Paris property is famously expensive but half of all property rental adverts in the French capital are illegal, according to the recent study conducted by the consumer rights group CLCV.
The new rent control rules set the high demand for the rent objects. However, in Paris, housing pushing prices up even for tiny apartments in poor condition. As The Local France reports, about half of all adverts for property in Paris are illegal because they don’t meet new rent control rules. In other words, the average overcharge for Parisien studio apartment was a hefty €121 a month.
As the study shows, house-hunters should be very attentive while dealing in Paris. This was a problem that was supposed to be at last partially solved by rent control rules that were imposed in July 2019.
In general, it is illegal in France to rent out any living space that has less than nine metres square of habitable space, with a ceiling at least 2m 20cm high. The new rules put a maximum rate on rentals and were meant to stop some of the more egregious overcharging by landlords.
The cap was imposed by the Paris mayor’s office, so only applies to Paris itself – the greater Paris area and the suburbs beyond the ringroad still have no rent cap – but even within the city the rules are not being respected, according to the consumer rights group CLCV.
Paris: as smaller the apartment as more likely it is overcharged
The group told French newspaper Le Parisien that its analysis of 1,000 representative adverts between July and November last year found that 44 percent of them were breaching the rent cap.
And the smaller the apartment space the more likely it was to be overcharging, with only 55 percent of studio adverts within legal limits, as opposed to 66 percent for two and three room apartments and 78 percent for apartments of four rooms or more.
Going through a professional agency offers you more protection than a private rental, but still only 70 percent of agency adverts were legal, against 48 percent for private individuals.
As the new rules require, space must also contain at least one window, an area where cooking is possible, a separate shower/bath and toilet and there must be some method of heating the property.
