Bankruptcy Law

Under the terms of Article L. 526-1(1) of the Commercial Code, the rights of a natural person, registered in the national register of companies, to the property where his or her principal residence is located are automatically exempt from seizure by creditors whose rights arise from the person's professional activity. Where part of the main residence is used for professional purposes, the part not …

Debtor's main residence

Under the terms of Article L. 526-1(1) of the Commercial Code, the rights of a natural person, registered in the national register of companies, to the property where his or her principal residence is located are automatically exempt from seizure by creditors whose rights arise from the person's professional activity. Where part of the main residence is used for professional purposes, the part not used for such purposes is exempt from seizure ipso jure, without the need for a descriptive statement of division.

The automatic non-seizability of the principal residence was introduced by the Macron Law of 6 August 2015 . Before this law came into force, the creditors of a debtor subject to open an insolvency procedure could seize his main residence , unless it had been the subject of a declaration of non-seizability duly published before the opening of the procedure, and the creditors' rights had arisen subsequently. According to the Court of Cassation, the difference between the situation of a debtor who benefits from the Macron Law and one who, before the law came into force, had not deemed it necessary to declare his rights in his principal residence non-seizable, is not contrary to the constitutional principle of equality , nor does it result in a deprivation of his right to property .

In order to benefit from the provisions of Article L. 526-1, it is incumbent on the debtor to establish that the real estate whose sale the liquidator is requesting constitutes his principal residence at the date of the court ruling. A debtor who runs a business in Guadeloupe, while the property to be sold is in the Val d'Oise , fails to provide this proof. When, in the course of a divorce procedure between two spouses, one of whom is self-employed, the family court has ordered that they reside separately and has awarded the spouse of the entrepreneur the use of the family home, the principal residence of the entrepreneur, in respect of whom insolvency procedure has subsequently been opened, is no longer located in the building owned by the two spouses in which the household home was located, so that the rights he holds over this property are no longer automatically exempt from seizure by his creditors .

L. 2015-990 of 6 August 2015 for growth, activity and equal economic opportunity.

Cass. com., 29 May 2019, LawLex202200010503JBJ (LJ).

Cass. com., 12 April 2018, LawLex202300005397JBJ (LJ) ; 29 September 2021, LawLex202300005281JBJ(LJ).

Cass. com., 8 December 2021, LawLex202300005257JBJ (LJ).

Cass. com., 14 June 2023, LawLex202300008062JBJ (LJ).

Cass. com., 18 May 2022, LawLex202200002572JBJ (LJ).

Bankruptcy Law

916. Debtor's main residence

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916. Debtor's main residence

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Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

Les notions juridiques connexes

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