Bonjour [EMAIL],

Squat on Rue de Rivoli

Squatting Rights

French Property Insider
Volume VIII, Issue 42
October 28, 2010
Paris, France
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Bonjour French Property Insider Subscriber,

This past week, a family was evicted from the building in which "Le Provençal" is located. Police came and escorted them and their belongings out the door. Residents in the building circulated emails of congratulations after three years of effort to remove the insalubrious tenants. They asked the "Syndic" (building manager) to quickly change the door codes and then suggested they pop the cork on a bottle of champagne to finally be rid of the undesirable element.

A few days earlier, squatters were evicted from the Place des Vosges. Police arrived and broke down the door to remove the members of "Jeudi Noir" (Black Thursday) from "La Marquise," the mansion in the 400 year-old apartment complex that is known to be Paris' most exclusive address. The expulsion of the 33 young occupants who have taken up residence illegally in the 1,500 square foot space since October 2009 was coupled with an 80,000€ fine.

The property hasn't been occupied since 1966 and according to the squatters, is a "real scandal while the capital is in dire need of housing." Eighty-eight year-old Beatrice Cottin is the owner of the 3,000 square meter space of which only about half is habitable. In this space, Marie-Chantal of Rabutin was born in 1626 who later became Marquise de Sevigné.

Protests in support of the squatters took place after the expulsion inciting five vans of riot police to arrive with reinforcements and resort to the use of tear gas. Controversy surrounding the eviction could easily become a forum for the housing issue so dear to socialist Mayor Bertrand Delanoë's heart. Activists hope to requisition empty property to provide more reasonably priced housing for local residents.

The city's campaign to increase housing is one of the main reasons for the change in short-term rental laws that currently threaten the rental industry. Last week, Paris tourism officials met with the Mayor's Deputy of Housing, Jean-Yves Mano, to discuss the issue. A letter from Deputy of Tourism, Jean-Bernard Bros, to Mayor Delanoë in advance of the meeting, put forth the argument in favor of housing leased for less than one year by tourists and part-time residents of the city, which include French families who reside in both the city and the country, visiting business people and academicians and others whose stays are more than a week or two and less than one year. Bros strongly requested the city study the situation in detail before citing individual property owners for the rental of their property in terms less than one year.

There has been no formal statement by city officials, however an inside source tells me the housing department has agreed to such a study and articles in the French press followed on the heels of the meeting. The city estimates that about 20,000 apartments located primarily in central Paris, are rented on a monthly, weekly or even daily basis at prices similar to hotels. Other articles have estimated much larger numbers, but no one really knows the true number.

Left wing daily newspaper "Liberation" called the practice "greedy" and blamed the Internet for being the "engine of development of this underground economy." It further reported that full-time residents have complained tourists don't respect the neighbors and disturb residents with frequent coming and going and that local merchants are disappearing in favor of restaurants and shops dedicated to tourists. Meanwhile, Deputy Mayor Marc Lumbroso, responsible for housing in the 16th arrondissement, is one of the guilty owners of a furnished vacation rental apartment and the tourist officials warn that an economic disaster could ensue should the city pursue this line of reform.

For now, we cannot expect the city to make any formal statement regarding their true intention to enforce the laws (which have been called "unconstitutional" and "conflicting") until the study is completed and its findings can be analyzed.

For those who currently own property with tenants of less than one year, there are many solutions in order to comply with the law. One of which is to institute a one year lease easily broken. Another is to institute a fully subletable lease -- according to French law, no one can tell you who you can 'let' stay in your property if no rent is received.

For those considering investment property in central Paris, these safeguards can be put in place from the beginning to protect the owner from the city's scrutiny, but in our humble opinion, in all likelihood, the city will never be as much a driving force as our own neighbors, whom we should respect in any case.

A bientôt,

Copyright 2011, Adrian Leeds®
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