A landlord serves notice refusing renewal with an offer of eviction compensation (indemnité d’éviction, the statutory compensation due to a commercial tenant when renewal is refused), then asks the tenant for the documents needed to calculate it, and waits. Two years after the notice takes effect, the landlord applies to evict the tenant: the claim for compensation is time-barred. The Court of Appeal refuses, finding the landlord’s conduct in bad faith. The Cour de cassation (the French supreme court for civil matters) quashed on 12 February 2026, in a reported decision: bad faith neither interrupts nor suspends the time limit, and a time-barred tenant occupies without title. After the decision of the same day on the landlord’s expert appraisal, it is the year’s second warning to tenants who wait.
The facts
A municipality let commercial premises for nine years from 1 January 2009. On 28 June 2018 it served the tenant with notice refusing renewal, effective 31 December 2018, with an offer of eviction compensation. On 4 November 2019 it gave him formal notice to supply documents to calculate the amount, recalling that he could remain in the premises until payment and that it would apply for a court-ordered appraisal if no documents were provided.
On 19 November 2021 the municipality applied in summary proceedings for a finding that the tenant had lost his right to compensation through limitation, and for his eviction. On 16 November 2023 the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal held there was no case for summary relief: the landlord had acknowledged the right to compensation, its change of position was in bad faith, and the tenant, who disputed neither the notice nor the principle of compensation, had had no reason to go to court.
The decision
The Cour de cassation quashed the judgment in full (Cass. 3e civ., 12 February 2026, appeal no. 24-10.578, reported), under article 835 of the French Code of Civil Procedure and articles L. 145-9 and L. 145-28 of the Commercial Code.
It recalled that the notice ends the lease and that “the tenant who intends to claim payment of eviction compensation must apply to the court before the expiry of a period of two years from the date for which the notice was given” (translated from the French), and that a tenant whose claim is time-barred “loses the right to remain in the premises”. It then held that “the landlord’s bad faith is not a cause of interruption or suspension of the two-year limitation of the claim for payment of eviction compensation, which runs from the effective date of the notice even where it is served with an offer of eviction compensation, and the tenant is an occupier of the premises without right or title from the date on which its claim to have compensation fixed became time-barred”. The summary judge could therefore order eviction for a manifestly unlawful disturbance.
What this changes for the valuation
The time limit is not negotiable. Neither the offer of compensation, nor the request for documents, nor the promise of an appraisal suspends the two years of article L. 145-9. Only the acts listed in article 2240 and following of the French Civil Code, an unequivocal acknowledgement of the right, a claim, an application for an appraisal the tenant joins, have that effect, and the decision of the same day on the landlord’s appraisal set their limits. A tenant who receives notice with an offer of compensation must keep their own calendar: sue on the merits for the compensation to be fixed before the deadline, whatever the landlord does.
The figure is prepared early, from the tenant’s own documents. The municipality asked for documents; the tenant did not supply them and did nothing. A valuation of eviction compensation is built on the accounts of the last three financial years, the lease, comparable leases and business sales in the area, the condition of the premises and refitting quotes; these are the tenant’s documents, and the tenant can have the report prepared without waiting for the landlord to ask. A report filed within the year of the notice gives a figure for the claim and a basis for negotiation.
After limitation, the occupation indemnity changes in nature. As long as the tenant can claim eviction compensation, it remains in the premises against an occupation indemnity fixed at rental value, with the usual deduction for precariousness (article L. 145-28). Once time-barred, it occupies without right or title: the indemnity becomes an ordinary-law indemnity compensating the landlord’s loss of enjoyment, without the protective statute, and eviction may be ordered. The rental value report serves as the basis in both cases, but the regime and the deductions are no longer the same; the expert must know on what date the tenant lost its right.
For the landlord, a strategy with a downside. Waiting for the two years to expire allows the premises to be recovered without compensation, as here. But a landlord who prefers a negotiated exit does well to have the right to compensation recorded in writing, unequivocally, or to bring the appraisal on the merits itself, which interrupts the limit for everyone.
What the expert takes from it
- The two-year limit runs from the effective date of the notice, even with an offer of compensation, and the landlord’s bad faith does not suspend it.
- A time-barred tenant loses the right to remain and becomes an occupier without right or title, evictable in summary proceedings.
- Eviction compensation is quantified from the tenant’s documents, from the notice onwards, without waiting for a request or an appraisal from the landlord.
- Before limitation, a statutory occupation indemnity at rental value with a deduction; afterwards, an ordinary-law indemnity.
- A dated, reasoned report, attached to the claim within two years, protects the right to compensation better than any promise from the landlord.
Further reading
The Eviction compensation page describes the report, its timescale and its fee. The guide My landlord refuses to renew my commercial lease and the glossary entries indemnité d’éviction and indemnité d’occupation complement this article. On the same theme: Eviction compensation in France: the tenant has two years to act and Occupation indemnity under a commercial lease: option and property tax. The decision is available on Légifrance.
What next
Notice with an offer of eviction compensation, and a landlord slow to put a figure on it?
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