Visale guarantee: how to claim for unpaid rent

To claim unpaid rent from Visale, you first send the tenant a formal notice (mise en demeure) by registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt, then declare the arrears in your landlord account once they exceed one month of rent and charges, net of housing benefit. Action Logement, the employer-funded housing body that runs Visale, then pays you and pursues the tenant in your place. The two official sources do not give exactly the same deadlines: Service-Public's page on the Visale guarantee and Visale's landlord FAQ (both in French). This guide sets them side by side and keeps the timeline that meets both.

This guide is part of our series Unpaid rent in France: what to do, step by step.

What Visale covers#

Visale is a free guarantee (a caution) granted by Action Logement. The tenant obtains a visa, and the landlord validates the guarantee deed online on visale.fr. If rent goes unpaid, Action Logement pays the landlord first, then recovers the money from the tenant.

For a private-sector home let to a tenant who is not a seasonal worker, Service-Public states:

What is covered	Ceiling
Unpaid rent and charges	At most 36 months of arrears during the first 3 years of the lease
Damage, when the tenant finally leaves	At most 2 months of the rent and charges in the lease

Beyond the first 3 years of the lease, a new Visale application is needed to stay covered.

The deadlines: two sources, one safe path#

Step	Service-Public	Visale's FAQ
First unpaid rent	Formal notice by registered letter within 15 days of the unpaid rent	Reminder by plain letter
Threshold to claim	Arrears exceed one month of rent and charges, net of housing benefit	Arrears "constituted": two months of rent and charges fully unpaid, or partial arrears adding up to more than one month
Formal notice	Within 15 days of the unpaid rent	At the latest 15 calendar days after the arrears are constituted, demanding payment within eight days
Claim	As soon as the threshold is reached	Within 30 calendar days (the same FAQ mentions 60 days elsewhere to validate the first claim)
Later arrears	Monthly update of the tenant account	Claim within 30 days of the due date of the last unpaid rent, no new formal notice

As we read it, the path that satisfies both sources is simple: send the registered formal notice within 15 days of the first missed rent, then claim as soon as the threshold is reached, and never more than 30 days after the arrears are constituted. Your contract and your Visale landlord account remain the reference: read them from the first late payment.

Dated example#

Rent of €700 plus €50 of charges, so €750 due on the 1st of each month, no housing benefit.

Date	Step	Source followed
1 February 2027	February rent unpaid	—
16 February 2027	Last day for the registered formal notice (15 days)	Service-Public; Visale's FAQ would allow later
1 March 2027	March rent unpaid: the debt reaches €1,500	—
2 March 2027	Arrears constituted: two months unpaid, more than one month of rent and charges owed	Visale's FAQ and Service-Public
1 April 2027	Last day to claim (30 calendar days after 2 March)	Visale's FAQ

Had you sent the formal notice only after the arrears were constituted, Visale's FAQ would have given you until 17 March 2027; Service-Public would not. Hence 16 February.

How to claim#

The claim is made in your landlord account on visale.fr, under "Gérer mon contrat" then "Déclarer mes impayés". Visale's FAQ lists, among others, these documents:

• the lease;
• the registered formal notice (for the first claim, the proof of posting is enough to stay within the deadline; the acknowledgment of receipt, or the "unclaimed" return, follows);
• your ID, or a company's Kbis (company registration extract);
• the management mandate if an agent manages the property;
• the taxe foncière (property tax) notice;
• your bank details (RIB).

If the file is complete, the FAQ announces an answer within 15 working days. Action Logement then issues a subrogation receipt (quittance subrogative) that you validate online; Service-Public states payment within 5 working days of that validation.

After the claim#

Action Logement takes over the recovery, which can go as far as ending the lease and evicting the tenant if needed. Your duties do not stop there:

• every month, update the tenant account in your space, including when the tenant has resumed paying, and declare new arrears and any sums received;
• once you have the property back, report the tenant's departure and send the final statement of account within 60 days (Service-Public).

The court steps that follow are those of any unpaid rent: the commandement de payer, the termination clause, then the eviction.

Visale or insurance, not both#

Visale is a guarantor. Yet article 22-1 of the law of 6 July 1989 forbids, on pain of nullity, a landlord who took out insurance or another guarantee of the tenant's obligations from requiring a guarantor, unless the home is let to a student or an apprentice. The choice is made when the lease is signed.

Sources#

• Visale guarantee: tenant guarantor for unpaid rent and damage, Service-Public (in French)
• Managing unpaid rent, landlord FAQ, Visale (in French)
• Article 22-1 of law no. 89-462 of 6 July 1989 (Légifrance, in French)
• Unpaid rent and eviction of the tenant, Service-Public (in French)

Last checked on 9 November 2026