Disclaimer: This article is for general information only and does not constitute legal, tax, or financial advice. French eviction law is technical, fact-specific, and changes frequently. Always consult a qualified French notaire, avocat (ideally one familiar with non-resident landlords), or chartered accountant before acting on anything you read here. The English Investor accepts no liability for decisions taken on the basis of this article.
Ask any British landlord who owns a French rental what they fear most, and the answer is rarely a roof leak or a void month — it’s the day a tenant stops paying and won’t leave. The reputation precedes the law: France is the country where, supposedly, you can’t evict anyone. That reputation is part myth, part timing, and part procedural maze. The truth is that eviction in France is absolutely possible, well-codified, and protected by case law going back fifty years. It’s also slow, formal, and unforgiving of paperwork mistakes — and a single missed line on a single document can void the whole procedure and force you to start over. This guide walks you through the eight-step procedure, the statutory delays that compound at each stage, the recent reforms (loi anti-squat 2023, the 2025 décrets, the 2026 CCAPEX rules), and what all of it means in practice for a landlord based in London or Edinburgh trying to coordinate everything remotely.
The myth, the reality, and the cost of getting it wrong
The “you can’t evict in France” line is wrong, but it’s not entirely a myth. The procedure to remove a non-paying tenant from their résidence principale typically takes between 12 and 24 months from the first missed rent to the day the police actually open the door. It involves a commandement de payer, a notification to the préfet, a court hearing, a jugement, a commandement de quitter les lieux, a two-month statutory delay, the possibility of a one-year délai de grâce, the trêve hivernale from 1 November to 31 March every year, and a final request for concours de la force publique that the préfet may or may not grant on time. Each of those steps is governed by a specific article of the Code des procédures civiles d’exécution (CPCE — the French code that governs the enforcement of civil judgments, distinct from the broader Code de procédure civile which governs civil litigation generally), and several have nullity sanctions if you skip a mention.
The good news for British landlords: the law is the same whether you live in France or you don’t. Non-resident status doesn’t disadvantage you in eviction proceedings (it’s irrelevant to the procedure). The bad news: the law assumes you’re available to coordinate with a French commissaire de justice (the new name for the huissier since 2022), respond to court correspondence, and pay deposits within tight French banking deadlines. Get any of that wrong from London and the procedure stalls — sometimes for months — even if the underlying case is clean.
Step 1 — The breach: clause résolutoire, impayés, or other
Most French residential evictions start with one thing: impayés de loyer (unpaid rent). Almost every modern French residential lease contains a clause résolutoire, an automatic-resiliation clause that triggers if the tenant fails to pay rent or service charges by the contractual deadline. The lease itself can specify how the clause is activated for different breaches — a registered-letter mise en demeure, a formal notice, a defined cure period — and these contractual mechanisms remain valid for breaches like subletting without authorisation or change of use. But for unpaid rent in a residential lease subject to the loi du 6 juillet 1989, the activation mechanism is statutory and cannot be waived by contract: Article 24 of the loi 1989 imposes the service of a commandement de payer through a commissaire de justice, regardless of what the lease itself says.
That window used to be two months. Since the loi n° 2023-668 of 27 July 2023 (the loi anti-squat), it has been compressed to six weeks. The Cour de cassation confirmed in an avis of 6 November 2025 (n° 25-70.018) that this six-week window is calculated as a 42-day period expiring at midnight on the 42nd day before the hearing, with no possibility of extension. If the tenant pays in full within the six weeks, the clause is neutralised and the lease continues. If they don’t, the resiliation is acquired — but you still need a court to recognise it before you can evict.
Other breaches can also justify resiliation: subletting without written authorisation, conversion to an unauthorised use (turning a residential let into a short-term Airbnb is a current minefield — see our piece on the Conseil Constitutionnel’s copropriété Airbnb ruling), serious damage, or persistent troubles de voisinage. These don’t usually have the automatic-trigger benefit of the clause résolutoire, so you’ll typically need to go straight to court for a résiliation judiciaire.
Step 2 — The six-week préfet notification (and the CCAPEX)
This is the step British landlords most often miss, and it’s the single biggest reason eviction cases get dismissed at the first hearing. Under article 24-III of the loi n° 89-462 of 6 July 1989, the assignation (the formal court summons) must be notified to the préfet at least six weeks before the hearing date. Failure means irrecevabilité de la demande — your case is dismissed before it’s even heard, and you start over.
