French housing law · for English speakers in France · France · verified 7 September 2026
Leaving a flatshare in France: until when are you liable for the rent?
In a French flatshare on one lease, the clause de solidarité (joint and several liability clause) makes you liable for the whole rent, even after you move out. The law caps that liability: it ends the day your notice takes effect if a new co-tenant is named on the lease, and at the latest six months after that date. Your guarantor is released on the same dates. This page places your release date and prepares your notice letter.
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Which lease set-up binds you, and for how long?
Two lines of your contract decide everything: how many leases were signed, and whether a solidarity clause is written into yours.
| Set-up | What you owe after moving out | When it ends | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Individual leases, one each | Your own rent and charges, never the others’ | On the date your notice takes effect | Law 89-462, art. 8-1, I and II |
| One lease, no solidarity clause | Your share of the rent and charges | On the date your notice takes effect | Civil Code, art. 1309 and 1310 |
| One lease, clause, replacement named | All the rent and charges until the effective date | On the effective date, once the replacement is on the lease | Law 89-462, art. 8-1, VI |
| One lease, clause, no replacement | All the rent and charges, even after you move out | Six months after the effective date | Law 89-462, art. 8-1, VI |
| Furnished flatshare | Same rule: article 8-1 applies to furnished lettings | Same, after a one-month notice | Law 89-462, art. 25-3 and 25-8 |
| Bail mobilité (short-term mobility lease) | Your share only: a solidarity clause is treated as unwritten | On the effective date, one-month notice | Law 89-462, art. 25-13, II and 25-15 |
| Married or PACS couple alone on the lease | Not a flatshare: joint tenancy and household debts apply | Neither one notice nor six months is enough | Civil Code, art. 220, 515-4 and 1751 |
In my case, when does my liability stop?
Three answers are enough. The result is a category and an indicative date to recount against your own papers, never a statement of what you owe.
Liability end date
Have your lease and the delivery receipt of your notice at hand.
Pick the lease set-up, the date your notice takes effect and whether a replacement is on the lease: the result is a category with an indicative date.
- YOUR SHARE ONLY · You answer for your share alone.
- RELEASED ON REPLACEMENT · Your liability stops with the notice.
- SIX-MONTH BACKSTOP · With no replacement, the statutory backstop applies.
What notice letter do I send the landlord?
The congé (formal notice) is personal: it ends the tenancy for you alone and the flatshare continues with the others. It is also the document that dates the end of your liability, so keep the delivery receipt.
Send it in French: this is the text your landlord will act on. Fill in the brackets and put in no social security number, bank details or ID copy. Paragraph one gives notice for you alone, paragraph two sets the notice period and the effective date, paragraph three quotes article 8-1 on the end of your liability, paragraph four proposes a replacement and asks for a statement of account.
[first name SURNAME] [address of the flatshare] [postcode, town] [landlord or agency name] [address] Lettre recommandée avec demande d’avis de réception Objet : congé du colocataire [first name SURNAME], bail du [lease signature date] [town], le [date] Madame, Monsieur, Je suis colocataire du logement situé [full address], au titre du bail signé le [lease signature date]. Par la présente, je vous donne congé pour ma part, le bail se poursuivant avec les autres colocataires. Le préavis applicable est de [un mois / trois mois], au titre de [logement meublé, article 25-8 / logement vide, article 15 / zone tendue / motif légal]. Mon congé prendra donc effet le [effective date]. Conformément au VI de l’article 8-1 de la loi n° 89-462 du 6 juillet 1989, ma solidarité et celle de ma caution, [guarantor name], prennent fin à la date d’effet de ce congé si un nouveau colocataire figure au bail à cette date et, à défaut, au plus tard six mois après cette date. Je vous présente la candidature de [replacement name] et vous demande de me confirmer par écrit la signature d’un avenant au bail. Je vous demande également un décompte des sommes dues arrêté à la date d’effet de mon congé. Je vous prie d’agréer, Madame, Monsieur, l’expression de mes salutations distinguées. [signature] Pièces jointes : [proof of the reduced notice], [replacement’s application file]
What does a solidarity clause actually cover: rent, charges, damage?
Every sum due under the lease: the whole rent, the charges, and deductions for damage recorded when the flat is handed back. Not just your room, not just your share. The clause makes each co-tenant and their guarantor liable for the whole of what is owed to the landlord. It does not change how you split things between yourselves: whoever pays for the others can claim their shares back, since the debt divides between co-debtors (Civil Code, article 1309). Ask for a statement of account as at the date your notice takes effect.
Nobody is replacing me on the lease: how long am I on the hook?
Six months at most after the date your notice takes effect. After that the landlord can no longer claim the others’ rent from you, nor from your guarantor. The backstop is written into the statute and depends neither on the length of the lease nor on the landlord’s goodwill. Article 8-1 comes from the loi ALUR of 24 March 2014: a lease still running on 27 March 2014 stays under the rules in force when it was signed (loi ALUR, article 14), though in practice almost every current flatshare lease is later.
