the contract term rather than the service date, and where household composition is disputed, ask for the evidence early through counsel rather than discovering it in defence pleadings.<\/p>\n A valid reason is only half the battle; French courts annul notices for formal defects with no mercy, and foreign landlords supply most of the classic errors. Serve every co-holder of the lease: where the flat is the couple’s home, the lease belongs to both spouses or registered partners by operation of law \u2014 “est r\u00e9put\u00e9 appartenir \u00e0 l’un et \u00e0 l’autre des \u00e9poux ou partenaires li\u00e9s par un pacte civil de solidarit\u00e9”, it is deemed to belong to both spouses or partners (Article 1751 of the Civil Code<\/a>) \u2014 so a notice served on one spouse only is vulnerable. Use service by commissaire de justice<\/em> (court officer, formerly known as huissier) wherever the budget allows: it proves the date and content of service, whereas registered letters generate disputes over actual receipt and start-date computation. Calendar the six months backwards from the lease term, not forwards from your acquisition, and add the acquired-occupied waiting rules of Part I before announcing any date to a bank, a future buyer, or a relocation firm.<\/p>\n Then comes the season most foreign owners underestimate. Even with a validated notice and a court order, “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”, all not-yet-executed eviction measures are suspended from 1 November each year until the following 31 March, unless the occupants are rehoused in conditions preserving family unity and needs (Article L.412-6 of the Code of Civil Enforcement Proceedings<\/a>). This tr\u00eave hivernale<\/em> (winter truce on evictions) does not cancel the eviction; it freezes its execution, and enforcement resumes on 1 April with police assistance if needed. A notice expiring in October therefore means, in the worst case, departure in April at the earliest \u2014 and that assumes the validation judgment is already final, which it rarely is. File the validation claim (assignation en validation du cong\u00e9<\/em>, summons seeking court confirmation of the notice) before the local protection-litigation judge as soon as the tenant signals refusal, because Paris dockets add many months between summons and judgment, and a tenant who pays an indemnit\u00e9 d’occupation<\/em> (occupation payment ordered after the lease ends) while defending is harder to present as an urgent case.<\/p>\n The endgame deserves a clear-eyed budget. If the tenant leaves voluntarily at the notice date, costs stay limited to service and counsel. If the tenant contests, expect a first-instance validation fight over the reason, the form, and any claimed protection; if the tenant stays past the term without right, the court sets an occupation payment, usually near the former rent, but collection from an unwilling occupant is its own procedure. A fraudulent or pretextual notice reverses the flow entirely: the evicted tenant sues for the cost of the move, the rent differential, and moral damages under Article 1240, and judges who detect a sham \u2014 a flat re-let within months at a higher rent, a fictitious beneficiary, works that contradict the stated project \u2014 award accordingly and remember the file if the same landlord returns. Before serving, run the departmental conciliation commission (commission d\u00e9partementale de conciliation<\/em>, the free mediation body for lease disputes) where dialogue exists; a conciliated departure with a documented timetable and a modest departure payment almost always costs less than a contested validation followed by a winter freeze. Keep every document \u2014 lease, renewals, rent receipts, correspondence, service records, income evidence, relocation offers \u2014 for at least the duration of the dispute plus one year, and never change the locks, cut utilities, or remove belongings yourself: self-help eviction is a criminal matter in France, whatever the lease says.<\/p>\n Recovering a tenanted flat in France is a three-gate process, and the foreign owner should test each gate before spending on the next. First, identify the only lawful exit that fits: notice to sell with its price-and-pre-emption machinery, notice of repossession with its closed list of beneficiaries and genuine-occupation proof, or serious breach \u2014 and verify the acquired-occupied waiting periods against your acquisition date. Second, screen the tenant for the age-and-income shield, measure twelve months of income backwards from the planned service date, and secure a matching relocation offer inside the notice period where protection applies. Third, serve impeccably on all co-holders, file for validation at the first sign of resistance, and budget through the winter freeze to April. Owners who sequence these steps recover their flats; owners who improvise renew their tenants. Our Paris real estate team<\/a> handles each of these stages for non-resident owners, from the pre-notice audit to the enforcement of the final order.<\/p>\n If a sitting tenant blocks your plans for a French property, our office offers a telephone consultation within 48 hours to assess your notice options, deadlines, and risks. The first consultation is billed at 80 EUR incl. VAT. Call +33 6 46 60 58 22<\/a> or write via our contact page<\/a> with your lease, notice, and acquisition dates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bought an occupied flat in France? The lease survives the sale. This guide explains conge pour vendre and conge pour reprise, protected tenants over 65, deadlines, the winter truce, and Paris practice for foreign owners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":251031309,"featured_media":4195,"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":[80314,79307],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2127988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-decryptage","category-en-real-estate"],"yoast_head":"\nI. The Notice That Ends the Lease: Selling or Repossessing<\/h2>\n
A. Giving Notice to Sell: Price, Pre-emption, and a Ticking Clock<\/h3>\n
B. Taking the Flat Back to Live In: Repossession and Its Proof<\/h3>\n
II. The Tenants the Statute Protects, and the Procedure That Decides<\/h2>\n
A. Elderly and Low-Income Tenants: The Mandatory Relocation Offer<\/h3>\n
B. Service, Winter, Court: The Gauntlet Between Notice and Keys<\/h3>\n
Conclusion<\/h2>\n
Need a quick opinion on your case<\/h2>\n