I was advised by my agent to take out insurance to cover the non-payment of rent as they reportedly had a seriously ill child and the husband may not be able to continue working when their child’s condition worsened. Reluctantly I was persuaded to agree to lease to these tenants, but oh I wish I knew about the french laws first.

First of all their cheque for the first month’s rent and deposit bounced 3 weeks after they had moved in, god knows why it takes the french banks so long to process a cheque.

Alarm bells rang at that point and again I was pursuaded that this is very unusual thing to happen in France, and that they had provided a replacement cheque which cleared fine a week or so later.

The next two months payments were received fine, a third of the rent was paid by the CAF

But then the payments dried up and I did not receive any rent for a further four months, at which point it was during winter and was informed that you cannot evict andy tenant during the winter months. So when april came about we started proceedings with the insurance company expecting to be covered and for them to evict the tenants.

Letters were sent politely asking the tenants to settle the outstanding amount or risk being evicted, which had little effect with the tenant lying about supposed payments expected from the state etc.

Then I find out the wife has moved out and taken on another lease elsewhere leaving the husband behind which is obviously a breach of contract, but I have been told that I am in no better position to evict the remaining tenant and that he can pretty much stay there rent free until he decides to leave or pass away.

Well low and behold the insurance company decide that after issuing a policy and certificate and receiving all the required information, that I’m not covered because the declarations don’t match their requirements, I’m sure this is going to be an ongoing struggle too.

Now I am trying to find out what else I can do to just evict this tenant, cut my losses on this renting fiasco.