{"id":2129188,"date":"2026-09-23T23:59:01","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T21:59:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kohenavocats.fr\/2026\/09\/23\/british-debtor-france-challenge-english-judgment-exequatur-seizure-brexit\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T23:59:01","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T21:59:01","slug":"british-debtor-france-challenge-english-judgment-exequatur-seizure-brexit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kohenavocats.fr\/en\/2026\/09\/23\/british-debtor-france-challenge-english-judgment-exequatur-seizure-brexit\/","title":{"rendered":"Served in France With an English Judgment After Brexit: How British Debtors Can Challenge Exequatur and Stop Seizures"},"content":{"rendered":"

A letter from a commissaire de justice<\/em> lands on your doormat in France. That title needs a first explanation, because it will follow you through this entire guide: a commissaire de justice<\/em> is the French enforcement officer, the successor since 2022 of the old huissier de justice<\/em>, and the only person entitled to serve court papers and seize your assets. The letter says that an English court \u2014 the county court, the High Court, perhaps a tribunal whose name you barely recognise \u2014 has ordered you to pay tens of thousands of pounds, and that the creditor now wants that English judgment enforced against your French bank account, your salary or your house in France. Your first reflex may be that an English decision cannot cross the Channel on its own. Since Brexit, that reflex is broadly correct, but it is not a shield by itself. An English judgment has no direct effect in France, yet a determined creditor can ask a French court to give it exactly that effect through a procedure called exequatur<\/em>, from the Latin verb meaning to execute: the court process by which a French judge declares a foreign decision enforceable on French soil. This guide is written for the British reader on the receiving end \u2014 resident in France, second-home owner, or simply holding French assets \u2014 and explains every French term the first time it appears, with the exact statutory wording and the court decisions you can check online.<\/p>\n

The short answer is that you have three shields, and you must raise them in the right order and within strict time limits. First, the creditor cannot seize anything definitively without either an exequatur<\/em> judgment or a judge’s protective authorisation, and the exequatur<\/em> judge must refuse if the English court had no genuine connection with the dispute, if the judgment offends French international public policy, or if it was obtained by fraud. Second, every seizure measure can be challenged before a specialist judge, the juge de l’ex\u00e9cution<\/em>, but the main challenge to a bank attachment must be filed within one month, on pain of inadmissibility. Third, even where the debt itself is unassailable, you can ask that same judge for up to two years to pay in instalments, and that decision freezes enforcement in the meantime. Since 1 July 2025 a new treaty, the Hague Judgments Convention of 2019, sits alongside the classic court route for qualifying recent cases, and you need to know which door your creditor walked through, because the defences differ slightly. What follows works through both doors, the papers to demand, and the Paris and \u00cele-de-France practice you will actually meet.<\/p>\n

I. Served in France with an English judgment after Brexit: what your creditor must still prove<\/h2>\n

A. Why the automatic European enforcement route closed and where the Hague 2019 treaty fits since 1 July 2025<\/h3>\n

Start with what disappeared, because many creditors’ letters still pretend otherwise. Until the end of the Brexit transition period, Regulation Brussels Ia allowed an English money judgment to be enforced in France with a simple certificate and no review of the substance. The British government confirms in its official guidance for legal professionals on cross-border civil and commercial cases<\/a> that the 2019 exit regulations swept away the Brussels Ia system as it applied in the United Kingdom and ended the effect of Lugano 2007 there. Only cases already underway before the 31 December 2020 cut-off keep the old regime, under savings provisions. Everything new must travel by one of two remaining doors, and the date the English proceedings started decides which one. Ask your creditor, in writing, when the English claim form was issued: if the answer is before 2025, the classic exequatur<\/em> described below is the only possible road.<\/p>\n

The first door, and for most readers the only one, is the classic French exequatur<\/em> under ordinary private international law, the default French rules applied where no treaty governs. Article 509 of the Code de proc\u00e9dure civile<\/em> (the French code of civil procedure)<\/a> states the principle word for word: “Les jugements rendus par les tribunaux \u00e9trangers et les actes re\u00e7us par les officiers \u00e9trangers sont ex\u00e9cutoires sur le territoire de la R\u00e9publique de la mani\u00e8re et dans les cas pr\u00e9vus par la loi.” (Judgments given by foreign courts, and documents drawn up by foreign officers, are enforceable on the territory of the Republic in the manner and in the cases provided for by law.) In practice this means your creditor must bring a full court claim against you before the tribunal judiciaire<\/em> (the ordinary civil court of first instance), by formal writ called an assignation<\/em>, with the English judgment, a sworn translation, and proof that it is final and enforceable in England. You will be summoned, you can defend yourself, and the public prosecutor \u2014 the minist\u00e8re public<\/em>, represented by the procureur de la R\u00e9publique<\/em> \u2014 is joined to the case and gives an opinion. None of this happens behind your back, and any letter suggesting the English order is already enforceable in France without a French judge is, for a post-transition judgment, simply wrong.<\/p>\n

