Safe to Rent an Apartment in Paris?
 

I'm a little nervous about renting an apartment in Paris for a vacation stay after reading in todays San Francisco Chronicle that Paris officials plan to enforce an old law regarding rentals having to be by the year due to a shortage of available apartments. How would they go about this?? Anyone out there able to shed some light on this???
Thanks

I've spoken to Vacation in Paris and they have no problems with this question. Several friends have spoke with various vacation rental places and they have no worries either. The apartments that are offered for tourists are way out of the price range for the people who need them according to the law. I would not hesitate to rent froma good agency. I prefer Vacation in Paris. I have several friends with rentals in Paris and they are not at all concerned.

Hi Dave,

Hi,

It’s old news, a rehash that the woman quoted has been trying to get in the press for a year. The lawyers who have looked at it have all said that it is 100% legal and the Mayor’s interpretation won’t stand up in either French court or the European courts The Mayor has tried to launch a PR scare about it instead. It's all nonsense. Don't be concerned in the least.

Hi Gracejoan3
Are you responding to the question I posted?...whose Dave?...this was just a blurb in the Travel Section...no one was quoted...but I hope your information is correct, that would be a relief...

I'm sorry for the 'Dave'. I had copied what I had told someone who had sent me a private message re this.

What I said is correct as to the article and subject matter. That does not mean that you cannot get 'screwed' from renting from some private individual or an unreliable company! Use good common sense.

Enjoy your trip planning.

Joan

We rented an apartment last week for October. I figure the French will never get their act together quickly enough to enforce anything by October.

Does this mean VRBO appartments are 'at risk'?

Well, I'm a tad nervous about the VRBO risk since I've paid the deposit on a great apartment for next June. I sure hope this is either a PR scare, or the French can't get their act together in 11 months. Those VIP apts are out of my preferred price range.

sap,
You read my mind:)

alyce - Be assured, Joan Grace is an Ace at renting and very savvy too. If she rents , so can you without any fear.
Of course, I am sure there are unscrupulous landlords/owners out there, so rent through an approved agency.
Some Agencies support private individuals who are renting out their apartments and to whom you will deal with directly, but be assured, they are vetted and completely above board.
We are so excited to be renting (booked last Nov 2009) our first apartment in Paris at 100euros a night - and it has a garden!!

An article from a person who blogs and rents out her appartments..

http://www.adrianleeds.com/parlerpar...ris7-7-10.html

My husband was nervous at first when I suggested renting an apartment in Paris in Feb. We had never done anything like that and in fact he had never heard of renting an apt instead of a hotel for a week.

We rented through VIP Vacation in Paris and had no problems at all. I like VIP because we didn't have to pay a large security deposit, they have an insurance that you buy for, if I remember correctly, $35 that covers any damage, and a key deposit of $150 that was promptly refunded when they received our keys.

We had a lovely time, we loved our apartment. We rented:
http://www.vacationinparis.com/apts/id_08.htm it was perfect for two people, I can't imagine 4 people being comfortable in it though.

In the end my husband thougth I was brilliant for knowing about renting apts in Paris. Little did he know it was just because I spend so much time here on Fodor's. :)

Celti,

Good price. What did you think about location?

We loved it. We were a few blocks from Rue Cler, which we weren't overly impressed with, but there were some good food vendors there. We got a roast chicken and pommes dauphin one night to warm up at the apartment and it was very good.

There is a boulangerie across the street, a wine store next door, and two supermarkets only two blocks away so we were able to pick up whatever we needed for our meals each night. There was a great pharmacy, with a very helpful clerk a block away, so we had everything we needed within a few steps.

We were a few blocks from the metro stop La Tour Maubourg, while Rue St Dominique itself is on the #69 bus route, which is supposedly the route that hits all the major sites of Paris.

It was a 10 minute walk to the Eiffel Tower and about 5 minutes to the Seine. One evening we went to the Trocaddero on the Metro to see the ET all lit up, on the hour when it "twinkles" for 5 minutes, then we walked over the bridge and under the tower back to our apartment. It was the quintessential Parisian fantasy.

We walked all over Paris but I didn't see any neighborhood that I would have prefered. I loved our nightly walks to the ET, something magical about that for me, this told me every night I was really in Paris.

What I found helpful was go to google street view to walk the neighborhood to see if I would like it. This helped a lot, we found one apartment that we liked and were considering until we saw that it was on a street covered in graffiti all the way up to the second story. That was not our idea of a neighborhood we wanted to stay in. Another was in a neighborhood so residential that the boulangerie was several blocks away.

Here is 70 Rue St Dominique
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=...ed=0CBMQ8gEwAA

The black door is the entry to #70 you pass through the front building then into a courtyard to the building in back. The apartment is in the back building. The windows in the living room look out over the neighbors garden/terrace, while the bedroom window overlooks the courtyard. It was very quiet while we were there.

The apartment was very well appointed, we had plenty of blankets, pillows and cooking gear. It was perfect for two people but I think it would have been very crowded with four.

We would gladly go back to this apt and neighborhood again, and probably will.

Hello?

Gracejoan is not an "ace" on renting Paris apartments. She is emotionally involved with the people who run Paris Perfect, an apartment rental agnecy, and is practically their mouthpiece -- as her cut-and-paste goofy response to alyce demonstrates.

Alyce, if you haven't rented an apartment, you do need to be concerned that some agencies are vendors for private owners who will pull their apartments off the market -- even if they have contracts.

Before you put down money as a deposit on any Paris apartment, you should ask to see proof that the apartment is being rented legally, in accordance with French law.

Does anyone seriously advise otherwise?

Right you are Zeppole, it's hard to tell the salespeople from the ordinary customer sometime.

I will disaggree about demanding that a landlord prove he was renting the apartment "legally". If the law on the books is so little known, there may not be many landlords that know about it, and if the law is not being enforced I would also think that no landlord would bring his/her apartment to the attention of "Officials" unless he enjoyed being tied up with beaurocratic red tape for the rest of his/her life.

I am not involved in any way with VIP. I am just a satisfied customer. I've only been to Paris twice and renting an apt was a new experience. VIP made it very easy for me, their apts were within my price range unlike Paris Perfect, which I could only stay in if I won the lottery.

I will rent again in Paris and use VIP, and I won't worry about this new regulation until it's clear that it is being enforced and people are being prevented from renting their apts.

We are staying at a studio at the moment and really like it. Reasonably priced and good location in the 9th. Great for 1 or 2 people.

See: E-mail : [email protected]

Website : http://locationparis9.canalblog.com

jkbritt - That is an extremely reasonable apartment - We are paying exactly double that amount and thought at a hundred euros a day it was pretty good!
I have kept the link you sent for future reference - thanks!

jkbritt....that is one inexpensive place! Look forward to more details on it and the neighbourhood.

I think I spend that much a week on patisseries :)

Oh, correction. I remember now that the Paris Perfect apartments are those above my preferred price-point. Most of the VIP apartments are perfectly reasonable, as Celticharper has pointed out, and I have gone through them to make arrangements with various owners directly.