Tenant's notice to leave (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 tenant leaving a home in France, unfurnished or furnished. The French letter gives notice with the right period — three months, one month in a zone tendue or for a reason in art. 15, one month for a furnished home — states the reason for the shorter notice and its proof, the moving-out date, proposes the check-out inspection and asks for the deposit back at the new address. To send by registered letter with proof of receipt, through a 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 move out of your rented flat in France and need to give the landlord notice.
- Your employer is transferring you to another town and you want to leave on shorter notice.
- You are leaving a furnished flat and want to tell the landlord your moving-out date.
- You want to give notice in writing, propose the check-out visit and ask for your deposit at your new address.
What you fill in
The details the document asks for.
- Tenant
- Tenant's address
- How the notice is delivered
- Landlord
- Landlord's postal address (street, then postcode and town on the next line)
- City
- Date
- Date of the lease
- Address of the property
- Notice period (unfurnished three months or one, furnished one)
- Reason for one month's notice (unfurnished home only)
- Proof enclosed for the shorter notice
- Flat to be handed back by
- Proposed date for the check-out inventory
- Tenant's new address
Preview
This document is produced for you. Your answers are typed into it and the finished PDF is yours to keep.
Common questions
- What notice must a tenant give in France?
- Three months for an unfurnished home; one month in a zone tendue or for a reason in art. 15 of the French law of 6 July 1989 (first job, job transfer, job loss, new job after a job loss, state of health, RSA or AAH benefits, a social home allocated, domestic violence shown by a protection order, a prosecution or a conviction); one month for a furnished home. Notice runs from the landlord's receipt of the letter, and rent is owed until it ends, unless a new tenant moves in earlier with the landlord's agreement.
- How must the notice letter be sent to be valid?
- By registered letter with proof of receipt, by a French commissaire de justice, or by hand against a dated receipt: bring two copies and have the landlord date and sign yours. An e-mail is not enough. A registered letter the landlord never collects does not start the notice period (French Cour de cassation, 21 September 2022, n° 21-17.691), so if time is short a commissaire de justice is the safest. The French site service-public.gouv.fr also offers a free model.
- What proof should be enclosed for one month's notice?
- The reason must be stated and justified when the notice is sent, otherwise notice stays at three months. In a zone tendue, giving the address and asking for the shorter period is enough (French Cour de cassation, 3rd civil chamber, 11 January 2024, n° 22-19.891). For the other reasons, enclose the paper that proves it: an employer's letter, a dismissal letter, a CAF statement for RSA or AAH, the social-housing allocation, a protection order or a document showing the prosecution or conviction, or a medical certificate showing that the tenant's health requires a move, without describing the illness.
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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