The notification triggers a parallel administrative process. The préfet seizes the CCAPEX — the Commission de Coordination des Actions de Prévention des Expulsions locatives, a department-level body co-presided over by the préfet and the président du conseil départemental, which coordinates between social services, housing-benefit payers (CAF, MSA), bailiffs and landlords. The CCAPEX conducts a diagnostic social et financier of the tenant. The décret n° 2026-83 of 12 February 2026 redefined the CCAPEX’s missions in detail, including the power to suspend the tenant’s housing benefit (APL) if they refuse to engage with the social diagnosis. For a landlord this is helpful: it means the State has both the carrot and the stick to get the tenant to engage with payment plans before the case ever reaches court. In around 30–40% of cases, the CCAPEX process produces a payment plan that resolves the dispute without eviction.
Practical consequence for British landlords: even before you’ve appeared in front of a judge, the procedural clock is already running for six weeks. Combine this with the six weeks of the commandement de payer (Step 1) and you’re already at three months from your first missed rent before any court has heard anything.
Step 3 — The assignation, the hearing, and the jugement
The assignation is delivered to the tenant by your commissaire de justice and lodged with the tribunal judiciaire of the place where the property is located. (The old split between tribunal d’instance and tribunal de grande instance was abolished by the loi du 23 mars 2019; everything now goes through the tribunal judiciaire.) The hearing typically takes place 4–8 weeks after the assignation is filed.
At the hearing the judge has three options. The first: grant the résiliation outright and order the expulsion, plus an indemnité d’occupation (a continuing rent the tenant owes for as long as they remain in the property after resiliation). The second: refuse, if your commandement de payer is defective or you missed the six-week préfet notification. The third — and this is the option judges increasingly favour: grant the tenant delays of payment (délais de paiement) under article 24-V of the loi 1989. If the judge grants délais and the tenant honours the schedule, the clause résolutoire is suspended and the lease continues. If the tenant misses one instalment, the resiliation re-triggers automatically without a new hearing.
The jugement is enforceable from the moment it’s signified to the tenant. Exécution provisoire (provisional enforcement, even pending appeal) is now the default for civil judgments since the décret n° 2019-1333 of 11 December 2019 — meaning you don’t have to wait for the appeal window to close before serving the next document.
Step 4 — The commandement de quitter les lieux
A jugement that orders an eviction is not, on its own, enough to evict. Article L. 411-1 CPCE requires a separate, formal commandement de quitter les lieux — a notice to leave — delivered to the tenant by a commissaire de justice. The commandement is the start of the actual eviction clock. The required mentions are spelled out in articles R. 411-1 and R. 412-1 CPCE and they are unforgiving. The commandement must reproduce the full text of articles L. 412-1 to L. 412-6 CPCE, name the juge de l’exécution competent for any contestation, indicate the date from which exécution becomes possible, inform the tenant of their right to apply for a délai de grâce, and (for residential leases) inform them of their right to apply to the Fonds de solidarité pour le logement for relogement assistance.
If any of these mentions is missing or wrong, the tenant can apply to the juge de l’exécution to have the commandement annulled. The Cour de cassation confirmed in Civ. 2e, 16 mai 2019, n° 18-16.934 that a tenant who has already been evicted on the basis of a defective commandement has a right to réintégration — they can be moved back in. This is the case that haunts French landlords’ lawyers; it’s why competent commissaires de justice charge what they charge.
The commandement must also be copied to the préfet (article R. 412-2 CPCE) so that the State can begin coordinating any relogement effort. From the date the commandement is signified, the tenant has the famous two-month delay (Step 5) before the eviction can actually be carried out.
Step 5 — The statutory two-month delay
Article L. 412-1 CPCE provides that no eviction from a primary residence can take place within two months of the commandement de quitter les lieux being signified. The Cour de cassation confirmed in Civ. 2e, 9 janv. 2020, n° 18-23.975 that this two-month delay is mandatory and that any eviction carried out earlier is void. The delay applies whether the tenant is a regular leaseholder or an occupant sans droit ni titre — though for the latter, the judge has discretion under L. 412-1 to shorten or eliminate it. For squatters who entered the property unlawfully, an entirely different and much faster procedure exists: the prefectoral fast-track of article 38 of the loi DALO, which can lead to forced evacuation in days rather than months. See the dedicated squatter section further down.
