Lemoine Law: change your borrower insurance anytime in France

Law No. 2022-270 of February 28, 2022, known as the Lemoine Law (named after MP Patricia Lemoine), aims to facilitate access to credit and strengthen borrower protection. It introduces three major measures:

1. Cancellation at any time: Borrowers can cancel their loan insurance whenever they wish
2. Elimination of medical questionnaire: Under certain conditions, no need to declare your health status
3. Extended right to be forgotten: Former cancer patients can stop declaring their condition after 5 years

This is the flagship measure of the Lemoine Law: you can now cancel your borrower insurance at any time, without waiting for a specific date and without fees.

Implementation Timeline

Conditions to Meet

• The new contract must have equivalent guarantees to those required by the bank
• The substitution request must be sent to both the current insurer and the bank
• The bank has 10 business days to respond

The Lemoine Law eliminates the medical questionnaire for certain mortgage loans. This is a major advancement for people who have or have had health issues.

Cumulative Conditions

Example: A 35-year-old borrower taking out a €180,000 loan over 20 years (repaid at 55) will not have to complete a medical questionnaire.

The right to be forgotten allows former patients not to declare their past condition when taking out borrower insurance. The Lemoine Law has significantly strengthened this right.

Evolution of the Right to be Forgotten

Step-by-Step Process

Switching from a bank group contract to an individual policy (délégation d'assurance) often yields meaningful savings, because group rates pool risks across very different profiles. Younger, healthier and non-smoking borrowers usually benefit the most. The 2024 CCSF review found that the price gap is widest in the first ten years of the loan.

The figures below are illustrative ranges. Actual savings depend on your age, health, profession, the loan capital still outstanding and the term remaining. Use them as a starting point, not a quote.

Savings Examples

The Lemoine Law imposes new obligations on banks to ensure the effectiveness of the right to cancel.

Mandatory Annual Information

Each year, the bank must inform borrowers of their right to cancel their insurance. This information must mention:

• The insurance contract expiry date
• The right to cancel at any time
• Cancellation procedures
• The cost of insurance over 8 years

Response Time

The bank has 10 business days to respond to a substitution request, counted from the day a complete file is received. A refusal must be in writing and motivated, with the specific guarantees deemed insufficient. A vague or boilerplate refusal does not meet the legal standard set by Article L.313-30 of the Code de la consommation.

The right of substitution is attached to the loan, not to the borrower's nationality or country of residence. If you signed a French mortgage to buy property in France, the Lemoine Law applies to you whether you live in Paris, London or Istanbul.

What expats need to check

• The new insurer must be authorised to operate in France. French-licensed carriers and insurers passported into France under EU rules both qualify. A purely UK-based insurer with no French passport does not.
• The substitution letter is normally drafted in French. Banks accept English-language correspondence rarely, and most refusals on form grounds come from non-French paperwork.
• Health questionnaires, when they apply, ask about treatment received outside France too. The 5-year right to be forgotten covers foreign medical history under the same rules.
• Tax residency does not matter for substitution itself, but it can affect the deductibility of premiums in your country of residence. Check with a local tax adviser.

Joint borrowers and quotités

When two people borrow together, each is insured for a chosen percentage of the loan, the quotité. A common split is 50/50, but couples often opt for 100/100 (each one fully covered) or 70/30 if incomes are very different. Under the Lemoine Law, each borrower can switch their own share independently. The new contract has to keep the same quotité as the original loan offer, otherwise the bank can reject the substitution on the equivalence-of-guarantees ground.

The 2024 DGCCRF audit of borrower-insurance handling found that some banks still miss the legal deadline or motivate refusals only superficially. The law gives borrowers a clear escalation path.

Step-by-step escalation

1. Send a registered reminder. A letter sent en recommandé avec accusé de réception sets a clean date. Reference Article L.313-30 of the Code de la consommation and the date your initial substitution request was received.
2. Refer the case to the bank's médiateur. Each French bank has an internal mediator listed in the small print of your loan offer. The mediator has up to 90 days to issue a non-binding opinion that the bank usually follows.
3. File a report with the DGCCRF. The Direction générale de la concurrence, de la consommation et de la répression des fraudes monitors compliance with the Lemoine Law and has issued procès-verbaux for repeated breaches. Reports are filed via SignalConso.
4. Contact the ACPR for systemic issues. The Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution (Banque de France) handles broader supervisory questions, especially when the bank's process repeatedly fails for several customers.