Forum Replies Created
-
AuthorPosts
-
CoronitaParticipantFrance:
Ouch!
http://www.globalpropertyguide.com/Europe/france/Landlord-and-Tenant
[quote]
Tenant protection laws are onerous
French law is STRONGLY PRO-TENANT, even though initial rents are freely determined. Strong security of tenure is given to the tenant, and the legal process is labyrinthine.
Can landlord and tenant freely agree on rent?
The initial rent can be freely agreed between the owner and the renter. However, the rent can be revised only once a year, and only if a clause in the contract (carefully drafted) specifies it. The increase cannot be above the increase of the four-quarterly average of the INSEE index of construction costs. Index clauses and periodic clauses must comply with this.Taking out home insurance is a legal requirement in France. In a rental situation, it is the tenant’s responsibility to do so; the landlord may be reluctant to rent out property to prospective tenants who are not insured or who do not plan to get insurance.
Barring such clause, if at the end of the contract the owner wishes to raise the rent, he must demonstrate that the rent is manifestly underneath the current standard for the area and for comparable residences, by furnishing nine examples, each with extensive details – exact addresses, surface areas, state of decoration, date of construction, time during which the residences have been rented, and rental amount. If the increase arrived at is more than 10%, it must be spread over six years, even if the contract is only for three years. If no agreement is reached, the owner must go the Departmental Conciliation Commission (a free service), and if that fails, to a judge.
Deposits
The tenancy contract may stipulate a deposit of not more than two months’ rent, and only if the rent is not paid in advance.What rights do landlords and tenants have in France, especially as to duration of contract, and eviction?
French law generously protects the tenant (the locataire).An unfurnished property contract has a minimum duration of three years (if the proprietor is a person), or six years (if the proprietor is a company or society). An individual owner can make a shorter contract (one year minimum, except in the special case of holiday lets) only if he needs to recover the property for professional or family reasons, e.g., retirement, return from abroad, need to house a family member. If no limit is fixed in the contract, three years are automatically applied.
Furnished property benefits from slightly different treatment. The contract duration is for one year; at the contract end it is automatically renewed, unless notice has been given by either side. That aside, furnished contracts are less regulated as concerns deposits, charges, the obligations of landlord and tenant, and the documents to be attached to the contract.
Furnished property is taxed as professional income, and is exempt from value added tax. The owner is liable to pay local taxes.
During the contract, the tenant can leave any time he wishes, subject to two, or more commonly, three months´ notice (reduced to one month if the tenant loses his job, is over 60 and in bad health, etc). The landlord is not free to give such notice.
In both cases when the contract ends, the owner can only re-occupy the property if:
He or a member of his immediate family intends to live there He intends to sell
For another serious and legitimate reason, such as that the rent has not been paid, or the tenant has not taken home insurance, or abuses his rights to use the dwelling
Notice must always be given at least six months before the end of the contract. It must be sent by registered post or by a bailiff. If the landlord intends to sell, he must send a copy of the offer (including the price) to the tenant, who has a priority right to buy.
The tenant can rarely be evicted before the term ends; perhaps only if the building is likely to fall down, when the mayor can evict the tenants. Otherwise, e.g., even for non-payment of rent, the landlord has to wait till the end of the term, and the notice must be sent at least six months before the end of the term, and complex conditions must be complied with. Even then, the process will take between six months to a year and a half from the end of the contract.
A shorter procedure exists if the contract includes a resolution clause (clause resolutoire), but this can only cover:
non-payment of rent
non-registration of home insuranceA resolution clause allows the immediate termination of the contract after a two months’ notice, if the specific obligation fixed in the contract is not satisfied.
The contract (le bail) must be in writing. There are a number of obligatory clauses, and also many forbidden clauses. The 1989 Act (Art 8) prohibits the tenant from sub-renting without a written agreement from the landlord.
How effective is the French legal system?
Tenancy law is enforced before the courts. Procedures are long, the courts are saturated, and lack essential powers.The eviction process is organized by articles 61-66 of the 9 July 1991 Act. The court decision containing the eviction must be notified to the tenant.
After a grace period granted by the judge (usually six months), the landlord must ask the tenant to leave through a commandement de quitter les lieux, which must contain specific information, e.g., inform the tenant that he may ask the judge for extra time in the dwelling.
If the judge grants a delay, by law the tenant has another two months to leave the dwelling. During this time he can ask le juge de l’execution des peines to postpone the eviction order for between 3 months to 3 years, if seriously unfair consequences could result from the eviction (family with no place to go, children out of school, etc).
