A Guide to Renting in France
Although home ownership in France is increasing, most people live in rented accommodation. In major cities apartment living is the usual way of life.
The Internet is changing the way we do many things, until recently nearly all property rentals were arranged through an an agent immobilier – estate agent – this was their main business, but increasingly home rentals are advertised and sought online. Sales of private properties have increased, as has the number of agencies and the rental service has changed, although there are usually some specialist agencies offering rentals in large towns.
In France the tenant has very strong rights and is protected in many ways from exploitation by landlords. But this protection has caused problems for property owners. There are many cases where an owner has not received any rent for years yet cannot gain access to their own property. This has discouraged owners from renting and there are changes now planned to some laws which give fair rights to both owners and tenants.
At present an unfurnished property will be offered normally on a standard three year agreement, renewable for a further two three year periods with fixed maximums to the increase of rent to be paid. Furnished accommodation is often offered on a one year agreement and a registered student can obtain a nine month agreement.
Unless there are restrictions (as there are in central Paris) a furnished property can be rented as a seasonal or vacation property for any period less than six months. In central Paris only one year tenancy agreements can be offered, vacation rentals are not allowed, unless the proeprty is correctly registered and rated as a commercial property (very few are).
The tenant can cancel the rental agreement with three month notice. The owner can only request vacant possession at the end of the period of the lease if they require if for their own use or intend to sell the property. If the property is offered for sale the tenant has the first right of refusal to purchase. An owner cannot artificially inflate the selling price or use other devices to inconvenience the tenant without risking expensive penalties.
If you are looking for rented accommodation and use estate agents, you need to know that there is no central listing service so it is necessary to get information from all agencies in a region to find the available properties.
Many commercial owners do prefer to use agencies to assist in protecting them from “troublesome” tenants. Agents will charge normally at least one months rent commission for finding a suitable tenant and about the same each year for managing the rental. Howeern renting diret from an owner does not often reduce the rental demanded, although you mayb able to negotiate the deposit required.
Agencies will normally demand a further two months, sometimes three months, rent as a security deposit. This is only repaid at the end of the tenancy after a full inspection of the property has been completed.
When a tenancy has been agreed, a detailed inspection (an état des lieux) is made – ther are standard foms for this and it is usually ery detailed. The tenant should check carefully all entries, note any prior defects or damage to the property and take photographs where possible. Make an note of every hole, scratch, mark or stain. For a landlord to claim a property had to be completely repainted and to charge a huge professional rate for this to the departing tenant does happen.
Unfurnished property can be very basic, a kitchen may only have a basic sink, I have seen properties where the light bulbs are removed and not offered with the property. If you are taking over a property and view it when it is occupied, do not expect any of the fittings and fixtures to remain, or insist that those items which are with the property are listed and agreed.
Be sure you are aware of any other costs in renting. You will be liable for the taxe d’habitation each year. Interestingly it is the person who occupies the property on January the first of a year who is liable, so if you move in on January the 2nd you get 364 day free of this tax for your first year. The owner of the property is liable for the other local tax the taxe fonciere. Check what this is at the local Mairie.
There are other charges on a property, especially apartments. Management, maintenance and concierge charges may apply, be sure to get these confirmed and explained in writing before you sign an agreement. These charges do change annually, rarely downwards.
Services are usually paid by the tenant, most usually water gas and electricity, but also waste collection and other services may be added charges. Check carefully what is included in the rental.
Once you have found a place to rent and are comfortable with the agreement, you will have to prove your income. This is usually proof of at least the previous three months income, a contract of employment, bank statement details. Your disposable income should be at least three times the rent demanded. If there is any problem, you may also be asked to supply one or more guarantors who have assets or proven income to support your charges. Guarantors are almost certain to be demanded if you are self employed or an “artist”. Now you know why many famous artists lived in squalid garrets, they could not get a proper apartment.
In most cases you will need a French bank account as payment will usually be demanded by autonomic monthly payment.
However, first you have to find your property – this is anther article.