The two-month delay can be extended by up to three additional months under article L. 412-2 CPCE if the eviction would have conséquences d’une exceptionnelle dureté — typically because of the tenant’s age, illness, the season, or the absence of any realistic relogement option. This extension is granted by the juge de l’exécution on the tenant’s request. In severe cases — and this is the most generous mechanism in the French eviction toolkit — a tenant can also apply for a délai de grâce under article L. 412-3 CPCE of up to one full year. The judge weighs the tenant’s age, health, family situation, and good faith against the landlord’s situation. A tenant who has obviously stopped paying as a tactic is unlikely to win much; a tenant who lost their job and is genuinely searching is unlikely to be turned away empty-handed.
Step 6 — The trêve hivernale (1 November to 31 March)
Even if your two-month delay has expired and your tenant has lost their délai de grâce, you cannot carry out a residential eviction between 1 November and 31 March. This is the trêve hivernale, codified in article L. 412-6 CPCE. It is automatic and applies without the tenant having to ask for it. It does not suspend the délai de 2 mois or stop the procedure — it suspends only the physical execution of the eviction during the winter months.
The trêve has four important exceptions. It does not apply to occupants who entered the property par voie de fait (i.e. squatters); to occupants of logements étudiants who have lost their entitlement; to properties under an arrêté de péril or arrêté d’insalubrité; or to tenants whose relogement is already assured in conditions respecting the family unit. For everybody else — including a normal residential tenant who simply hasn’t paid for six months — the trêve gives them five months of legal occupation regardless of how watertight your case is.
The practical effect is that the timing of your commandement de payer matters enormously. A landlord whose tenant stops paying in October will likely see no eviction until April or May the following year, even on a flawless file. A landlord whose tenant stops paying in February has a real chance of finishing the procedure before the next trêve begins.
Step 7 — The exécution forcée and the police
Once all delays have expired, your commissaire de justice schedules the eviction. If the tenant is present and cooperative, they leave with the bailiff and the door is locked behind them. If the tenant refuses or is absent, the bailiff has no power to force entry alone — they must obtain concours de la force publique from the préfet under articles L. 153-1 and L. 153-2 CPCE.
The préfet has up to two months to grant or refuse the request. If granted, the police accompany the bailiff and the eviction proceeds. If refused — typically because of public-order concerns, the absence of relogement, or the tenant’s vulnerability — the State becomes liable in damages to the landlord. The Conseil d’État confirmed in CE 2 janv. 2024, n° 471486 that this liability continues until the property is effectively recovered, and that the mere fact that the tenant has stopped occupying does not extinguish State responsibility. The décret n° 2025-1052 of 3 November 2025 codifies the procedure for claiming this indemnity. Most British landlords don’t realise they can sue the French State for the lost rent during the period the police refused to act — but they can, and the claims succeed regularly.
One small but important detail: under article L. 141-1 CPCE, evictions can only be carried out between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m., and never on a Sunday or public holiday, except by special judicial authorisation in cases of necessity.
Step 8 — The tenant’s belongings (sort des meubles)
An eviction without a plan for the tenant’s furniture is incomplete. Articles L. 433-1 and following CPCE require the bailiff to inventory everything left behind, value it, and either store it elsewhere or leave it in place. The tenant has one month from the procès-verbal d’expulsion to retrieve their belongings. If they don’t, the items are sold at enchères publiques (public auction) or declared abandoned. The 2019 réforme (article 14 of the loi du 23 mars 2019) removed the requirement for prior authorisation by the juge de l’exécution — the sale now proceeds automatically at the end of the one-month delay.
Personal papers (ID documents, livret de famille, bank statements, medical certificates, photographs) get special treatment under article R. 433-6 CPCE. They are sealed in an envelope by the bailiff and kept in the bailiff’s office for two years, after which they may be destroyed. The bailiff bears personal responsibility for the conservation of these documents — another reason why the choice of bailiff matters.
Costs are advanced by the landlord and theoretically borne by the tenant under article L. 111-8 CPCE. In practice, recovery is almost never realistic for tenants who couldn’t pay rent in the first place — the costs of the procedure are simply written off.