The second door opened on 1 July 2025. On that date, the Hague Conference on Private International Law announced<\/a> that the 2019 Judgments Convention had entered into force for the United Kingdom on 1 July 2025, after the instrument of ratification deposited in June 2024. The British ministerial statement of the same day adds two facts that matter directly to you: the treaty covers judgments given in proceedings begun on or after 1 July 2025, and it is the first fresh arrangement of this kind operating between the United Kingdom and the European Union since EU Exit. Three practical consequences follow. First, the treaty covers only civil and commercial judgments, with well-known exclusions \u2014 family maintenance, wills and succession, insolvency, defamation and privacy, intellectual property and several others fall outside it. Second, the English proceedings must have started on or after 1 July 2025; an older county court money claim cannot use this door. Third, even inside the treaty, enforcement still runs through French procedural law, so you keep real defences, including the treaty’s own refusal grounds. If your creditor invokes Hague 2019, demand the details: date of commencement of the English proceedings, the jurisdictional basis relied upon, and the exact treaty article. A creditor who cannot answer is a creditor who may have chosen the wrong door.<\/p>\n

Two side notes complete the map. You may read online about the 1934 France\u2013United Kingdom convention on enforcement, sometimes presented as a fallback resurrected by Brexit. As the Paris firm Gide observed in its cross-Channel enforcement analysis, commentators in London and Paris disagree on whether that convention survived the European regulations that later covered the same ground, and no British debtor should accept its application without argument. Gide’s broader assessment of the French system remains the starting point of every defence file: where the exclusive jurisdiction of the French courts is respected, the dispute is genuinely linked to the foreign court, and the decision is neither fraudulent nor contrary to French international public policy, the French judge will grant enforcement. Note the date of that analysis, which predates the July 2025 entry into force of Hague 2019 for the United Kingdom: it describes the classic route accurately, but the treaty door did not exist when it was written. Your defence must therefore always be pleaded in the alternative \u2014 contest the treaty route if invoked, contest the classic route in any event \u2014 and never assume that the end of Brussels Ia means the end of the creditor’s options.<\/p>\n

B. The three checkpoints every French exequatur judge must apply to an English decision<\/h3>\n

Whether your creditor uses the classic route or the treaty route, the heart of your defence is the same: the French judge does not rubber-stamp the English decision. The Court of Cassation \u2014 the Cour de cassation<\/em>, France’s supreme court for civil matters, which does not rehear facts but punishes misapplications of law \u2014 has repeated the test so often that you can cite it by heart. In a ruling of 17 May 2023, First Civil Chamber, appeal No. 21-18.406<\/a>, it held: “Il r\u00e9sulte de l’article 509 du code de proc\u00e9dure civile que l’accueil d’un jugement \u00e9tranger dans l’ordre juridique fran\u00e7ais exige le contr\u00f4le, outre de la comp\u00e9tence internationale indirecte du juge \u00e9tranger fond\u00e9e sur le rattachement du litige au juge saisi, de sa conformit\u00e9 \u00e0 l’ordre public international de fond et de proc\u00e9dure, celui de l’absence de fraude.” (It follows from Article 509 of the code of civil procedure that admitting a foreign judgment into the French legal order requires review, in addition to the indirect international jurisdiction of the foreign court based on the connection of the dispute with the court seised, of its conformity with substantive and procedural international public policy, and of the absence of fraud.) Memorise those three words \u2014 connection, public policy, honesty \u2014 because each one is a separate shield, and the creditor must survive all three.<\/p>\n

