Rent receipts in France: the landlord's quittance rules

A quittance de loyer is the document in which a French landlord certifies that the tenant has paid the rent and charges for a period in full. You must give it to your tenant free of charge whenever they ask, with rent and charges shown separately. If they paid only part, you give them a reçu (a receipt for the amount received), never a quittance (article 21 of the law of 6 July 1989, in French).

This guide sets out the rules. To produce the document itself, our free rent receipt template fills it in and downloads it as a PDF, in French or English, with no sign-up.

Quittance, reçu, rent notice: three different documents#

Document	When	What it says
Rent notice (avis d'échéance)	Before payment	The amount due for the coming period
Quittance	After a full payment	The period's rent and charges are paid in full
Reçu	After a part payment	The sum received, without releasing the tenant from the rest

A quittance is evidence: a tenant who holds one no longer has to prove they paid that period. That is why it is only given once the payment is complete and received (service-public.gouv.fr, in French).

The rent notice is not required by law, on our reading: article 21 mentions it only to forbid charging for it. Many landlords send one anyway, to state the amount due, especially after a rent review.

When the receipt is compulsory#

The landlord, or their agent (a letting agency), must send a receipt free of charge to a tenant who asks for one (article 21). Three consequences:

• on request: the law does not make you send one every month unprompted. But once the tenant has asked, you cannot refuse it for a period paid in full;
• free of charge: no fee linked to the rent notice or the receipt may be charged to the tenant. A lease clause making them pay reminder or postage costs for the receipt is deemed unwritten (réputée non écrite): it simply does not apply (article 4, p, of the law of 6 July 1989);
• unfurnished or furnished: article 21 also applies to homes let furnished as the tenant's main residence (article 25-3).

In practice, most landlords send a receipt every month without waiting to be asked. It is simpler for everyone: tenants need it for their own paperwork, and you never have to rebuild past months after the fact. With Kivlo, from the Pro plan, receipts go out automatically as soon as the rent is paid.

What the receipt must show#

The law sets one requirement on content: the receipt gives the detail of the sums paid, with rent and charges shown separately (article 21). A single lump sum is not enough.

For the document to prove anything, in practice it also gives:

• the landlord's name and address;
• the name of each tenant;
• the address of the let property;
• the period paid, for example 1 to 30 November 2026;
• the rent excluding charges, the service-charge advance or flat fee, and the total;
• the payment date;
• the place and date of the receipt, and the signature of the landlord or their agent.

The law does not list these, but a receipt with no period or name does not show what it certifies.

Example for €850 rent and a €60 service-charge advance, paid on 3 November 2026:

Line	Amount
Rent excluding charges, November 2026	€850.00
Service-charge advance	€60.00
Total paid	€910.00

Part payment: a reçu, not a quittance#

When the tenant pays only part of the rent and charges, the law requires you to give them a reçu (article 21). It states the sum received, the period and, in practice, the balance still due, and says that it is not a quittance.

A quittance for a part payment would certify a full payment that never happened, which makes it hard to claim the balance later. When the lease ends, the security deposit can cover sums still owed.

Our rent receipt template switches to a reçu on its own when you untick "full payment" and enter the amount received.

Paper or email#

With the tenant's express agreement, you may send the receipt electronically, for example as a PDF by email (article 21, service-public.gouv.fr). Without that agreement, the receipt is given on paper.

Keep written proof of the agreement, a lease clause or an email from the tenant: it is for you to show they accepted.

Paying the rent: two useful rules#

The tenant pays rent and charges on the dates set in the lease, and is entitled to pay monthly if they ask (article 7 of the law of 6 July 1989). Two rules frame how they pay:

• cash is allowed only for an amount below €1,000 (service-public.gouv.fr, in French);
• a clause letting the landlord take the rent from the tenant's salary is deemed unwritten (article 4, d).

For rent paid in cash, the quittance or reçu is often the only record of the payment: hand one over every time.

How long to keep receipts#

Any claim arising from the lease is time-barred after three years from the day the facts were, or should have been, known (article 7-1 of the law of 6 July 1989). During that time, you can claim unpaid rent and the tenant can dispute charges.

So keep a copy of every quittance and reçu for at least three years, with the bank statements that show the payments. They also back up the rent you declare to the French tax office.

Mistakes to avoid#

• Issuing a receipt before the money arrives, on the strength of a cheque or an announced transfer: if the payment fails, the receipt says otherwise.
• Giving a quittance for a part payment instead of a reçu.
• Writing a single amount without separating rent and charges.
• Charging for the receipt or for sending it, even if the lease says so.
• Sending it only by email without the tenant's express agreement.
• Refusing a receipt to an up-to-date tenant who asks for one, for instance during a disagreement about something else.

Sources#

• Article 21 of the law of 6 July 1989 (quittance and reçu), Légifrance (French)
• Law of 6 July 1989, articles 4, 7, 7-1 and 25-3, Légifrance (French)
• Quittance de loyer : comment l'obtenir ?, service-public.gouv.fr (French)
• Paying the rent on a private-sector home, service-public.gouv.fr (French)

Last checked on 9 November 2026