The squatter shortcut: the loi anti-squat 2023
If your “tenant” is in fact a squatter — someone who entered without your consent and has no lease — there is a fast-track administrative procedure that bypasses most of the above. Under article 38 of the loi DALO of 5 March 2007, reinforced by the loi n° 2023-668 of 27 July 2023, you can apply directly to the préfet for an administrative eviction order, with no court appearance required. The conditions: file a police complaint, prove that the property is your domicile (or that of a tenant whose place you are protecting), and have the unlawful occupation officially recorded by an officer of the police judiciaire. The préfet then issues a mise en demeure giving the squatters at least 24 hours to leave; if they don’t, the préfet must order a forced evacuation.
The Conseil constitutionnel ruled this procedure constitutional in QPC 24 mars 2023, n° 2023-1038, but added a safeguard: the préfet must consider the personal and family situation of the occupants before evicting. The décret n° 2025-1052 of 3 November 2025 codified the State indemnity rules that follow if the procedure goes wrong.
The single biggest trap in this regime is the definition of domicile. The Cour de cassation held in Crim. 22 janv. 1997, n° 95-81.186, Bull. crim. n° 31 that an unfurnished, unoccupied property between two leases is not a domicile in the criminal-law sense — meaning the squatters are not committing the criminal offence of violation de domicile under article 226-4 of the Code pénal. That doctrine still controls criminal prosecution today. However, the loi du 27 juillet 2023 (loi anti-squat) explicitly extended the prefectoral fast-track of article 38 loi DALO to unfurnished properties as well — narrowing the practical impact of the Crim. 1997 doctrine for the administrative eviction route. So in 2026: the criminal plainte is fragile for an unfurnished flat, but the prefectoral fast-track is available. Leaving minimal furniture in any vacant rental is still smart (it strengthens both the criminal and the administrative file) but no longer strictly necessary for the article 38 procedure. We’ll cover all of this in detail in the dedicated squatters article in this series.
What this means for British landlords in practice
Realistic timeline. A clean impayés case, with a tenant who doesn’t fight back, runs 12 to 18 months from the first missed rent to the day the door is locked behind them. A contested case with délai de grâce + trêve hivernale + délays of payment can run 24 to 36 months. Plan accordingly.
Ways to speed things up. The procedure has more acceleration levers than most British landlords realise. (1) The squatter fast-track of article 38 loi DALO compresses an eviction to days rather than months — but only for fresh intruders, not former tenants. (2) The judge can shorten or eliminate the L. 412-1 two-month delay where the occupant entered par voie de fait. (3) Référé proceedings can produce an enforceable order in days for urgent cases (commercial leases, péril, severe troubles de voisinage). (4) The commercial-lease and professional-premises tracks are not subject to the trêve hivernale, so an unpaid commercial tenant can be evicted year-round. (5) Insurance and guarantee schemes (GLI, Visale) don’t shorten the procedure but remove the financial pain of waiting through it.
Realistic cost. Avocat fees of €2,500 to €5,000 for the procedure, commissaire de justice fees of €300 to €1,200 across the various actes (commandement de payer, assignation, commandement de quitter les lieux, procès-verbal d’expulsion), plus furniture transport, storage, and gardiennage costs that the landlord advances and almost never recovers. Total budget: €4,000 to €8,000 for a clean case, more for a contested one.
The single biggest preventable mistake. Relying on the local rental agency’s preferred subcontractor without seeing the file. Every step of the procedure has nullity sanctions that can void months of work. Use a local avocat en droit immobilier — ideally one based near the property, since the procedural acts happen at the tribunal judiciaire of the property’s location and the avocat needs to appear there in person. (Don’t confuse this with an avocat fiscaliste — that’s a tax specialist; you need a real-estate litigator.) Insist on copies of every acte, and respond to French correspondence within 48 hours. If you’re trying to coordinate from the UK, our guide on managing French property remotely covers the avocat-and-commissaire workflow in detail.
