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Last Updated: August 2026
Most French eviction stories begin with unpaid rent, and we wrote about how that procedure just changed in our piece on the new six-week unpaid-rent timeline. This one begins with a piece of paper that was never handed over. In a ruling given in summary proceedings, reported by Le Monde in early August, the housing judge in Montpellier terminated the lease of a tenant who paid her rent but never proved she had insured the flat. She now has to leave, and her mother, who guaranteed the lease, shares the bill.
For landlords, the case is a reminder that French law hands them one lever that works faster and more mechanically than almost anything else in the tenancy toolkit. For tenants, and for owners whose children rent in France, it is a warning about how expensive silence can be. The whole dispute turned on a document that takes an insurer about five minutes to issue.
The Obligation Everyone Signs and Nobody Rereads
Every residential tenant in France must insure the property against what the law calls risques locatifs, the tenancy risks of fire, water damage and explosion. The duty sits in article 7 of the loi of 6 July 1989, the statute that governs residential lettings, and it comes in two parts. The tenant must take out the policy, and the tenant must prove it, by handing over an attestation d’assurance, an insurance certificate, when the keys are handed over and then once a year whenever the landlord asks. The official guidance on tenant insurance obligations spells out both halves, and the same duty applies to furnished lettings and to the bail mobilité.
That second half matters more than most people realise, because the obligation the courts enforce is the justification, the certificate itself. Keep that in mind as the Montpellier facts unfold.
The Case: a €440 Flat and a Tenant Who Went Silent
The facts are ordinary, which is what makes them useful. In July 2017 a landlord let a Montpellier apartment for €440 a month, with the tenant’s mother standing as caution solidaire, a joint guarantor liable for the tenant’s debts. The lease contained the standard clause résolutoire, the termination clause providing that the lease ends automatically if, one month after a formal demand goes unanswered, the tenant still has not proven her insurance.
In July 2025 the landlord noticed she had no current certificate on file. She had a commissaire de justice, the enforcement officer formerly called a huissier, serve a commandement, a formal demand to produce the insurance. Nothing came back. The landlord then summoned both tenant and guarantor before the juge des contentieux de la protection, the housing judge at the Montpellier judicial court. Neither of them appeared at the hearing, and the court decided the case on the file.
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| 6 July 2017 | Lease signed, €440 a month, mother as caution solidaire |
| 23 July 2025 | Commandement served by commissaire de justice: prove your insurance |
| 25 August 2025 | One-month deadline expires with no certificate, clause résolutoire acquired |
| 15 April 2026 | Référé ruling: lease terminated, eviction ordered, tenant and guarantor liable |
| Ruling + 2 months | After a commandement de quitter les lieux, forced eviction becomes possible |
One small oddity in the dates rewards attention. A month from 23 July should end on 23 August, but that day fell on a Saturday in 2025, and French procedural deadlines that expire on a weekend roll to the next working day. Hence the court fixing 25 August as the day the clause bit. The machine is strict, but it counts carefully.
What the Court Held: No Discretion, No Rescue
Sitting in référé, the fast summary procedure, the court found that the commandement of 23 July 2025 had gone unanswered, so the conditions of the termination clause were met on 25 August 2025. From that date the tenant was an occupante sans droit ni titre, an occupant without right or title, in her own former home.
The court then said the quiet part clearly. Where the default is a missing insurance certificate, the judge has no power of assessment. The contrast with rent arrears is total, and it is the heart of the case. A tenant behind on rent can ask the judge for payment delays, and the judge can suspend the effects of the termination clause while the debt is cleared, a mechanism we walked through in the six-week timeline article. The insurance default carries no equivalent, and once the month runs out without a certificate the judge is legally bound to record that the lease has ended, and the ruling notes this would hold even if the tenant had in fact been insured all along. The obligation is to justify, and silence breaks it.
The consequences then follow the standard grammar of French evictions. The tenant has two months to leave after service of a commandement de quitter les lieux, the formal order to vacate, failing which she can be removed with police assistance and her furniture stored at her own expense. Until she hands back the keys she owes an indemnité d’occupation, an occupation indemnity equal to the rent plus charges, and her mother owes it with her. The court added the procedural costs and €300 towards the landlord’s legal fees under article 700 of the civil procedure code. The decision itself is available on Doctrine for those who want the source.
The Landlord’s Two Levers, and the Trap Between Them
French law actually gives a landlord facing an uninsured tenant a choice of two instruments, and the official guidance is unusually clear about the fork. The first is the one Montpellier illustrates: serve a commandement through a commissaire de justice, wait one month, then ask the housing judge, in référé if you wish, to record the termination and order the eviction. It is the nuclear option, and as the case shows, it works even against a tenant who pays the rent.