Montblanc Puzzle
December 30, 2009 by tony · Leave a Comment
If you are finding it hard to concentrate on work after Christmas and the new year – then what you need is a holiday.
What better than coming to stay with us in our Apartments or Bed and Breakfast in Montblanc.
To relax you and get you in the mood, here is a jigsaw puzzle of a typical street in our village……
Slide the pieces with your mouse….
Or click on the picture or link below….
Montblanc streetHousehunting in France
December 17, 2009 by tony · Leave a Comment
I received a comment this morning which is prompting me to do some worK.
A reader sent me a question on my About Us page, asking how to find the name of an owner of a property when they know the address.
First this is reminding me to put some up-to-date photos on the pages – Jack is a young man now and I am older, Carole seems to be getting younger though, so it all balances out.
I have also been reminded of my idea to create a website service to identify, map and give owner’s details of all properties for sale in France.
In most countries there are services giving multiple listings and full details of properties for sale. In the United States sites like Trulia.com and Zillow.com plus blogs like futureofrealestatemarketing.com, or using trade aggregators like Realtor.com can give a buyer some good indications of the total proeprties for sale in any area.
In France it is different. There are several ‘groups’ and trade associations of estate agents. However, most properties for sale do not have any kind of central listing and the advertising done by agents selling properties give very little information, usually never the address and often not even the general area of the property. This is because most properties are listed with many agencies and the agent would lose their (huge) commission if a buyer went direct to the owner to through another agency.
As the purchase and sale of every property, by law, must be done by a Notaire, there is a fixed charge and tax on every purchase. This is around 6 percent of the purchase price (less for a new property) – add to this the estate agents commission, usually around 6 percent again and there is a big incentive for a buyer to deal direct with the owner of a property, if they can find out first which properties are for sale and second, contact details for the owner.
There are a few websites which list properties for sale direct from owners in France – probably the largest is pap.fr/, this site also has some tools giving indications of the values of properties sold recently by department and town.
Privacy and secrecy are taken seriously in France, but there are ways of finding information, addresses and names. The most obvious one is the online telephone directory, there is a reverse look-up facility for individuals at PagesBlanches
By using other Internet tools like Google Maps the local French property rating maps .cadastre.gouv.fr and information about towns from sites like linternaute.com and FallingRain – a researcher can, with a lot of work, find out information and clues as to what properties are for sale and local values.
For a couple of years I have been wanting to make a ‘mashup’ of services and create a site which can use search tools and come up with a list of property for sale, owners and values services etc about any area. I believe I could target over 90 percent of all properties on offer – bearing in mind that many are still not offered through real-estate agencies, this would be a useful application for a mobile phone.
One day soon it will be done, it would be nice if it was me doing it, I could do with the money.
France the Flip Side
I am a fan of Jeremy Clarkson, his column in the Sunday Times may be the only floppy copy I read each week, apart from his motoring section which rates the Lada higher than the Audi (so do I and I love the Dacia)
He got a column ‘pulled’ recently for suggesting the tying of some chap called Mandelson to the front of a van and parading him around the UK in an attempt to cheer up the increasingly fed-up population of Britain. It seems that this chap Mandy is an unelected lord of all things and responsible for supporting rich people and generally being important. There is also a Mr Brown somewhere and another chap called Darling – it all sounds like the cast of a Blackadder farce, but it isn’t.
Basically the censored article said how fed-up lot of people are with Britain and would love to live somewhere else, France for example, but JC pointed out that there is a teensy problem with paperwork and bureaucracy in France which an Englishman would not get on with.
I am an Englishman and I do not get on well with French paperwork – actually I do not get on well with any paperwork, but I get it in spades in France and really do very badly.
But this is the point – it seems a universal truth that the ‘quality of life’ in France is recognised as being among the best in the world – millions of people leave their own countries and come to live in France. More people come to France to experience the French lifestyle and culture than to any other country in the world.
Yes France does have a horrid number of civil servants, a low income level, privacy and secrecy laws to stun a goldfish and a reputation of being cheese eating surrender monkeys – I refute all of these (well not all, there are a lot of civil servants and a lot of cheese).