Insurance is the cheapest answer. A Garantie Loyers Impayés (GLI) policy costs around 2.5–3.5% of the gross rent and covers the legal costs and lost rent of an eviction. The Visale guarantee scheme (free, State-backed) does the same. Under the 2026 rules, every tenant aged 18–30 is eligible regardless of employment status or resources — students, alternants, fonctionnaires, salariés, even unemployed candidates qualify. For other age groups, the cover applies in employment transition. The 2026 caps are €1,940/month in Île-de-France, €1,575 in cities of 100,000+, and €1,365 elsewhere. If your tenant qualifies, ask for the Visale visa before the lease is signed — most don’t realise it’s free and available.
If you own through an SCI, the bailleur named in the bail must be the SCI, the assignation is brought in the SCI’s name, and the gérant signs every procedural document. The eviction is coordinated through the SCI, not through the underlying associés. Make sure the SCI’s statuts give the gérant explicit authority to bring proceedings — if they don’t, you’ll need a unanimous associés’ resolution before you can act, which is exactly what you don’t want when rent has stopped coming in.
Tax timing. The eviction process leaves you with a long period of zero rental income but ongoing French ownership taxes (IFI, taxe foncière, copropriété charges, and now CFE if you operate as LMNP/LMP). The procedure also creates a paper trail that can be used to argue for a déduction des loyers irrécouvrables on your French tax return — but only if the procedure is fully documented and the Cour de cassation has confirmed the resiliation. For the broader French tax calendar, our French tax deadlines 2026 guide is the reference.
Frequently asked questions
Can I evict a French tenant immediately if they stop paying rent?
No. Even with a clause résolutoire in the lease, you must first serve a commandement de payer, wait six weeks for the tenant to pay, then notify the préfet at least six weeks before the court hearing, then go through the hearing, then serve a commandement de quitter les lieux, then wait two months, all before any physical eviction can be carried out — and not at all between 1 November and 31 March if the trêve hivernale is in effect.
How long does it actually take to evict a tenant in France?
Between 12 and 18 months for a clean impayés case where the tenant doesn’t fight back. Up to 36 months for a contested case with délais de paiement, délais de grâce, the trêve hivernale falling in the wrong place, and a préfet who refuses concours de la force publique.
Does the trêve hivernale apply to my Airbnb tenant?
Generally no, because the trêve hivernale is codified for local d’habitation (residential use) and short-term tourist rentals don’t fall in that category. But if your meublé de tourisme has been used as a de facto primary residence by the same person for an extended period, a court may requalify the contract as a residential lease and apply the trêve. Treat any guest who has been in place for more than a few months as potentially benefiting from the full residential protections.
Can I evict a tenant who has a sick child?
You can pursue the procedure, but the loi n° 2023-622 of 19 July 2023 imposes a specific obligation on bailleurs at lease renewal where the tenant is a beneficiary of the allocation journalière de présence parentale (AJPP — paid to parents of a child requiring sustained care for serious illness, disability or accident) and whose annual income falls below the threshold for conventional rental housing: you must propose alternative accommodation respecting their needs. This obligation does not apply to evictions for impayés, but it does apply at the renewal/non-renewal point and the judge will weigh it in any délai de grâce decision.
What happens if my tenant won’t leave even after the eviction order?
Your commissaire de justice requests concours de la force publique from the préfet. The préfet has up to two months to grant or refuse. If granted, the police accompany the bailiff and the eviction proceeds. If refused, the State becomes liable in damages and you can claim compensation for lost rent under the procedure codified by the décret n° 2025-1052 of 3 November 2025.
How much does it cost to evict a tenant in France?
Budget between €4,000 and €8,000 for a clean case: avocat fees of €2,500–€5,000, commissaire de justice fees of €300–€1,200 across the procedural actes, plus furniture transport, storage, and incidental costs. A contested case with appeals can easily exceed €10,000. These costs are theoretically borne by the tenant under article L. 111-8 CPCE, but recovery is almost never realistic.
Does the loi anti-squat 2023 actually help if my property is squatted?
Yes — and the loi du 27 juillet 2023 specifically extended the prefectoral fast-track of article 38 loi DALO to unfurnished properties, which used to fall outside the regime. The criminal route under article 226-4 of the Code pénal still requires the property to be a domicile in the criminal-law sense (i.e. furnished and recently occupied), so the criminal plainte route is fragile for an empty between-tenancies flat. But the administrative fast-track is open. Leaving minimal furniture in any vacant rental remains good practice — it strengthens both files — but is no longer strictly necessary for the article 38 procedure.
