Winter truce: what it really suspends for the landlord, and what it does not prevent

Every 1 November, repossession files come to a standstill in the prefectures. For an institutional landlord, an investor holding a residential asset or a purchaser at auction who has just acquired an occupied unit, the instinctive reading is wrong: the winter truce (trêve hivernale) does not freeze the file, it freezes a single act, the forced execution of the eviction measure. The proceedings on the merits, the acquisition of the termination clause (clause résolutoire), service of the order to vacate (commandement de quitter les lieux), recovery of unpaid rent and calling on guarantees all remain fully available between 1 November and 31 March. This guide defines the scope of the suspension precisely, lists the cases in which eviction can still be carried out in winter, and sets out the timetable for preparing for the end of the truce, a period when prefectural processing times become saturated.

The exact scope of the truce: a suspension of enforcement, not an extinction of the right

The reference text

The winter truce derives from Article L. 412-6 of the French Code of Civil Enforcement Procedures (CPCE):

“Notwithstanding any eviction decision that has become final and despite the expiry of the periods granted under Article L. 412-3, any eviction measure not yet carried out at the request of the persons whose eviction has been ordered must be stayed each year from 1 November to 31 March of the following year, unless the rehousing of those concerned is ensured in sufficient conditions respecting the unity and needs of the family.”

Three lessons can be drawn from this wording. The stay operates by operation of law, without the occupant having to request it or the judge having to order it. It applies even where the eviction decision is final and the periods of grace have expired. It relates only to the eviction measure not yet carried out, that is to say the physical act of repossession carried out by the commissaire de justice (bailiff), where necessary with the assistance of the police.

The period has run from 1 November to 31 March since Law No. 2014-366 of 24 March 2014, known as the ALUR Law, which extended it by fifteen days and extended its benefit to occupants of mobile homes used as their dwelling. Exceptional extensions were decided by legislation or regulation during the health crisis; they belong to the exceptional regime and did not change the principal text.

What the suspension really affects

The winter truce prohibits physical eviction. It correspondingly prohibits the prefect from granting police assistance for an operation scheduled within the period. It has no other effect.

It does not suspend the debt. It does not suspend limitation. It does not suspend procedural time limits. It does not prevent bringing a matter before the court, having an act served, or taking an enforcement measure against the debtor's assets. The structuring distinction, for the decision-maker, is the one separating enforcement against the person of the occupant, which is suspended, from enforcement against the assets of the debtor, which is intact.

The premises concerned and the question of mixed-use premises

The stay protects the occupant of premises used as a dwelling. It does not apply to premises used exclusively for commercial, professional, agricultural or office purposes, nor to outbuildings not used as housing: garages, car parks, cellars let separately, storage premises.

The difficulty arises from mixed configurations, which are common in Parisian Haussmann-style buildings: commercial premises with staff accommodation upstairs, a commercial lease covering a whole of which a part is actually lived in by the tenant or the tenant's family. The courts look at actual use and not at the contractual description. A landlord who intends to enforce an eviction decision in January against a mixed-use property must therefore secure in advance the proof that it is not occupied as a dwelling, by means of a record drawn up by a commissaire de justice. Failing this, it exposes the operation to a challenge before the enforcement judge (juge de l'exécution) and, in the event of an irregular eviction, to an action for reinstatement together with damages.

What the winter truce does not suspend: the procedural chain continues

The termination procedure runs its full course

Nothing prevents the whole of the litigation sequence applicable to unpaid rent from being started or continued in December or in February.

The payment order (commandement de payer) invoking the termination clause may be served. Since Law No. 2023-668 of 27 July 2023 on protecting homes against unlawful occupation, the period the tenant has to put matters right is six weeks, instead of two months previously (Article 24 of Law No. 89-462 of 6 July 1989). The same Law made it compulsory to include an automatic termination clause in residential leases, which neutralises the argument based on the absence of such a clause in older renewed leases.

The summons seeking a declaration that the lease has been terminated may be issued and listed for hearing. Two steps condition its admissibility and tolerate no approximation: notification of the summons to the State representative in the département at least six weeks before the hearing, and reporting of the payment order to the commission for coordinating actions to prevent evictions (CCAPEX) under the conditions set by regulation. Inadmissibility as a sanction for failure to notify the prefect may be raised by the court of its own motion. A badly assembled file in November leads to an adjournment, then to a fresh summons, and pushes enforcement back by a full year. The complete sequence of acts, from the payment order to the request for police assistance, is set out in our article on the procedural timetable for eviction for unpaid rent.

The judge for protection disputes (juge des contentieux de la protection) may rule, record that the termination clause has taken effect, order payment and order eviction during the truce. The decision is enforceable. Only its physical enforcement will wait until 1 April.