The first shield is indirect jurisdiction: was the English court genuinely connected to the dispute, judged by French eyes? The trap for creditors is set by a ruling of 3 March 2021, First Civil Chamber, appeal No. 19-19.471<\/a>, which states the rule first: “Pour accorder l’exequatur \u00e0 un jugement \u00e9tranger, le juge fran\u00e7ais doit, en l’absence de convention internationale, s’assurer que trois conditions sont remplies, \u00e0 savoir la comp\u00e9tence indirecte du juge \u00e9tranger fond\u00e9e sur le rattachement du litige au juge saisi, la conformit\u00e9 \u00e0 l’ordre public international de fond et de proc\u00e9dure ainsi que l’absence de fraude.” (To grant exequatur to a foreign judgment, the French judge must, absent an international convention, satisfy himself that three conditions are met: the indirect jurisdiction of the foreign court based on the connection of the dispute with the court seised, conformity with substantive and procedural international public policy, and the absence of fraud.) The same ruling then quashed the Paris Court of Appeal for having taken the American court’s word for its own jurisdiction: “il lui appartenait de contr\u00f4ler la comp\u00e9tence indirecte du juge \u00e9tranger en v\u00e9rifiant si, au regard des r\u00e8gles du droit international priv\u00e9 fran\u00e7ais, le litige se rattachait de mani\u00e8re caract\u00e9ris\u00e9e au juge am\u00e9ricain” (it was for the court to review the indirect jurisdiction of the foreign court by checking whether, under French private international law rules, the dispute was characteristically connected with the American court). Concretely, if the English judgment is a default judgment against you, a French resident sued in London over a French contract, a French property or a French accident, with no agreement giving London jurisdiction, say so with exhibits: the French judge must apply French connecting rules, not English ones, and a purely tactical English forum can fail this test. Conversely, if you lived in England, contracted there and were properly served there, do not waste costs on this shield \u2014 keep your powder for the other two.<\/p>\n

The second shield is French international public policy, of substance and of procedure. This is not a licence to relitigate: the same 2021 ruling recalls that “il n’appartient pas au juge de l’exequatur de r\u00e9viser au fond la d\u00e9cision \u00e9trang\u00e8re” (it is not for the exequatur judge to review the foreign decision on the merits). You cannot ask the Paris court to decide that the English judge misunderstood the contract. This is not a licence to relitigate: as the Court of Cassation recalled on 3 March 2021 in appeal No. 19-19.471<\/a>: “il n’appartient pas au juge de l’exequatur de r\u00e9viser au fond la d\u00e9cision \u00e9trang\u00e8re en remettant en cause la r\u00e9alit\u00e9 des faits”. You cannot ask the Paris court to decide that the English judge misunderstood the contract. What you can attack is narrower and often decisive: a judgment obtained without you ever being told of the English proceedings in a way that let you defend yourself; reasoning so thin that it amounts to no reasoning at all; punitive or exemplary damages of a kind French law rejects in principle; interest piled onto interest contrary to French capitalisation rules; or a result that flatly contradicts a French judgment already given between the same parties. Procedural public policy also covers service: keep every envelope, every email, every proof of when and how you first heard of the English case. If service was defective under English rules themselves, obtain a short opinion from an English solicitor saying so \u2014 the French judge listens carefully to evidence that the defendant never had a fair chance to be heard, and a sworn translator must render every English procedural document into French, because the court works only in French.<\/p>\n

The third shield is fraud \u2014 fraude<\/em> \u2014 and the 2023 ruling gives it teeth. There, the Court of Cassation upheld the refusal of exequatur where a company had artificially routed through an Albanian subsidiary a claim already lost before an arbitral tribunal, finding the whole manoeuvre was designed to obtain indirectly what had been refused directly. The principle travels directly to English judgments: a creditor who hides from the London court a payment already made, a French judgment already given, or the decisive document, and then asks Paris to enforce the resulting order, commits exactly the kind of fraud the French judge must sanction. The Paris courts apply the same three-part test case by case, as shown by a very recent example your lawyer can pull up in full: on 13 March 2024, the dedicated exequatur bench of the Paris tribunal judiciaire<\/em> (RG 23\/05699) granted enforcement to an English High Court administration order of 21 September 2021 after checking indirect jurisdiction, conformity with international public policy and absence of fraud. That decision also shows two practical points debtors constantly miss: the public prosecutor joined the case and made approval conditional on proof that no appeal had been lodged in England, and the court verified that no competing insolvency proceedings were open in France. Demand the certificate of no appeal or its English equivalent, demand proof the English decision is final and enforceable in England, and raise any parallel French proceedings: each missing paper is a ground to refuse or at least to adjourn.<\/p>\n