On another blog I started at http://2337.com I am presenting facts and opening discussions relating to some legislation affecting short term rentals in Paris. I am doing it because for over a year I have been anticipating some public announcements which will affect anyone who is involved in renting private apartments in Paris, owners, agents and tenants, many of whom read my newsletter or write to me.
Sadly this will inevitably affect some good agencies, some owners who have invested their savings in rental properties and many years of hard work. By my publishing this now and by trying to present the true facts, the good guys could adapt their services and do well – the bad guys who have robbed and tricked people will, I hope, be made to pay.
But what I found interesting in the debates underway on that blog is the assumption that the City of Paris is shooting itself in the foot and that this is ‘bad for tourism’ and will ‘lose Paris income from tourists’.
My belief is that the people of Paris do not give a fig or a tuppenny damn for tourist income and this is the point I am trying to make in this post.
The quality of life in France is good exactly because the French national character values a human lifestyle with values expressed in conversation, food, local shops, affordable homes and which respects a philosopher above transient celebrity. Whereas many other societies establish the value of everything in money.
This explains to me why there is so much control, why I have to do everything in quadruplet and in black ink yet also why health care and education are brilliant. It is because people care about their cities, villages, homes and family life and prefer to have local shops and Parisians living in Paris than chase the quick shilling/dollar/yen/whatever.
The people of Venice are protesting in the streets about the circus their city has become, the city of London is a derelict wasteland in the evenings (I lived in the Barbican for a while).
Wisely, Paris built their Disneyland outside the city – they plan to keep it there.
Now I must get back to filling in another form to wind up a company I have never wanted, never used and which has cost me a fortune but is still there because I missed a dozen pink forms which I only returned in triplicate when everyone knows they have to be in quintuplet.
Post Script…
I am delighted to see that the censored article is back on the Times online site at Tie Mandy to a van Perhaps there is hope – Yogi Blair is not president of Europe and Oz the Rupe did not tug his whatnot for Mandiavelli
Dark Cloud over City of Light
November 21, 2009 by tony · Leave a Comment
I have started a blog at http://2337.com which is currently only about one subject – The Rental of Residential Apartments in Central Paris.
I did this as I believe that it is a very important subject which may be putting a lot of people at serious risk, both financially and for personal security.
It is against the law of France to rent an apartment designated as a residential property for a period of less than one year (nine months in the case of a student rental). Most apartments in Paris, the vast majority, are residential apartments as opposed to commercial property. The owner faces a fine of 25,000 euro plus 1,000 euro a day plus 5 years in jail if there is an infringement. The renter is not likely to be able to have insurance cover as the occupancy is illegal.
I have been aware of the problem for over a year and the law has been on the statutes for a long time, but the storm-clouds are gathering. Recently the penalties have been increased and a new bureau has been created an empowered to take action against property owners (not tenants) so I have been investigating this by interviewing the authorities concerned last week. I am also trying to find solutions for owners and renters that comply with the laws.
Living in Paris
November 8, 2009 by tony · Leave a Comment
Prices charged for vacation and holiday rentals for private lets in Paris are a minimum of four times the rental charged for a regular tenant, it is often many times more than this and the acute shortage of rental accommodation in the city, partly caused by these apartments not being available to Parisians pushes prices up.
Interestingly, as in the city of London, it is actually illegal for the owner of a private apartment in Paris to offer this for rent as a vacation property, or for any form of short-term furnished letting. There are a few exceptions, registered commercial properties for example, or for rentals to students, but these represent a small number of those properties advertised on the hundreds of websites offering Paris apartments.
The laws are clear, but, like many things in France, these laws have not been applied – until now…..
To read the full posing and follow the comments on this important subject please see the full article here.