The order to vacate and its two-month period

The order to vacate may be served during the winter truce, and the two-month period under Article L. 412-1 of the CPCE runs normally. This is a decisive timing lever: an order served in January exhausts its period in March, so that the request for police assistance can be made as soon as the usable period opens.

Article L. 412-1 allows the judge to shorten or remove this period, in particular where the occupants entered the premises by force or where their bad faith is established. This request must be made expressly in the summons. It is never granted of the court's own motion.

The occupation indemnity and the statement of the debt

Termination of the lease turns the rent into an occupation indemnity. This runs throughout the suspension of eviction, including where the occupant's remaining in the premises results from the law and not from the occupant's own fault. Decisions most often set the indemnity at the amount of the rent and service charges that would have been due; some allow an increase where the occupant's remaining is manifestly abusive, it being recalled that the case law checks that this increase is not punitive in nature.

For the landlord, the operational consequence is twofold. First, the operative part of the decision must provide for a monthly occupation indemnity that is expressly quantified and indexed, failing which the debt arising after judgment will need a fresh enforceable title. Second, an up-to-date month-by-month statement must be kept from the outset: it determines the effectiveness of enforcement measures and, where applicable, the assessment of the loss for which the State may be liable to pay compensation.

Recovery of unpaid rent remains fully open

The truce creates no immunity for the debtor's assets. A landlord holding an enforceable title keeps its entire arsenal throughout the winter.

• attachment of bank accounts (saisie-attribution), which requires knowledge of the debtor's bank details, accessible to the commissaire de justice through the lawful channels of information
• attachment of earnings, taken out of the court process by Law No. 2023-1059 of 20 November 2023 and entrusted to commissaires de justice since 1 July 2025, a procedure that has become noticeably faster
• seizure and sale of movable goods (saisie-vente), the worth of which must be assessed against the real value of the goods and the fact that certain items of furniture cannot be seized
• a protective judicial mortgage, where the debtor owns real estate, often neglected in rental files even though it secures priority ranking
• protective attachment under Articles L. 511-1 et seq. of the CPCE, where the claim appears well founded in principle and circumstances threaten recovery, even before any decision on the merits

Recovery of unpaid rent also runs through the guarantees taken out. Formal notice to the guarantor may be served during the truce, provided the annual information obligation has been complied with. A call on the Visale guarantee from Action Logement is subject to strict time limits for declaration. The same is true of unpaid rent guarantee insurance policies, whose forfeiture clauses frequently penalise late declaration of a claim or the absence of procedural steps within the contractual time limits. A landlord who suspends its steps in November because of the truce may, by that alone, cause its guarantee to be forfeited.

The first management reflex is therefore counter-intuitive: the truce period is the best time to consolidate the title and call on the guarantees, precisely because physical enforcement is unavailable and hearing lists are less congested than in spring.

The cases in which eviction can still be carried out in winter

Entry into the premises by force

Article L. 412-6, paragraph 2, of the CPCE allows the judge to remove the benefit of the stay where the persons whose eviction has been ordered entered the premises by force. This is a judicial power: it must be requested, reasoned and established. Proof of entry by trickery, threats, force or coercion is built up in advance, by filing a complaint, a record from a commissaire de justice and witness statements.

In parallel, Article 38 of Law No. 2007-290 of 5 March 2007, known as the DALO Law, as amended by the Law of 27 July 2023, opens an administrative procedure for forced eviction in the case of entry by force into premises used as a dwelling. At the request of the owner or the tenant, after a complaint has been filed, proof that the premises are the person's home and a record of the unlawful occupation, the prefect gives the occupant formal notice to leave. The forced eviction that follows escapes both the two-month period of Article L. 412-1 and the winter truce. It is the fastest route, but it is strictly conditional: it does not apply to a tenant who entered lawfully and then defaulted. The steps of this administrative procedure and the changes made by the Law of 27 July 2023 are set out in our article on evicting a squatter under the accelerated procedure.

The Law of 27 July 2023 also toughened the repression of violation of a person's home (Article 226-4 of the French Criminal Code) and created an offence of fraudulent occupation of premises used as a dwelling or for business purposes (Article 315-1 of the Criminal Code), from which persons who entered the premises under a title, tenants included, are expressly excluded. An investor faced with an occupant who stays on after a short-term rental agreement has ended must therefore characterise the situation precisely: the boundary between the occupant without right or title and the defaulting tenant determines two entirely separate regimes.

