Most of the posts and comments in this bog relate to apartments in Paris which have been rented from agencies. These agencies usually take a lease on a property and then re-let it for short-term rental, from a few days to a month or more. This, in nearly every case advertised, is illegal.
I have heard that some agencies are getting together, largely prompted by this blog, to form an action group to lobby for the laws to be challenged and changed. I am concerned that many of these agencies have not fully informed the owners of the properties that they, the owners, are facing fines and possibly imprisonment. Renters are also at risk, insurances and deposits through cancellation of a properties availability may be invalid.
However, most rentals are still direct from a private owner. Many people have invested in property in Paris intending to rent them out short-term to overseas visitors and getting a much greater return on their investment than a normal one year minimum lease.
I am getting many stories of visitors coming to Paris who have had bad experiences from these sort o rentals – I will be publishing some of these as examples, but the main issue is that it this sort of abuse that the Mairie and prefecture of Paris wishes to stop. There are thousands of private individual owners renting their own apartments illegally and the sheer numbers are too much for the departments to prosecute them all, at present, but the plan is to shortly make some high profile prosecutions and ‘encourage’ other owners to obey the laws.
This will have an impact on the agencies who advertise larger numbers of apartments to rent – their protests are not likely to change long established laws and this mushrooming industry generated by the Internet is likely to fade away.
It will still be possible to ‘live like a Parisian’ – there will be correctly licensed and registered apartments, but the free for all which has caused the City of Paris to cry ‘enough’ will soon be over.
6 Comments on “Renting an Apartment in Paris from Owners”
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I worry about the tone and thread of your site. There are many people who purchased a property prior to this as an investment and work hard to have excellent customer satisfaction with their short term rentals. They pay their taxes on the rental income and work hard to be good, honest citizens. They are good members of their copropriete. Why should these people suffer ? Why should they be imprisoned ? or forced to sell their apartment because their plan and dreams can’t be realized ? What if this is part of their retirement plans and through something like this effort, it is all ruined. Applying rules retroactively to people who have honestly built their lives around something is hurtful and not very consistent with the french culture that I know. This is truly a sad and disappointing effort and your fanning the flames seems unfair to all the honest people out there. Through this type of campaign there will be nice people who take care of these apartments put out of work and to what end ? I hope you realize what this does to the good people out there.
Posted on December 11, 2009 at 8:06 am.
Susan,
This law is over 20 years old, it is not a new law, neither I nor the people writing here created the laws. If a property was bought with the intention of re-letting for short term then that investor was ill advised. If an agency builds a business on an illegal activity then they run the risk of losing that business.
Any application of this law is not retroactive.
I am not ‘fanning the flames’ as you put it, but I am trying to help people, both owners and renters, by informing them of immanent action by the authorities to stop illegal rentals in the center of Paris.
The recent massive growth of vacation apartment rentals in Paris has forced the authorities to correct the situation, it is making local housing harder to find and tuning some parts of Paris into a tourist theme park. The ‘good people out there’ in this case are the people of Paris.
It seems that, until now, I am the only person who have bothered to talk directly to the French administration about this and to discover what is being planned. My actions have not made the slightest difference to their plans, but I have been able to warn people of the risks. This blog is already instrumental in encouraging a group of agents to form a lobbying team and get legal advice. This blog is informing people of the facts and publishing links to references. None of this existed a month ago, although I had warned many agencies and owners over a year ago when I first heard of the initiative from the Mairie of Paris.
Any person owning an apartment in central Paris can rent it for an investment on a 1 year lease (9 months in the case of a student) – bed and breakfast activities are encouraged by the Mairie. A commercial license can be applied for, but this is likely to be difficult and expensive. Some apartments will have a commercial standing, but this will be relatively few of the apartments concerned.
Posted on December 11, 2009 at 9:29 am.
Susan
I think the best advice is to wait and see what happens. I am aware of one person who has received a letter from the Mairie on this subject and it was a VERY special case and not at all typical. Certainly the Mairie has a program to do something about the housing situation, but owners who rent are a long way down their list. Everything on the web about this subject comes back to this site.
What you see here on this blog is a man with an ax to grind. To respond to him will be to generate activity and make him feel like he’s getting somewhere with his campaign. So this is my first and last comment here.
Posted on December 11, 2009 at 4:53 pm.
Many of the comments are from false email addresses, so it is difficult to take them seriously.
Instead of blaming the messenger, I suggest that anyone with an interest in this subject goes to the department concerned, phones them and reads the literature they produce. The contact details and copies of the leaflets are on this site.
I doubt very much if the thousands of individual owners will be prosecuted, yet. This does not change the fact that they are breaking the law if they continue to rent their apartments ’short-term’. Most owners are still not aware of the law and the risks, but ignorance is not a defense.
My understanding, from two meetings I have had at the Mairie of Paris, is that some high profile actions will be taken against owners to publicise this. The department has been gathering a huge volume of data for over a year now, I have seen the piles of folders, and until some clear judgements against owners are through the courts only warnings are being given.
What is my personal interest in this? I started blogging about this because my daughter lives in Paris and was finding it hard to get decent accommodation for her work. During the six months we were looking I discovered several areas of Paris have now turned into areas where local families and residents are hugely outnumbered by tourists. This is a phenomena of the Internet, city life has been eroded over the last twelve years, a large part of this is due to private apartments being aimed exclusively at the tourist market. Fortunately the city of Paris plans to stop this.
Most major cities in he world are aware of this problem and many are acting in the same way as Paris is now doing – some have had this sort of legislation in force for over 20 years. Paris had the laws on the statute books about 20 years ago, but is now forced to apply them.
By publicising this a little in this blog, owners, agencies and others are getting an advanced warning of problems ahead, I am sorry for the honest agents and people who have invested in this business, but this should not show a loss as real-estate is buoyant in Paris and there are many people looking for long term lets. Some apartments will have or will obtain commercial rating and there are several other opportunities I can see.
Posted on December 11, 2009 at 6:09 pm.
There are only four comments. Or do I take it from this that people who want to post anonymously are unwelcome so you moderate out their posts? That’s unfortunate. I’d like to read what they have to say on the subject.
Vlad
Posted on December 12, 2009 at 7:01 am.
Currently there are 27 comments on this blog;
I do look at comments before they are posted and I would decline to publish anything that was offensive. I have not refused any posts.
The number of posts is very small because this blog is not interesting to most people and it not is it very visible. I use it as a reference site for information and as a service for people, like yourself, to put their opinion and comment.
A lot of people prefer to write to me directly through my other blogs and websites, if it relates to the issue of apartment rentals in Paris, I can refer them to this blog.
I have letters for renters who claim serious abuse and poor service from both owners and agencies who I can refer to this blog for help. I also have a mailing list of people who visit France which I have built over the last twelve years of renting properties here. I get a lot of questions about service and security and this issue regarding the illegality of renting in Paris is a serious concern, again I can refer them to this site. One concern is the insurance cover for the renter of an apartment which is illegally rented.
Posted on December 12, 2009 at 9:28 am.