Now I have Stopped Working – Not
October 17, 2009 by tony · Leave a Comment
Now that I have stopped working (well almost) on the house, I am back to marketing and getting guests for our apartments and BandB. We first started this in our old home in Nizas 12 years ago and did all our marketing through the Internet – hopefully I can get back into the same flow as before, there is a lot more actiity on the internet now and the days of getting to the top of Alta Vista in a couple of hours are long gone – the tricks I used then would get me banned from Google for life. I am looking at what is on offer for help in Internet marketing, the rules and ruses seem top be the same, just follow the Google motto of ‘Do No Evil’ – a good website I found is http://www.nikkipilkington.com/about-us/ – Nikki looks good too! (plus she’s a biker)
Hopefully my 20 years experience of Internet marketing will get me started, but I will always look for good skills and help. I don’t have the strong websites I used to own, which got to the top of all French accommodation listings, but I will – Start All Over Again –
If you are thinking of coming to France – stay with us – I will try to make you an offer you cannot refuse.
Villa Roquette
A Bargain Property in the South of France
October 17, 2009 by tony · Leave a Comment
Would you like your own home in the South of France? It is a dream shared by most of the visitors I meet here and, after a quiet year with most of the world (according to the Daily Mail) hopping from one crisis to another, people are beginning to look for bargains for sale – there are a few still around.
For a while I was selling property in France, I worked with an excellent company which I thoroughly recommend if you are looking along the Riviera. However, I found the local agencies are, generally, a bunch of thieving rascals – there are a couple I would recommend in Languedoc, so if you are looking here then do contact me first. I am happy to give advice, but I cannot charge and get no commission as I am not registered as an agent now. You get my personal opinion from 20 years of experience, preferably over a glass of wine
Most visitors fall in love with old beams and stone houses – many of these homes in this region were built over three hundred years ago – our first home here was first recorded in the 10th century – and has been lived in continuously for over 1,000 years – our present home is a mixture of 17th and 19th century, so is very modern in comparison.
But old houses, although built to last with stone walls sometimes two yards thick, need a lot of work if you need to renovate – I know, I have spent a lot of the last fifteen years with a hammer, shovel and pick.
One very sweet house I sold a couple of years ago is back on the market – here are some photos, it (very rare) comes with a courtyard garden and a fig tree. It need a lot of work, but is not too big and a realistic project. The village is just perfect, a classic Mediterranean village in one of the most beautiful parts of France. Contact me and I will put you directly in touch with the owner, a charming American lady who rides a Ducati (very fast). The price, I understand, is around 50,000 euro.
A Plague Upon Their Houses
October 13, 2009 by tony · Leave a Comment
I had a mail from an associate asking about real-estate advertising websites and earning commissions – I have been deeply involved in this over the last ten years and have strong feelings about it.
In my blogs, I have been less than polite about realtors dealing in France, I have had some of these parasites threaten me with legal action – but I have also met a few, very few, (in fact one), gentleman I would recommend .
Here is a reply to an email today, it is at the end of a thread about realtors etc, but it has encouraged me to set out a little more clearly what I am trying to do – Vlad, if yo are reading this we must get this software sorted, if you don’t have time then Richard and Raj, please work with me to make this your next app !!
===
Hi Steve,
My feeling is that real-estate dealing, and all aspects of property sales in France, is, at present, a “commoditised” business and is only attracting a rats-in-a-cage scenario. People will always make money out of selling what is to be sold, but, for-me, this is a bad/dead business.
As all property in France has to be sold through a Notiare, the value of an immobilier is zero – they do not act as true brokers, they do not assist either the buyer or seller, their only interest is to get a mandat and/or get a bon de visite and ensure an immoral level of commission for nothing – a plague on all of them and away with the scoundrels.
What is needed is a true brokerage service (buy it and resell it) or a true marketing/sourcing service (act for the buyer/seller) which clearly sets out the service offered and charges a fair price for the work.
However, to be able to offer any sort of viable and useful service in this area in France, a universal listing facility is needed and the corrupt and disgusting cartels done away with. Dream on.
I am working (too slowly) on software to scrap the useless listings of myriads of agents and simply give a complete “mashup” of all properties listed from existing Internet sources – then use techniques to identify these properties and give information about the seller/owner/agent dealing with it.