A building subject to a safety order

The same paragraph 2 allows the judge to remove the stay where the premises are in a building that has been the subject of a dangerous-building order (arrêté de péril). The wording refers to an administrative police power that was unified by Ordinance No. 2020-1144 of 16 September 2020 under the name of police for the safety and health of buildings (Articles L. 511-1 et seq. of the French Construction and Housing Code). A safety order (arrêté de mise en sécurité) accompanied by a ban on occupation is today the natural basis for this exception.

The situation is common in major restructuring operations on old buildings, where vacating the units is a precondition for starting works. It calls for one reservation: an order imposing a temporary or permanent ban on occupation places on the owner an obligation to provide accommodation or rehousing for the occupants, the cost of which must be built into the project's financing plan before any acquisition decision.

Rehousing that is ensured

Article L. 412-6 removes the stay where the rehousing of those concerned is ensured in sufficient conditions respecting the unity and needs of the family. The exception is rarely used by individual landlords, for want of available stock. It is, however, a real lever for a social landlord, an institutional holder of several residential assets, or an operator carrying out a building clearance operation. The conditions are assessed strictly: the offer must be real, suited to the make-up of the household, and not merely theoretical.

Premises outside the scope of the truce

Eviction of a commercial tenant, following the acquisition of the termination clause after a payment order that has remained unsuccessful for one month (Article L. 145-41 of the French Commercial Code), may be carried out in January. The same is true of a professional lease, a short-term derogatory lease or a precarious occupation agreement relating to premises not used as housing. For an institutional landlord holding office or retail assets, the winter period therefore imposes no enforcement constraint, subject only to the mixed configurations mentioned above.

The particular case of the auction purchaser and the occupied residential asset

The winter truce makes no distinction according to the origin of the eviction title. The purchaser at auction of a property sold on a forced sale of real estate, who intends to evict the former owner-occupier on the basis of the adjudication judgment, is subject to the stay in the same way as a landlord. The same rule applies to an occupant who remains in the premises following a sale by licitation (a sale ordered to end joint ownership).

The consequence is economic before it is legal. An investor who acquires an occupied residential unit at auction in November or December must build into its cash-flow plan an unproductive holding period running until spring, to which are added the two-month period of the order to vacate and the processing time for the request for police assistance. The apparent discount on the asset must be restated to take account of this holding cost, of the co-ownership charges and property tax borne without any rental income, and of the risk of deterioration of the property during the period. The assessment is made on the full cost of obtaining vacant possession, not on the auction price alone.

Preparing for enforcement from the end of the truce: decision timetable

The period from 1 November to 31 March must be treated as a preparation window, not as a parenthesis. On 1 April, requests for assistance flood in at the same time and prefectural processing times lengthen mechanically. The file must be complete before that date.

November to January: consolidating the title

Three checks are needed. Is the decision enforceable, and has it been properly served? Has an appeal been lodged, and if so does it have suspensive effect? Have any periods of grace granted expired? On this last point, the Law of 27 July 2023 reduced to one year the ceiling on the periods the judge may grant to leave the premises (Article L. 412-4 of the CPCE), from three years previously, which noticeably shortens the enforcement horizon in older files.

This is also the period for starting enforcement measures against assets and for having the actual state of occupation of the dwelling recorded. A dwelling that is plainly abandoned falls under the procedure of Article 14-1 of the Law of 6 July 1989: formal notice by a commissaire de justice, record of abandonment, and a court order recording termination and authorising recovery of possession. The truce protects people, not empty walls.

February to March: assembling the file for the request

The request for police assistance may be addressed to the prefect during the truce. It will not be carried out before 1 April, but it can be processed. The file sent by the commissaire de justice must include the enforceable title, its service, the order to vacate and proof that its period has expired, the record of the attempted eviction, and an up-to-date statement of the debt.

The fate of movable property must be anticipated at the same time. Articles L. 433-1 et seq. of the CPCE require the eviction record to describe the furniture, state where it has been deposited and require the evicted person to collect it within the statutory period, failing which it is sold at auction or declared abandoned. The cost of removal and storage, advanced by the landlord, is hard to recover. It must be budgeted for.

After 1 April: refusal of assistance and liability of the State

Article L. 153-1 of the CPCE places on the State the compensation of the loss caused to the landlord by the refusal to provide police assistance. The refusal may be express or arise from silence on the request.

The suspension resulting from Article L. 412-6 derives from the law and not from an administrative decision: the truce period therefore does not, of itself, give rise to a right to compensation on this basis. The compensation calculation is triggered by the subsequent failure to enforce. Keeping a rigorous evidential file, with a dated request, acknowledgement of receipt, reminders and a monthly statement of the occupation indemnity, determines the outcome of any compensation claim before the administrative court, which must be preceded by a prior request to the prefect. On the conditions for compensation and the quantification of the claim, see our analysis of compensation of the landlord where police assistance is refused.

