Parisian tenants ordered to leave their homes five months before the Olympic Games

Unscrupulous owners are trying to get their homes back in Paris, a few months before the start of the Summer Olympics.

They received a letter informing them that they had to leave their accommodation within a few months. Some Parisians have had this unpleasant surprise in recent weeks as the Paris Olympic Games open in five months. But landlords cannot get rid of their tenants as they see fit to rent more expensively to Olympic spectators, because they must respect the law. Which is not always the case, as tenants and their lawyers have noted.

For Sylvain and his partner, the news was brutal. They had been renting an apartment next to the Bassin de la Villette for two and a half years, not far from the future Olympic Games fan zone. “On December 27, we received a letter from the bailiff and they told us that we have three months to clear out because our owner wants to sell our home, so he gives us notice”explains Sylvain.

The apartment is for sale ? The couple then made a purchase offer, but received no response from the real estate agency. “There we had serious doubtssays Sylvain. It’s furnished, we’re next to the Olympics. He could very well put his apartment back on Airbnb and make 500 euros a night.”

Strict rules for giving notice

The couple then turned to Ms. Virginie Audinot. This lawyer specializing in real estate law is currently working on around fifteen potentially invalid lease terminations. She reminds that owners are subject to strict rules : “Leave can only be given on the anniversary date of the lease, every year for furnished accommodation, every three years for empty space.” The procedure is subject “under special conditions” since “the lessor cannot take back [le logement] only to live there, to accommodate one of your loved ones there, to resell it or for a legitimate and serious reason”.

It is this last reason which causes the most disputes in the run-up to the Olympic Games. Me Virginie Audinot evokes “the case of a client who was given leave because the landlord wanted to take back his apartment to carry out work”. The lawyer advises in these cases “to request all possible supporting documents from the lessor, for example general assembly decisions which would have authorized this work, architect’s plans, all that kind of thing”.

“In this case in my case, the tenant did not have the expected documents and we question the reason given, this will allow us to build a file to submit to the judge”, underlines Me Virginie Audinot. If the tenant wins his case in court, he can receive up to several thousand euros in compensation. This is therefore a big risk for the lessor. This is why, for the moment, the number of abusive lease terminations is quite limited, according to several players in the sector, contacted by franceinfo.