So in simple terms, anyone looking in a specific area or for a particular property can see, in one search, all properties, in detail, with full contact information, everything on the Internet which is relevant – this will represent about 80 percent of the relevant search criteria and be many mny times more relevant, efficient and time saving than trawling through the thousands of uninformative agency sites and for iPhone or Facebook would cost a user a very small amount. This concept is an “app” costing from zero to perhaps 4 euro. There are over 500,000 target clients for this.
OK, that is my aim – I cannot see any viability in any “new” listing site, only heartache and wasted time – those early Internet days are nearly gone.
Fractional Ownership is mostly marketed for the “almost” rich people who want a slice of something they cannot really afford – interestingly, in my opinion, it does have a place and is a good product and I would like to find the right marketing angle for this.
Without a license or correct registration, any commission you get on a sale is discretionary – 10 percent is the usual for a non-registered person, you can only do this two or three times with impunity – as an agent commercial I would demand 50 percent of the commission, most gave me 60 to 75 percent of their commission.
Lots to talk about
It pays to choose your Pays
October 11, 2009 by tony · 3 Comments
All French people – perhaps all people in France (perhaps all people) – belong to their “pays”, this is not just a geographical area, it is also their emotional and cultural inheritance. Homeland or Heartland may be closer to the meaning.
In France this is the result of many centuries of survival in a vast country with many climatic and geological variations. For centuries, until the early 20th century, France was in fact hundreds of small and mostly isolated communities, most with their own dialect and several totally different languages.
Today the 95 mainland departments all have different identities, but within these departments, every village and hamlet still has a recognisable character. This gives thousands of permutations of local identities, a sort of DNA of the terroire. Some are related, but two villages just a couple of miles apart can still seem to be from different planets.
These differences are not as acute today as they were even only twenty years ago – I first came to France in 1961, before there were any major Autoroutes, my friend Bob Mollison and I travelled from Calais, through Paris and down to the Mediterranean on a BSA Bantam. I remember then the differences of each stage of our journey with our maximum speed of 20 mph.
I am writing this not in response to questions I am often asked, about buying property in France – if you are looking for somewhere for your home or for a vacation property, the first place most look is the thousands of estate agent sites on the Internet – Google indicate about 11 million listings for France- in just about every case you will not be told on the information where the property is, or even be shown a picture of the front of the property – this is to avoid you finding out more about the property before the agent can suck you into their thrall, get you to sign a “Bon de Visite” – this is to ensure their five to seven percent commission.
There is no effective Multi Listing Service in France, no one central register of properties for sale – so to realise your dream of finding a place in France you are encouraged to go into the lobster-pot of the immobiliers door and spend many lost hours being shown piles of old stone and plastered over woodworm in places you never knew existed.
With luck you may see five properties a day this way – to have any idea of what is really on offer you would need years to search in this manner. Even then you will not be seeing even half of what is for sale – a large proportion (perhaps 50 percent) of properties are still sold direct or through the service of the Notaire (the Notaire is legally required to act for the sale of a property, they are the government tax collector on every single property sale).
To get some idea – in Herault, the department I live in, there are more estate-agents listed than bakers shops, about 1000 of the rascals, that is one estate agent for every 250 houses – at the most this means at any one time (taking the mobility of the population) an estate agent will, on average, have 8 properties on their books, but to be viable an agent needs about 200 properties listed – so from these figures a property will be listed with from five to thirty agents – which is why the adverts will not tell you where the property is until you sign guaranteeing their commission.
So how do you find the home of your dreams?
My advice is to come to France – travel round until you find the climate you want. Then travel in that region until you find the “pays” you are happy in – the best way to do this is to go to every town and have a coffee, or beer in every cafe. Buy a croissant in the local boulangerie, sit in the local park, or outside the Mairie – see if the “pays” is “sympa” to you. When you have found your “pays” talk to people, the Mairie, Notaire, boulangerie – put an advert in the bouangerie (those little tear off strips with a phone number on)
Look for your new home there – it will be there, certainly at the present time – I bet you a beer that if you say in a loudish voice in the cafe, “I wonder if there are any houses for sale in this town” – you will be told of several or a person that can help you, most of which are not yet in any agents grasp.