Initiatives forbidden to the landlord, in winter as in any season

The criticism most often made of exasperated landlords is de facto eviction. Changing the lock, removing the door, removing personal belongings, cutting off water, electricity or heating, putting pressure on the occupant: these acts amount to a civil unlawful act (voie de fait) and expose the landlord to an order for reinstatement in summary proceedings, with a penalty payment and damages.

The risk is also criminal. Article 226-4-2 of the Criminal Code punishes the act of forcing a person to leave the place where they live without having obtained the assistance of the State, by trickery, threats, force or coercion. The penalties incurred reach three years' imprisonment and a fine of €30,000. The offence is made out irrespective of whether a valid eviction title exists: holding a judgment does not authorise the landlord to enforce it itself.

In a file involving significant assets or reputational stakes, the criminal exposure of the manager or the asset manager is a disproportionate risk compared with the gain of a few weeks.

What the landlord should bear in mind and weigh up

The winter truce is a constraint on the enforcement timetable, not a suspension of the file. A landlord who interrupts its steps between November and March mechanically loses a season: it will arrive in spring with an unserved title, an order to vacate not yet issued, periods not yet run, and a request lodged at the peak of congestion in the prefectural services. Conversely, a landlord that treats winter as a consolidation window obtains enforcement in the first weeks after 31 March.

The assessment to be made is also an economic one. In a file where the rent debt is old and the debtor insolvent, the real issue is not recovery but the date on which the asset can be re-let: each month gained on vacating is worth more than a judgment for payment that cannot be enforced. In a file where the tenant has attachable income or a solvent guarantor, the priority is reversed.

One practical recommendation, finally: have all your winter tenant eviction files audited from December, file by file and unit by unit, with a single table listing for each the date of the title, the date of service, the date of the order to vacate, the state of the periods and the date the request was lodged. It is this document, and not the court decision, that determines the actual date of repossession.

Frequently asked questions

Does the 2025-2026 winter truce apply from 1 November to 31 March? Yes. Article L. 412-6 of the Code of Civil Enforcement Procedures sets the period from 1 November to 31 March of the following year, since the extension made by Law No. 2014-366 of 24 March 2014, known as the ALUR Law. The extensions made during the health crisis were based on exceptional texts and did not change the ordinary regime. An extension could result only from a specific legislative or regulatory provision.

Can an eviction judgment be obtained during the winter truce? Yes, without restriction. The judge for protection disputes may record that the termination clause has taken effect, order the tenant to pay the arrears and order eviction between 1 November and 31 March. Only the physical enforcement of the measure is deferred. Starting the procedure in December rather than April saves a whole season of holding costs.

Can the order to vacate be served during the truce? Yes, and it is an essential timing lever. The two-month period under Article L. 412-1 of the CPCE runs normally during the winter truce period. An order served at the end of January exhausts its period before 1 April, which makes it possible to lodge the request for police assistance before the enforcement period opens.

Does the winter truce apply to a commercial or professional lease? No. The stay under Article L. 412-6 relates to premises used as a dwelling. Eviction of a commercial tenant, after the termination clause has taken effect under the conditions of Article L. 145-41 of the Commercial Code, may be carried out in winter. The reservation concerns mixed-use properties that include a part actually lived in, for which a prior record of occupation is essential.

Does a squatter benefit from the winter truce? Not necessarily. Article L. 412-6, paragraph 2, of the CPCE allows the judge to remove the benefit of the stay where the occupants entered the premises by force, but this removal must be expressly requested and reasoned. In addition, the administrative procedure for forced eviction under Article 38 of Law No. 2007-290 of 5 March 2007, reinforced by Law No. 2023-668 of 27 July 2023, escapes both the truce and the two-month period of the order to vacate.

Can the tenant's bank accounts be attached during the winter truce? Yes. The suspension of eviction relates only to enforcement of the eviction measure itself. Recovery of unpaid rent remains fully open: attachment of bank accounts, attachment of earnings taken out of the court process since 1 July 2025 under Law No. 2023-1059 of 20 November 2023, seizure and sale of movable goods, protective judicial mortgage and protective attachments under Articles L. 511-1 et seq. of the CPCE.

Does the State compensate a private landlord for loss of the use of the property during the truce? Article L. 153-1 of the CPCE provides for compensation of the loss arising from the refusal of police assistance. Because the winter suspension derives directly from the law, it does not of itself give rise to a right to compensation on this basis; the compensation calculation relates to non-enforcement after the protected period. Putting together a dated evidential file, including the request, its acknowledgements of receipt and a monthly statement of the occupation indemnity, determines the outcome of the prior request and then of the claim before the administrative court.