Definition
A freelance developer delivers a website, sends an invoice for €4,200, chases once, twice, three times. The client stops replying.
He disputes nothing: he does not say the work is poor, he does not ask for a discount, he simply goes quiet.
That is precisely the situation the injonction de payer (order for payment) was invented to unblock.
The injonction de payer is a written court procedure.
You file a request and your supporting documents with the court, a judge examines them alone, with no hearing and without your client being heard, then issues an order.
No lawyer is required to file it.
It only works for a debt that is certain and undisputed: that is its strength, since it spares you a trial, and its limit, since a client who genuinely disputes the debt will push it into ordinary proceedings.
From the request to an enforceable title
The case is decided on documents alone, so everything hangs on the documents.
You attach the unpaid Invoice with its mandatory details, the accepted quotation or purchase order, the Terms and conditions the client received before ordering, the Formal notice that went unanswered, and whatever proves the work was actually delivered.
An incomplete file does not trigger a discussion: it produces a rejection, or an order for less than you claimed, with nobody explaining why.
Which court to file with depends on the nature of the debt and on who your client is: a commercial company and a private individual do not fall under the same judge, and the official public service fact sheet says which one to target.
If the judge grants the request, he issues an ordonnance portant injonction de payer (an order for payment).
You then have it served on your client by a commissaire de justice, the profession that replaced the huissier (bailiff). Your client then has a window in which to file an opposition.
Once that window closes with no opposition, you ask the court registry to add the formule exécutoire (enforcement clause): the order becomes an enforceable title, the document that allows a bank account seizure.
Two traps cost you the whole procedure. The first: an order that is not served within the allotted time lapses entirely, and everything has to be done again, the request included.
That deadline was shortened in 2026, so check it on the official fact sheet rather than on a blog article written two years ago.
The second: obtaining the order is not the same as being paid.
An enforceable title does not create money in your client's account, and if he is insolvent or untraceable you will have paid a commissaire de justice for a piece of paper with no effect.
Before filing, check whether the company still exists and whether it publishes accounts.
€4,200 recovered, and what it does to your contributions
The developer wins, and the client pays in December 2026.
That same year he collected €34,000 in fees, as a non-regulated liberal professional under the BNC regime (non-commercial professional income).
| What happens | Effect on 2026 turnover | What it costs |
|---|---|---|
| Invoice issued, then left unpaid | None | Nothing to declare, no contributions |
| The €4,200 collected in December | + €4,200 | €1,075.20 of contributions, at the 25.6% BNC rate for 2026 |
| Total collected across 2026 | €38,200 | Above the €37,500 threshold set for 2026, the VAT exemption ends on 1 January 2027 |
Here is the point every debt recovery article leaves out: under the micro scheme, turnover is what you have collected, not what you have invoiced.
While the invoice sleeps it weighs nothing, and that is exactly the problem, because it builds nothing either.
On the day of Cash receipt, the €4,200 enters the turnover of the month the money arrives.
The sum is €4,200 × 25.6%, or €1,075.20 of social contributions at the 2026 rate for non-regulated liberal professions.
That rate is not to be confused with the 23.2% paid in 2026 by the regulated liberal professions affiliated to the Cipav.
On top comes €8.40 of CFP, the vocational training contribution, at the 0.2% rate applying to liberal professions in 2026.
That headline rate covers neither this contribution, nor the chamber levy paid by traders and craftspeople, nor income tax.
Those €4,200 also lift the yearly total to €38,200, above the VAT exemption threshold set for 2026 at €37,500 on services: VAT will apply from 1 January 2027, no change to these thresholds being confirmed to date for next year.
Two details are expensive to miss. That threshold is a sub-threshold rather than a standalone one: you also have to stay under €85,000 of total turnover in 2026, all activities combined.
And there is a second, higher threshold, at €41,250 in 2026 for a service provider: above that one, VAT does not wait for 1 January, it applies on the very day you cross the line, corrected invoices included.
A late payment heavier than our developer's would therefore drag the invoice issued the next day into VAT.
The micro scheme ceiling, by contrast, is €83,600 in 2026 for this activity, and it remains far ahead: a single overrun of the VAT threshold is enough to lose the exemption, whereas leaving the micro scheme requires two consecutive years above the ceiling.
The micro ceiling and the VAT threshold are two different things, and the gap between them catches out freelancers who thought they were safe every single year.
Formal notice, amicable recovery, court order: three levels
A mise en demeure is a letter.
It involves no judge and forces nobody, but it dates the delay, triggers Late payment penalties and the Recovery fee between businesses, and becomes the document the judge will look for in your file.
Amicable recovery entrusted to a specialist agency or to a commissaire de justice stays contractual: it rests on the debtor's goodwill, and the simplified procedure reserved for small debts only produces a title if your client agrees to take part.
The injonction de payer is the only one of the three that produces a court decision without needing his agreement.
One stubborn wording confusion remains: an injonction de payer claims a sum of money, while an injonction de faire claims performance of an obligation.
And if your client seriously disputes the debt, this is no longer the right tool: his opposition sends the case back to court, in ordinary proceedings, with a hearing and an adversarial debate.
Frequently asked questions
Do you need a lawyer to file a request for an order for payment?
No, the request is filed without a lawyer, and that is the whole point of the procedure for a micro-enterprise.
Things change if your client files an opposition: the case restarts as ordinary proceedings, where legal representation can become compulsory depending on the amount claimed and the court seized.
How long do you have to act on an unpaid invoice?
The debt becomes time barred, and the limitation period is not the same depending on whether your client is a business or a consumer: the one protecting consumers is significantly shorter.
Check which applies before letting an invoice sleep for another year, because a time barred debt cannot be revived by any procedure.
Can late payment penalties be claimed in the request?
Yes, provided you set them out beforehand.
Between businesses, penalties and the fixed recovery fee are owed automatically from the day after the due date, but they must appear on the invoice and in your terms and conditions to avoid being argued over.
Put a figure on them in the request, with the documents to back it up.
What if the client has vanished or moved address?
Service requires a valid address: without one, the commissaire de justice draws up a report of unsuccessful searches and your order loses most of its usefulness.
Check the registered address on the public company directory before filing, and keep in your records the contact details collected when the quotation was signed.