If the tenant has not left, the bailiff can ask the préfet for police help – but no one can be evicted during winter, i.e., between November 1 to March 15.
The préfet can anyway refuse to grant his help, e.g., if the family is composed of many children.
The landlord can then (having failed to get his tenant out) go to the Administrative Courts to ask for damages, though it takes a long time to obtain them.EVICTION FOR NON-PAYMENT OF RENT
Duration until completion of service of process 16
Duration of trial 75
Duration of enforcement 135
Total Days to Evict Tenant 226
Courts: The Lex Mundi Project
Legislation
The ruling legislation is the Mermaz Act of 9 July 1989. Minor modifications are contained in the 21 July 1994 Act and the 29 July 1998 Guiding Act.Brief history: Recent changes in French landlord and tenant law
The 1981 Socialist Party victory brought the watershed 1982 Quillot Act. While previously most tenancy contracts were verbal, this act imposed a written contract, required minimum terms, and strictly limited conditions for termination.As soon as the conservative parties returned to power in 1986, they repealed this act and passed another one. When the socialists returned to power, they too repealed the conservative act. Their 1989 Mermaz Act is the basis of the present law; modifications have not been substantive.
France encourages private individuals to build and rent dwellings. Many loans, tax subsidies and tax incentives exist, especially to build for rental to people earning less than a fixed amount. Conversely, leaving buildings empty is penalized by the taxe d’inhabitation.
Yet the housing situation is not good. “Slums are reappearing in suburbs of large cities, and…more and more people have trouble finding an affordable dwelling to rent…” notes the European University Institute report on France.
[/quote]
CoronitaParticipant.
CoronitaParticipant[quote=CA renter]
Correct. This is why I’ve always differentiated between founding CEOs and “professional” CEOs (and other executive positions).
But it’s not just a matter of corporate management. The financial industry is one of the biggest problems in this country, IMO. They set themselves up to skim a portion of almost every legitimate transaction out there, yet they do very little to benefit society or the economy. We could easily set up a public bank that could facilitate transactions and even make loans to people and businesses for a fraction of the cost.
[/quote][quote=spdrun]… or France. Or Germany. Or any number of countries where certain companies are publicly owned.[/quote]
..Or why not go fully monty and just say all rental properties should be publicly owned? Afterall, how dare us pigglords use on our capital and good credit scores to buy rental property, to provide housing for people that need/want rental in exchange for something called “profit” so we don’t have to work in the future when we’re too old to work and count on government provided benefits completely
…There should be no profit at all in the rental business for things such as providing bare necessities like shelter for the greater good of people, so that we can keep rent prices to the absolutely bare minimum and avoid “skimming” profits from rentals…
… But we don’t need to wait for government action before that goodness is done…We can do it right now together… Even though we might be several hundreds/month cash flow positive and very profitable, let’s think about the greater good of people and just stop doing that and offer rentals with rent prices really low at $0 profit…
Come on guys….Who’s with me?????
CoronitaParticipant[quote=The-Shoveler]I noticed most places keep raising the senior discount to miss the boomer bulge,
Used to be 55 now 65, in 7 years it will most likely be 70 etc… LOL.[/quote]Mammoth Mountain I believe is now 80 to ski free.
CoronitaParticipantI know I’m getting really old when I go to a store and some teen working there starts calling me “Sir”….
CoronitaParticipantDid you decide to stay in CA?
Maybe someone tried to do a short sales. Banks said no. And now they are trying to sell as traditional?
Maybe someone tried to low ball the list price to try to get a lot of interest to do a multiple offer scenario, in homes of bidding the price up?
CoronitaParticipant[quote=scaredyclassic][quote=flu][quote=spdrun]That’s why I’m so interested in foreclosed and short-sold property. For an uncreative soul like myself, buying a few distressed properties, turfing whatever is squatting there out, renovating them a bit, and renting to decent humans represents the quickest route to having the financial security of a 50 year old while still in my 30s and be able to retire with her once I hit my 40s and she hits her 60s.
