The following is from a newsletter that I receive from a fellow who lives in France and offers property for rent near Béziers.

"Last year I lived in Paris for a few months, working on a project to troubleshoot an apartment rental company. It was not a good experience for me as I soon discovered that the business was rotten to the core and the (offshore) owners of the company were stealing (skimming by fraudulent declarations) from the company. Many landlords and suppliers, including me, lost money, but these people are still running a rental operation into Paris, from the USA with 20 luxury apartments on offer in the heart of Paris. But perhaps for not much longer....

The city of Paris now has the power to force owners not to allow their properties to let for short term (mainly vacation) rentals. The penalties for infringement of this existing law are severe, starting with a fixed fine of 25,000 euro and the landlords also risk imprisonment and further fines of up to 1,000 euro a day.

This is a very important subject, affecting over 20,000 apartments and hundreds of thousands of visitors to France next year, many from the USA, who will be at risk with no legal insurance or protection from owners or rental agencies.

There are many reasons the City of Paris is taking this action; money is being taken offshore illegally and taxes not paid, (which no government likes), renters are being put at risk in properties not suited for vacation rentals (fire risk, safety standards and hygiene are strictly controlled in a hotel - there is no protection in a private apartment), but the main reason is that there is a huge shortage of accommodation in Paris and with a holiday lets getting a premium of 400 percent of the regular rental, there is not enough accommodation for the people who live and work in Paris.

I have made an information website and started an open discussion at www.2337.com

Other cities already have this legislation, the city of London in the UK for example and I read last week that Los Angeles is introducing new regulations. Please write to me if you have any questions or knowledge about this or any other locations and look at my site at www.2337.com and please comment, it will help others."

For more about this you can go to the website mentioned above. I am concerned about this since I plan to rent an apartment in Paris soon for a group of friends going there next May.

Comments?

Other cities already have this legislation, the city of London in the UK for example>>

well there are a lot of people offering properties to rent out in London. which is the law making this illegal?

Which company are you talking about? I have an apartment booked for next year so I am concerned about this.

Annhig, I have no idea, but this fellow seems to know what he's talking about.

Suzanne, it isn't one particular company. As I understand it, anyone owning an apartment in Paris cannot rent it out short-term, such as for vacation rentals, unless it is registered as a commercial property. I assume that would entail higher taxes.

I'm not at all sure that I understand all the details. Hoping someone here knows something about this and can enlighten me further.

I am ready to sign a rental agreement with Paris Perfect. DO you know if this is one of the rental agencys in question? I also don't understand what the content of this message is other than these people don't pay taxes. If the rental property is not up to standards what recourse do we have? Can we withold the credit card charges? It seems a little vague what he is saying?

Frankdaddy, I don't think you have anything to worry about with Paris Perfect. My impression is that this is mainly about individuals who own apartments and rent them out during the summer or at other times when they are not there.

While I sympathise with current apartment owners and their potential renters, as someone who lives in a tourist precinct myself (I bought here long before it became so) this sort of short term letting does have a destructive effect on the area's sense of community / neighbourhood. It also changes the nature of local amenities when too large a percentage of the available accommodation becomes short term lets to tourists.(Venice would be the standout example). Our local Council is increasingly reluctant to give permission for the local cottages to be turned into accommodation for holiday makers because of the above. There may be room for compromise, but these factors are worth considering ...

MR. KEROUAC- please advise- - -

"working on a project to troubleshoot an apartment rental company...Many landlords and suppliers, including me, lost money"

Huh? He was working on a project to troubleshoot an apartment rental company? Was he an employee? But he lost money as a landlord or supplier? I'm confused. There may be a legit issue but the info doesn't add up.

I mentioned this to several friends who live in Paris apartments and not one of them knew what I was talking about. In fact the Mairie de Paris was encouraging apartment owners to rent out their vacant rooms or turn them into B&Bs.

"Other cities already have this legislation, the city of London in the UK for example"

"this fellow seems to know what he's talking about"

He clearly doesn't.

There are next to no flats, houses, pigsties or dog kennels available to rent, buy or borrow in the City of London. And if Annhig- who's a lawyer - hasn't heard about the alleged law, it's virtually certain there's no such law, even if there were any property it could apply to, and even if the City Corporation had the right to make such a law.