II. Fighting back in practice: papers to demand, seizures to challenge, time to obtain<\/h2>\n

A. Challenging the exequatur claim before the tribunal judiciaire: file, proof and parallel proceedings<\/h3>\n

The exequatur<\/em> claim arrives as an assignation<\/em>, a formal writ served by a commissaire de justice<\/em>, summoning you before the tribunal judiciaire<\/em>. Read it the way the judge will. First, check standing and parties: is the claimant the actual judgment creditor named in the English order, or an assignee, a fund, a successor company that must prove the transfer of the claim? Second, check the judgment itself: a complete copy, a translation by a sworn translator (traducteur asserment\u00e9<\/em>, the expert sworn before a French court of appeal whose stamp the court trusts), and evidence that the decision is final \u2014 no appeal pending in England, no pending application to set aside a default judgment. English default judgments deserve special attention: if you never acknowledged service and the claimant obtained judgment in default, gather your evidence of non-service now, because defective service feeds both the public-policy shield and the fraud shield, and because an English court that set its own judgment aside would leave the French claim without an object. Third, check the sums line by line: principal, contractual or statutory interest, English costs orders, currency conversion. French judges enforce what the foreign judgment orders, not a creditor’s creative update, and unliquidated or not-yet-due sums, double-counted interest, or costs never actually assessed in England are all contestable.<\/p>\n

Next, build the three shields into formal defences, each with exhibits. On connection, file your French-law jurisdictional analysis: your domicile at the time of the English proceedings, the place of performance of the contract, the location of any property, and any jurisdiction clause \u2014 or its absence. If you were already resident in France when sued in London over a French matter, say so loudly, with tax notices, utility bills and the contract itself. On public policy, file the service file in chronological order, the English procedural history, and any expert note on the English procedure; if the English award includes a punitive element or reasoning limited to a ticked box, exhibit the order and explain, in plain terms, what French law would have required instead. On fraud, think laterally: did the creditor sue in London while parallel proceedings were pending in France? Did it conceal a part-payment, a settlement, a credit note? Did it obtain judgment while negotiating with you in writing? The 2023 ruling rewards exactly this kind of chronology work. And always plead the parallel-proceedings point separately: a French judgment already given between the same parties on the same dispute blocks enforcement of the contradictory English one, and French insolvency proceedings opened against you \u2014 sauvegarde<\/em>, redressement<\/em> or liquidation judiciaire<\/em> \u2014 change the entire landscape, since individual enforcement is then stayed by operation of law.<\/p>\n

Two procedural weapons are frequently overlooked. First, the certificat de coutume<\/em>, the certificate of foreign law: where the creditor must explain English law to the French judge \u2014 limitation, finality, the effect of an administration moratorium \u2014 it files one, and you can file your own from an English solicitor or barrister contradicting it. Judges weigh these certificates seriously, so a short, sourced English-law note rebutting the creditor’s version is money well spent. Second, protective measures applied for before the exequatur<\/em> is granted: a creditor who fears you will empty your accounts may ask the enforcement judge for a saisie conservatoire<\/em>, a protective attachment that freezes without yet paying anyone. Article L. 511-1 of the Code des proc\u00e9dures civiles d’ex\u00e9cution<\/em> (the enforcement code)<\/a> allows it only on two conditions, in the exact words: “Toute personne dont la cr\u00e9ance para\u00eet fond\u00e9e en son principe peut solliciter du juge l’autorisation de pratiquer une mesure conservatoire sur les biens de son d\u00e9biteur, sans commandement pr\u00e9alable, si elle justifie de circonstances susceptibles d’en menacer le recouvrement.” (Any person whose claim appears well-founded in principle may seek the judge’s authorisation to take a protective measure over the debtor’s assets, without prior order to pay, if that person shows circumstances likely to threaten recovery.) Article R. 511-1<\/a> adds: “La demande d’autorisation pr\u00e9vue \u00e0 l’article L. 511-1 est form\u00e9e par requ\u00eate.” (The application for the authorisation provided for in Article L. 511-1 is made by petition.) If your bank account is suddenly frozen and you have received no exequatur<\/em> judgment, you are almost certainly facing this measure: the authorisation was given without hearing you, which means you can now challenge it before the judge with full argument, attacking precisely the two statutory conditions \u2014 a claim that is not “founded in principle” because the English judgment is under appeal, and no genuine threat to recovery because your assets sit openly in France. A creditor holding only an unrecognised English judgment cannot use the shortcut of Article L. 511-2<\/a>, which dispenses with prior authorisation only for holders of enforceable titles: without exequatur<\/em>, the English order is not one.<\/p>\n