If I could be 50 years old tomorrow and skip the rest of my 30s and 40s, I’d be happy as a pig in shit.[/quote]
Yes, but you would still have to live here, which you hate.[/quote]
well yeah, but on the bright side, think of the ssenior discounts at marie callenders. almost makes youw ant to be in the AARP.
i took a day off to do some errands and the retirees at costco in the middle of the day did not look well.[/quote]
Dude, you get senior discounts at IHOP…20% off I believe
CoronitaParticipant[quote=spdrun]That’s why I’m so interested in foreclosed and short-sold property. For an uncreative soul like myself, buying a few distressed properties, turfing whatever is squatting there out, renovating them a bit, and renting to decent humans represents the quickest route to having the financial security of a 50 year old while still in my 30s and be able to retire with her once I hit my 40s and she hits her 60s.
If I could be 50 years old tomorrow and skip the rest of my 30s and 40s, I’d be happy as a pig in shit.[/quote]
Yes, but you would still have to live here, which you hate.
CoronitaParticipant[quote=FlyerInHi]People look at me weird when I say I want to be a househusband to a well-off wife. The older the higher the networth requirement.[/quote]
But your assumption here is that the higher net worth older lady wants a less-than-her net worth younger person…which i don’t think is the general case.. I would think, a lot of them higher net worth older lady are definitely a lot smarter than your average bunny and probably figured out that it’s cheaper to rent than to own….Afterall, one female piggie here once said on this blog, if she wants a sausage, why buy the entire pig?
But give this a shot
CoronitaParticipant[quote=FlyerInHi]flu, Europeans have been impressed by our money since the industrial revolution.
spd, yes, Berlin is the place to be in Europe right now.
BTW, Germany, previously the sick man of Europe, reformed. It’s more USA-like now and accepts more immigrants than any country after America.
[/quote]I didn’t know that europeans would be so impressed with our money. I mean, they got this thing going on called the Euro..And I would think for folks that aren’t nearly as materialistic as us americans, that they wouldn’t be so easily impressed with our money, wouldn’t you?
[quote]
San Diego freeways are not congested compared to the roads in Europe. Commuting from Temecula would be too much, but within the county is OK. In the comfort of your own SUV! Yes, mind-numbing, but people don’t want philosophical stimulation or serendipitous meetings. They want to sit their fat asses in air-conditioned bubbles listening to talk-radio.[/quote]I’m not quite following what you are saying here. Are you saying that we should commute from temecula or should we not… And I don’t quite understand how it’s related to to philosophical stimulation versus talk radio being listened by “fat asses”… If I were to guess, it seems to make sense that if we have short commute times, that probably would be better for the environment, though it would be detrimental to having intellectually stimulating conversations…But if we have longer commute times, it would be worse for the environment but possibly better wrto having more intellectually stimulating conversations….It seems like there is a direct trade off between intellectually stimulating conversations and the environment, especially when it comes to commuting.
Discuss.
CoronitaParticipant[quote=FlyerInHi]Yes.
The cities centers are very expensive.
Average people live in flats in suburbs and commute 1 hour each way to work by train.They do have more vacation time and univeral health care. Less disposable income to buy consumer goods.[/quote]
And having a lot of money would impress some europeans?
CoronitaParticipant[quote=FlyerInHi][quote=flu]
But wait, I thought europeans cared less about money than americans do…I mean, it seems like want I’m trying to learn from this discussion is that americans are more materialistic than europeans. But why would wealth be that much of a factor in one’s social standing in europe?[/quote]We are all the same humans.
But the environment does shape us. We rationalize the way we live.
My point to spd is that when he does move to Prague, he will be the popular new American for a while. But after some time, if he doesn’t live up to what is expected of an American (generous goodlooking, wealthy world citizen who tips well), his new found friends will drift away.[/quote]
So having a lot of money would matter in europe?
CoronitaParticipant[quote=FlyerInHi]
When you go to Prague next, try some experiments. Tell people that you’re a carpenter and people will treat you a certain way. Tell them you’re a smart IT professional and they’ll treat you differently. Tell them you’re a hobo and you’ll get different reactions. Tell them America is beautiful and they’ll ask you certain questions. Tell them that life is miserable in USA and you’ll see a puzzled look.
You’re still the same person, but the way strangers treat you generally has to do with perception of social standing and wealth. That will confirm how money is critical to life.
You’re still the same person, but the way strangers treat you generally has to do with perception of social standing and wealth. That will confirm how money is critical to life.[/quote]
But wait, I thought europeans cared less about money than americans do…I mean, it seems like what I’ved learned from this discussion is that americans are more materialistic than europeans. But why would wealth be that much of a factor in one’s social standing in europe?
CoronitaParticipant.
-
AuthorPosts
