Do you really want tenants in your property in France
Buying a home in France and then renting it to pay the mortgage, or to give you some income for your retirement seems a great plan.
Property prices have been rising strong and steady for ten years now and in some places, Languedoc is certainly one of them, property prices are set to keep up a steady growth.
So investing in French property and renting it out looks like as simple as shooting fish in a barrel – but being a landlord is never simple, being a landlord when you are hundreds of miles away, possibly thousands of miles away has certain problems.
Not least of these problems are the laws relating to a tenants security. I am not writing about vacation rentals – this is a different subject and also has many hidden pitfalls and hurdles.
Renting to a long term tenant is strictly controlled in French law and, in simple terms, if you rent on a long term lease (over one year) then you must assume that perhaps you will never be able to consider the property your own ever again. For example, you cannot evict a tenant ever just because they do not pay rent, you cannot evict a tenant in the winter months, ummm – basically you cannot evict a tenant.
The only grounds for giving notice to quit are; if you are selling the property, you must then give the tenant first refusal – or if you wish to occupy the property yourself. In either case the tenant has a lot of rights and nothing is certain.
We are going through an interesting case ourselves at the moment and I have several clients who are wanting to sell their property but have a tenant in place who is causing problems. This is an important subject and I will continue to report on it carefully and in detail. I am finding many aspects which are not generally known and can help owners to protect their investments and to avoid long and expensive legal wrangles.
If you have any experience or questions about this, please comment on it or write to me personally.
God I hate it when you read a short description (such as the above) then realize this is you to a tee!! I’m 50 my wifes 46, from Vancouver Canada, we have an apartment in an ocean front development (New) outside of Juan Les Pine towards Golfe Juan. As you noted, this is precisely what my wife & I wish to do, rent it out for about 10 years, retire then take over the property full time (or part time) during our retirement. We’re somewhat conservative so we’ve opted to establish a long term rental vs seasonal, I’ve heard arguements for both. None the less I do value your comments as they are brutally honest, we’re still deciding, according to Nexity (the developer) they have a qualified tenant waiting mmmmm?