Since he's talking through his hat about that, what else is "this fellow" inventing?

I think most rentals in Paris are done without the French Impôts (French Tax Department) knowing about it. Companies are set up in other countries, they have the money wired elsewhere etc etc. Paris Perfect is based in London, operate in Paris, don't know if this is illegal, but they have great properties. Are they avoiding taxes? who knows? or all the other quality rental places. It certainly is easy to set up different entities and have money wired all over the globe for the owner of the apartment and the business sub-renting.

Buyer beware, read the small print, rent from a reputable company and if they cheat the system by avoiding taxes, this is their concern and worry, but it's very common.

I contacted the company we are renting from in June 2010 and received a very prompt response that they are a legal commercial company and that this doesn't impact their properties at all.

http://www.parisvacationapartments.com/home.html

I don't think the issue is which company the guy was investigating, that wasn't the point at all -- the issue was the law that might make it more expensive for private owners to rent their own apts short-term. I don't know why that's so surprising, I would think lots of cities have laws like that, that people are supposed to register or be licensed or something under the law and pay taxes due to it.

It doesn't sound so alarming, it sounds like the law can prosecute people if they want, and it sounds like they may do that if they suspect their are not paying proper taxes.

I wouldn't expect the avg. person in Paris who just happens to live in an apt. to know about this, why would they. The avg. resident where I live knows about zilch regarding laws that don't cover them (or even ones that do) nor do they read the newspaper regularly.

If something is changing regarding regulations or more scrutiny, I would think it would affect the companies that really just connect you to a private owner and the owner is the one who rents it -- that would be places like www.lodgis.fr, parisattitude.com, etc. or the folks who rent on VRBO.

Why would the mayor of Paris be encouraging people to turn their apts. into B&Bs? That's the one that I can't figure out.

Because there is a severe housing shortage in Paris

After having thought about this some more and talked with some friends whose judgment I respect, I'm having serious doubts about the trustworthiness of this information.

As annhig, flanneruk and others point out, some of the info seems to be incorrect and other parts just don't make much sense.

One person has asked where on the web (a government or Paris city administration website) she could find more information about this. So far, no real response to that.

Of course, we should all practice due diligence when renting in Paris or anywhere else, especially from individuals who do not have the backing of a reputable company. I should have done that before posting this!

I'm sorry if I caused anyone undue concern.

Betty1, your post seems to be based on http://legifrance.gouv.fr/affichCode...egorieLien=cid

ie www.legifrance.gouv.fr
Article L651-2
of the Code de la construction et de l'habitation

Also see the La Prefecture de Paris website info at
http://www.paris.pref.gouv.fr/telecharge/L%20631-7.htm
which clarifies the Act.

I am following this discussion with interest and am glad that some people are checking on whether the claims made in the cited blog are true. If they were, it would have an enormous impact on the availability of short term apartments for tourists, and I really have enjoyed renting apartments in Paris.

The claims made in the blog are that it is illegal to offer most apartments for short term rentals and that the requirements to make the apartments legal are not just a matter of registration, or of providing insurance or paying taxes.

The first step, according to the blog, is a requirement to exchange existing commercial property to private use, which for most property owners would be impossible. If the claims turned out to be true, Paris could become more like New York, a city in which it is extremely difficult to find legal short term rentals.

A new article about this issue in the Secrets of Paris newsletter: http://www.secretsofparis.com/newsletter95/

From the newsletter:

"Renting Your Property in Paris: Crackdown on Private Landlords *Do you own property in Paris that you rent out on a daily, weekly or monthly basis to visitors? If you don’t have the proper zoning authorization, you could be breaking the new French laws that aim to free up housing in the city center. "This law potentially affects about 300 of my client-owners, many of them based in France the UK and the US," says Susie Hollands, owner of Bonapart Consulting, a Paris-based real estate consulting firm. "What I'm advising is that they switch to longer term rentals of one year or go through the legal process to change their apartment's legal status to commercial." If you think this law affects you, contact Susie for more info [email protected]"

Has anyone even tried to open the website in the OP.... It locked up my PC so be careful! I won't bother again.

Based on Nikki's post, it looks like this could impact folks, but I would expect that a lot of rentals managed by companies either already have or will chang ehiter status to commerical.