The second lever is quieter and keeps the tenancy alive. Since the loi ALUR of 2014, the landlord can insure the property on the tenant’s behalf instead, an assurance pour compte. The sequence runs: registered letter announcing the intention, one month for the tenant to produce their own certificate, then the landlord subscribes and recovers the premium in twelfths alongside the rent, with a surcharge capped at 10 percent by a décret of 30 March 2016. The property is covered, the tenancy continues, everyone is mildly annoyed and fully insured.
Between the two sits a trap that deserves its own sentence. Choosing the second lever destroys the first, because the moment the landlord sends the registered letter announcing insurance for the tenant’s account, the guidance states that the right to terminate for lack of insurance is lost, even where the lease contains the termination clause. A landlord who fires off the letter thinking it a warning shot has in fact disarmed himself. Decide which outcome you want, cover or termination, before any paper leaves your hands.
Playing It Properly as a Foreign Landlord
- Check the lease contains the clause. The clause résolutoire for défaut d’assurance is standard in French model leases, but verify yours has it, because without it termination requires a full merits hearing where the judge does have discretion.
- Collect the attestation at the key handover. Make the certificate a condition of handing over the keys, because this is the cheapest enforcement moment you will ever get.
- Diary an annual written demand. The law entitles you to ask once a year. A dated email or letter creates the paper trail that a later commandement will stand on, which matters all the more if you manage the property from abroad, as we cover in our guide to running a French property remotely.
- If nothing comes back, choose your lever deliberately. Termination ends the tenancy through the Montpellier route. Insurance for the tenant’s account keeps a paying tenant in place and the building covered, at the price of giving up the termination right. Both are legitimate, but they are mutually exclusive.
- For the termination route, use the formal machinery. Commandement by commissaire de justice, one clear month, then the juge des contentieux de la protection, in référé for speed. Home-made warning letters have no effect on the clock.
- Mind the calendar. Forced evictions are suspended during the trêve hivernale, the winter truce running from 1 November to 31 March, described in the official guidance on evictions. A commandement served in autumn may only produce movement in spring.
And If You Are the Tenant in This Story
Some readers rent in France themselves, or have children who do, so the mirror-image lesson is worth a paragraph. Keep the current attestation where you can find it, send it every year without being chased, and if a commandement ever arrives, treat the one-month deadline as absolute. A compliant policy can be bought online in an afternoon and the certificate downloaded the same day. The Montpellier tenant lost her home over a document that costs a few euros a month, and the ruling suggests that even having the policy would not have saved her once the deadline passed unanswered. Silence was the whole case.
One more precision from the official guidance while we are here. The compulsory cover protects the dwelling itself and nothing else. Damage to neighbours needs the optional recours des voisins et des tiers extension, and the tenant’s own possessions need a multirisques habitation policy. Most tenants buy the full package without noticing, but the legal minimum is narrower than people assume.
The Bottom Line
French tenancy law is famously protective of tenants, and our unpaid-rent coverage shows how much patience the system extends to someone who falls behind financially. The insurance obligation is the exception that startles people. It is mechanical, it is annual, and a court faced with an unanswered commandement has nothing to weigh. For a landlord that makes the annual attestation demand one of the few genuinely sharp tools in the drawer. For a tenant it makes a five-minute download the cheapest legal protection in France.
FAQ: Tenant Insurance and Eviction in France
Can a French tenant really be evicted just for not proving insurance?
Yes, where the lease contains a clause résolutoire for lack of insurance. One month after a formal commandement goes unanswered, the lease terminates automatically and the judge must record it, as the Montpellier ruling of 15 April 2026 illustrates.
What insurance must a tenant in France carry?
At minimum, cover for the risques locatifs, meaning fire, water damage and explosion affecting the rented dwelling. Cover for damage to neighbours and for the tenant’s own belongings is optional, though usually bundled into standard multirisques policies.
When can a landlord demand the insurance certificate?
At the key handover and once a year on request, under article 7 of the loi of 6 July 1989. The obligation is to justify the insurance, not merely to hold it.
Does the judge have discretion, as in unpaid-rent cases?
No. In rent-arrears cases the judge can grant payment delays and suspend the termination clause. For an unanswered insurance commandement the Montpellier court stated it had no power of assessment and was bound to record the termination.
What is the alternative to terminating the lease?
The landlord can insure on the tenant’s behalf after a registered letter and a one-month wait, recovering the premium monthly with a surcharge capped at 10 percent. Sending that letter permanently waives the right to terminate for lack of insurance, so the choice must be made deliberately.
Does the guarantor pay too?
A caution solidaire does. In the Montpellier case the tenant’s mother was held jointly liable for the occupation indemnity until the keys are returned, plus costs.