The liability of a co-tenant, and that of the person standing as guarantor for them, ends on the date a properly served notice takes effect where a new co-tenant is named on the lease. Failing that, it ends at the latest on expiry of a six-month period after the date the notice takes effect.Law 89-462 of 6 July 1989, article 8-1, VI (working translation, French text on Légifrance)
How much notice do I have to give, and in what form?
One month in a furnished flatshare and under a bail mobilité. Three months unfurnished, cut to one month in a tight-market zone and in the cases listed by law, with the ground stated in the letter. Notice is served by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt, by a commissaire de justice (court bailiff) or by hand against a signed receipt: an email alone is not valid notice. The period runs from receipt, not from posting. In an unfurnished flat the ground for a shorter notice must be stated and evidenced when you send the letter, otherwise three months apply (law 89-462, article 15).
One lease or individual leases: what changes for my debt?
With individual leases you never owed more than your own rent. With one lease and no solidarity clause you owe only your share. The clause is what changes everything. Joint and several liability is either statutory or contractual and is never presumed (Civil Code, article 1310): without a clause the obligation divides by operation of law and each debtor owes only their share (article 1309). Look in the lease for “solidaire”, “solidairement” or “indivisible”; what the wording does matters more than its heading.
Is my guarantor still bound after I move out?
No: the guarantor is released on the same dates as you, on the effective date of the notice where a replacement is on the lease, otherwise six months after that date. A guarantee given for a flatshare must name, on pain of nullity, the co-tenant whose release ends the guarantor’s commitment (law 89-462, article 8-1, VI). The guarantee also follows article 22-1: the rent and the terms of its review must appear, the guarantor writes the wording required by article 2297 of the Civil Code, and a copy of the lease is handed over.
Can I force the landlord to take my replacement?
No. The law releases you on the effective date only if a new co-tenant is named on the lease, which takes an avenant (amendment) signed by the landlord. Put the candidate forward in writing with their application file and ask for a dated answer: it is the signature of the amendment that triggers the release. Without it, only the six-month backstop applies. The flatshare itself continues with the co-tenants who stayed, and the new arrival can ask for an amendment to the original inventory of condition.
My old flatmates stopped paying: can the landlord claim it all from me?
Yes, while your liability runs: the landlord chooses who to pursue. Pay if the debt is real, then claim their shares back from your former flatmates. The claim between co-debtors rests on the division of the debt (Civil Code, article 1309). Claims arising from a lease are time-barred after three years from the day the holder of the right knew the facts (law 89-462, article 7-1), so arrears can reach you long after you moved out. Keep the notice, the delivery receipt and the statement of account.
How do I get my share of the deposit back?
Not from the landlord: the deposit only goes back once the keys do, at the end of the lease. Settle your share in writing with your flatmates or your replacement. A departing co-tenant cannot ask the landlord to return their share and has to reach an amicable solution with the others. The deposit is capped at one month’s rent unfurnished (law 89-462, article 22) and two months furnished (article 25-6); it is returned within one month where the exit inventory matches the entry one, two months otherwise, with a penalty of 10% of the monthly rent for each month of delay begun.
I am leaving because of domestic violence: am I still liable?
No, from the day after your registered letter is first presented to the landlord with the protection order or the criminal conviction attached. Your guarantor is released too. Article 8-2 of the law of 6 July 1989 covers debts arising from that date on. The notice period is then one month (article 15, 3° bis), and the fact that the person responsible for the violence stops paying the rent is a serious and legitimate ground for notice against them. Attach the ordonnance de protection (protection order made by the family judge) or a conviction handed down in the last six months.
Bail mobilité or a married couple: does the six-month rule apply?
No in either case. Under a bail mobilité any solidarity clause is treated as unwritten. A married or PACS couple alone on the lease is not a flatshare. The bail mobilité rules out liability between co-tenants and between their guarantors (law 89-462, article 25-13, II) and forbids any deposit (article 25-17). For a couple, joint tenancy of the lease (Civil Code, article 1751) and liability for household debts (articles 220 and 515-4) follow their own rules: one partner’s notice does not release them.
Do I need a lawyer for a flatshare debt?
Not for the dispute itself: before the juge des contentieux de la protection, the judge for residential tenancy cases, a lawyer is not compulsory. That judge hears claims for which a residential lease is the subject, the cause or the occasion (Code of judicial organisation, article L213-4-4), and the parties are exempt from instructing a lawyer there (Code of civil procedure, article 761). Julie reads the clause, recounts the dates and drafts the letters; a lawyer earns their fee once the amounts are contested or the stakes are high.
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What this page is built on
What should you check before continuing?
Four things to read before you copy the notice or upload your lease.
Sources. Every answer from Julie cites the statute or official sheet it relies on.
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Information, not advice. Julie reads and prepares; it does not replace a lawyer contesting a statement of account before a judge.
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