Landlord's notice to end the lease: own use, sale or legitimate reason (France)
Published byDocMuse
This document is in French
The PDF you download is in French — that is the language it has to be filed in, so it is not translated. Everything on this page is here to tell you what it says.
For a landlord in France ending the lease at its term: at least six months ahead for an unfurnished home, three months for a furnished one. The French letter states the ground — taking the home back to live in, with the beneficiary and the relationship; sale, with the price and terms, which are an offer to the tenant; or a legitimate and serious reason — and lists the enclosures, including the information notice of the arrêté of 13 December 2017. By registered letter with proof of receipt, commissaire de justice, or by hand against a receipt.
- Made for use in France
- Last updated October 13, 2026
When to use this document
- You want to take back your rented-out flat in France to live in it yourself or to house a relative.
- You plan to sell your rented-out home and must tell the tenant before the lease ends.
- Your tenant keeps paying late or causing trouble and you do not want to renew the lease.
- You need a landlord’s notice to end the lease when it expires.
What you fill in
The details the document asks for.
- Landlord
- Landlord's address
- How the notice is delivered
- Tenant
- Postal address of the rented home (street, then postcode and town on the next line)
- City
- Date
- Date of the lease
- Address of the property
- End date of the lease
- Unfurnished lease (six months' notice) or furnished (three months)
- Ground for the notice (own use, sale, or legitimate and serious reason)
- Person the home is taken back for (full name)
- Beneficiary's relationship to the landlord (e.g. daughter, spouse)
- Beneficiary's current address
- What makes the taking back genuine and serious (plan, timing)
- Asking price, in euros (notice to sell only)
- Terms of the planned sale: what is sold (home, cellar, parking), payment (notice to sell only)
- Legitimate and serious reason, with the facts (that ground only)
- Rehousing offer (protected tenant only)
Preview
This document is produced for you. Your answers are typed into it and the finished PDF is yours to keep.
Common questions
- When, and on what grounds, may a French landlord give notice?
- Only for the end of the lease term: at least six months ahead for an unfurnished home, three months for a furnished one, counted from the tenant's receipt. Three grounds are allowed: taking the home back to live in, or to house a close relative (spouse, PACS partner, partner of at least one year, or an ascendant or descendant of the landlord or of the landlord's spouse or partner); selling it; or a legitimate and serious reason, such as repeated arrears. A sham notice exposes the landlord to a criminal fine (art. 15, IV). Notice goes to each tenant, and to a tenant's spouse or PACS partner the landlord knows of (art. 9-1).
- What must accompany a notice to sell or to take the home back?
- For an unfurnished home, the information notice of the French arrêté of 13 December 2017, which sets out the landlord's duties and the tenant's remedies. For a sale, the notice must also state the price and terms, on pain of nullity, and reproduce the first five paragraphs of art. 15, II: the letter announces them as an annex; print the version in force from Légifrance and enclose it. For own use, it names the beneficiary, his or her address and relationship to you, and shows the decision is genuine and serious.
- Is an older tenant with a modest income protected against notice?
- Yes. If the tenant is over sixty-five and has income below the ceiling set for subsidised housing, the landlord must offer rehousing suited to the tenant's needs and means, within the geographical limits set by law, unless the landlord is also over sixty-five or below that ceiling (art. 15, III of the French law of 6 July 1989). The same protection covers a tenant who houses such a dependant, subject to the household's income.
How you can sign this document
- Print it and sign by hand. The signature lines in the document are left blank on purpose — sign on them in ink.
- Sign it yourself with a qualified electronic signature. If you already hold a QES — Evrotrust, B-Trust, StampIT, ZealiD or any qualified provider on the EU Trusted List, on a card, a USB token, in a mobile app or in the cloud — our signing guide explains step by step how to sign this exact file without invalidating it. Step-by-step help, and a way to check it worked
DocMuse sells documents, not legal advice. Acceptance always depends on the recipient's rules and your local law.
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