A final word on this stage for readers in Paris and the \u00cele-de-France: exequatur<\/em> claims concerning debtors domiciled in the capital go to the Paris tribunal judiciaire<\/em> on the \u00cele de la Cit\u00e9, which runs a dedicated exequatur bench used to English paperwork, and the minist\u00e8re public<\/em> systematically checks finality and regularity there. That sophistication cuts both ways \u2014 sloppy creditor files are spotted quickly, but debtor arguments must be exhibit-backed and translated, not merely asserted. Diarise every hearing, answer each set of conclusions (conclusions<\/em>, the written pleadings exchanged between lawyers) within the timetable, and never ignore an assignation<\/em>: in exequatur<\/em> as elsewhere, the absent party is still judged, and a default French judgment enforcing the English one is far harder to undo than a defended claim is to defeat.<\/p>\n

B. Challenging each seizure before the enforcement judge and buying time lawfully<\/h3>\n

Once the creditor holds an exequatur<\/em> judgment that can no longer be suspended on appeal, the English debt becomes a French enforceable title. Article L. 111-3 of the enforcement code<\/a> lists as enforceable titles, at paragraph 2: “Les actes et les jugements \u00e9trangers ainsi que les sentences arbitrales d\u00e9clar\u00e9s ex\u00e9cutoires par une d\u00e9cision non susceptible d’un recours suspensif d’ex\u00e9cution, sans pr\u00e9judice des dispositions du droit de l’Union europ\u00e9enne applicables” (Foreign acts and judgments, and arbitral awards, declared enforceable by a decision not open to an appeal suspending enforcement, without prejudice to applicable European Union law provisions). From that moment the creditor can instruct a commissaire de justice<\/em> to serve a commandement de payer<\/em> (the formal order to pay that precedes seizure of property) and then seize: bank attachment (saisie-attribution<\/em>), attachment of earnings within the limits of the labour code, seizure of vehicles and movables, and ultimately seizure of your French house (saisie immobili\u00e8re<\/em>). Article L. 211-1<\/a> describes the bank attachment in one sentence: “Tout cr\u00e9ancier muni d’un titre ex\u00e9cutoire constatant une cr\u00e9ance liquide et exigible peut, pour en obtenir le paiement, saisir entre les mains d’un tiers les cr\u00e9ances de son d\u00e9biteur portant sur une somme d’argent” (Any creditor holding an enforceable title evidencing a liquidated and due claim may, to obtain payment, attach in the hands of a third party the debtor’s claims for sums of money). Every one of these measures is challengeable, but each has its own clock, and the clocks are short.<\/p>\n

Your forum for all of it is the juge de l’ex\u00e9cution<\/em>, the enforcement judge. Article L. 213-6 of the Code de l’organisation judiciaire<\/em> (the courts organisation code)<\/a> gives this judge precious exclusive jurisdiction: “Le juge de l’ex\u00e9cution conna\u00eet, de mani\u00e8re exclusive, des difficult\u00e9s relatives aux titres ex\u00e9cutoires et des contestations qui s’\u00e9l\u00e8vent \u00e0 l’occasion de l’ex\u00e9cution forc\u00e9e, m\u00eame si elles portent sur le fond du droit, \u00e0 moins qu’elles n’\u00e9chappent \u00e0 la comp\u00e9tence des juridictions de l’ordre judiciaire.” (The enforcement judge has exclusive jurisdiction over difficulties relating to enforceable titles and disputes arising in the course of forced execution, even where they concern the substance of the right, unless they fall outside the jurisdiction of the ordinary courts.) Go there for everything: defective title, wrong sums, seized assets that are exempt, procedural flaws in service of the seizure. The single most important deadline in French enforcement sits in Article R. 211-11<\/a>: “A peine d’irrecevabilit\u00e9, les contestations relatives \u00e0 la saisie sont form\u00e9es dans le d\u00e9lai d’un mois \u00e0 compter de la d\u00e9nonciation de la saisie au d\u00e9biteur.” (On pain of inadmissibility, challenges to the attachment must be brought within one month of notification of the attachment to the debtor.) One month from the d\u00e9nonciation<\/em> \u2014 the formal notification of the bank seizure to you, which follows the freezing at the bank by a few days \u2014 and the challenge must also be notified to the enforcement officer the same day or the next working day by recorded delivery, with a copy lodged at the court registry by the hearing day at the latest. Miss any link of this chain and even the best argument dies inadmissible. Diarise the date of each d\u00e9nonciation<\/em> the day it arrives, instruct counsel immediately, and contest first, negotiate second: the challenge does not automatically unfreeze the account, but it forces the creditor to justify everything before a judge within weeks.<\/p>\n

