The deadline: four months from outside France
When a French court opens a sauvegarde, a redressement judiciaire or a liquidation judiciaire, the judgment is published in the BODACC, France's official gazette of commercial notices. Creditors then have two months from that publication to declare what they are owed. A creditor based outside metropolitan France gets two months more: four in total (Code de commerce, article R622-24). What counts is where your company has its registered office, so a branch in France does not shorten your deadline.
The clock starts on the day of publication, not the day you hear about it. The mandataire judiciaire writes to the creditors it knows of, but that letter does not move the deadline. Only a creditor with published security, or a published lease or contract, has a deadline that runs from a personal notice.
InsolvencyRadar works the dates out for you: every French alert carries both deadlines, counted from the publication date of the opening judgment.
Who to send it to
- Liquidation judiciaire: the liquidateur.
- Redressement judiciaire or sauvegarde: the mandataire judiciaire.
Both are named in the BODACC notice, with the court that opened the procedure: a tribunal de commerce, or in twelve cities including Paris, Lyon and Marseille a tribunal des activités économiques (a trial running from 2025 to 2028).
Send the declaration to that office-holder directly: there is no official online portal for it. A registered letter with proof of receipt (lettre recommandée avec accusé de réception) is the safest way, because if the declaration is ever disputed, it is up to you to prove what you sent and when.
What the declaration contains
- The amount owed on the date of the opening judgment, plus any amounts not yet due, with their due dates.
- Any security or priority you hold, such as a retention of title clause.
- Amounts in another currency, converted into euros at the rate on the date of the judgment.
- How interest is calculated, if you claim interest.
- A statement that the claim is genuine, signed by you or someone authorised to act for your company.
- Copies of the supporting documents, listed: unpaid invoices, the order or contract, delivery notes, a statement of account.
Write it in French, or attach a French translation (article R693-4). A creditor in another EU country may use the EU standard claim form, but France still asks for a translation. Since Brexit the EU insolvency rules no longer cover UK creditors, so a UK supplier declares in French like any other creditor outside France.
The French government's site for businesses sets out the rules in French: Déclaration de créance (service-public.gouv.fr).
If you miss the deadline
A late claim is shut out of any payout. You can ask the juge-commissaire, the judge supervising the procedure, to lift the bar (relevé de forclusion), but only within six months of the BODACC publication, and only if you show the delay was not your fault or that the company left you off its list of creditors (article L622-26). If relief is granted, you then have one month to declare, and you share only in payments made after your request.
A claim never declared is not erased, but it cannot be enforced against the company while a plan is running, nor afterwards once the plan has been carried out.
After you declare
The mandataire judiciaire (or the liquidateur) draws up the list of claims, and the juge-commissaire admits or rejects each one. If your claim is disputed, you receive a letter: answer within 30 days, or you lose the right to contest the proposal later (article L622-27). Once the list is filed at the court registry, a notice appears in the BODACC; InsolvencyRadar shows it on the company page.
Goods supplied on retention of title
A retention of title clause (clause de réserve de propriété) lets you take back goods that have not been paid for, as long as they still exist in the same form and the clause was agreed in writing by the time of delivery. Ask for them within three months of the BODACC publication (article L624-9), by registered letter to the administrateur (or the company if no administrateur was appointed, or the liquidateur in a liquidation), with a copy to the mandataire judiciaire. If there is no agreement within a month, apply to the juge-commissaire within the month after. Declare your claim for the price as well, so you are covered if the goods have gone.
General information about French law (the Code de commerce), not legal advice. For a large claim, a French avocat or the office-holder named in the notice can confirm what applies to you.