Substance first, then time. On substance, work through the checklist against each seizure: is the title really enforceable now \u2014 an exequatur<\/em> decision still open to an appeal that suspends enforcement cannot found forced execution, by the very words of Article L. 111-3 quoted above? Is the claim liquidated and due \u2014 unliquidated damages, sums conditional on a future event, interest recalculated beyond the English order? Are the sums even right \u2014 payments made since, exchange-rate games between pounds and euros, English costs never assessed? Is the asset seizable \u2014 a portion of wages below the statutory threshold, professional tools within limits, benefits and minima protected by law, a bank balance already below the protected minimum left automatically at your disposal? Is the procedure regular \u2014 prior commandement<\/em> where required, correct notifications, competent officer? Each flaw can reduce or release the seizure, and the enforcement judge can also apportion costs against a creditor who seized recklessly. Where the creditor moved early with a saisie conservatoire<\/em> before obtaining exequatur<\/em>, add the specific attack: the protective measure must be followed by proceedings to obtain an enforceable title within the statutory time, failing which it lapses and must be lifted \u2014 so check the calendar and force the creditor to show the follow-through.<\/p>\n

On time, the most underused weapon is the statutory grace period \u2014 d\u00e9lais de gr\u00e2ce<\/em>. Article 1343-5 of the Code civil<\/em> (the French civil code)<\/a> provides: “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.” (The judge may, taking account of the debtor’s situation and considering the creditor’s needs, defer or spread payment of the sums due, up to a limit of two years.) The same article adds the decisive sentence: “La d\u00e9cision du juge suspend les proc\u00e9dures d’ex\u00e9cution qui auraient \u00e9t\u00e9 engag\u00e9es par le cr\u00e9ancier.” (The judge’s decision suspends any enforcement proceedings brought by the creditor.) To obtain it, disclose: income, charges, dependants, the French tax assessments that prove your means, a realistic payment proposal, and the first payment already made if possible. Judges grant these periods to debtors who behave transparently and refuse them to debtors who empty accounts the week after service \u2014 and obstructing enforcement colours every later application. Note the long-stop too: Article L. 111-4 of the enforcement code<\/a> states that “L’ex\u00e9cution des titres ex\u00e9cutoires mentionn\u00e9s aux 1\u00b0 \u00e0 3\u00b0 de l’article L. 111-3 ne peut \u00eatre poursuivie que pendant dix ans, sauf si les actions en recouvrement des cr\u00e9ances qui y sont constat\u00e9es se prescrivent par un d\u00e9lai plus long.” (Enforcement of the enforceable titles mentioned in paragraphs 1 to 3 of Article L. 111-3 may be pursued for ten years only, unless the recovery actions for the claims they evidence are subject to a longer limitation period.) A creditor who obtained exequatur<\/em> years ago and slept on it may find the clock has run: check the date of the French decision, not just the English one. For British readers who also own the French property whose sale might satisfy the debt, the companion question of tax on that sale is treated in our guide for British sellers facing French capital gains tax<\/a>, because seizing and selling a second home has a tax cost the creditor’s arithmetic often forgets.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h2>\n

Brexit closed the automatic road but left a mapped one, and the map favours the debtor who moves early. If a commissaire de justice<\/em> serves you with an English judgment to be enforced in France, identify which door the creditor chose \u2014 the classic exequatur<\/em> in every older case, the Hague 2019 treaty route in addition where English proceedings started on or after 1 July 2025 \u2014 then force the file through the three checkpoints the Court of Cassation repeats: genuine connection with the English court, conformity with French international public policy, absence of fraud. Demand the complete judgment, the sworn translation, the certificate of finality, and the English-law explanations in writing. Challenge each protective measure on its two statutory conditions, challenge each bank attachment within its one-month deadline before the enforcement judge, verify every line of sums and every notification, and where the debt stands, seek up to two years of grace periods with documented means rather than silence. Cross-Channel enforcement rewards the party whose file the French judge can verify in an afternoon \u2014 make yours that file, and make the creditor prove every step.<\/p>\n

Need a quick opinion on your case<\/h2>\n

Challenging an English judgment in France turns on dates, translations and the exact wording of the order served on you. Send our office the English judgment and the French papers you received: a telephone consultation with a lawyer of the firm is available within 48 hours, first consultation billed at 80 EUR including VAT. Call 06 46 60 58 22<\/a> or write via our contact page<\/a> with English judgment France in the subject line. We receive clients in Paris and across the \u00cele-de-France.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An English judgment has no direct effect in France since Brexit. 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