Landlords can legally apply this surcharge if their apartment or house has an exceptional feature. But in Paris or Bordeaux, the abuses multiply with supplements applied for banal arrangements.
Bordeaux is one of the cities in France most affected by the additional rent, this supplement that the owner is entitled to apply when he considers that his property has an exceptional characteristic. A location, a view… A comfort that justifies renting it more expensive, above the maximum rent authorized by the management, above the rent “increased” as we say in real estate jargon. The law obliges the owner to specify the nature and the amount of this supplement in the advertisement and especially on the lease.
>> Rent regulation in Paris: the town hall signs the first formal notices against landlords who do not respect the rules
Complements for double glazing or a bathtub
The problem is that landlords use the supplement to try to inflate already regulated rents, as Marina and Aude, two Bordeaux women who alerted franceinfo, have seen in recent months. These two friends, who had been looking for an apartment for a long time, began to track down rent supplements that seemed abusive or eccentric to them. Some exceed the base rent by 30%, says Marina: “For example, you have a 90 square meter apartment at 1,770 euros and in the ad, you have an additional rent of 500 euros. So I went to the agency, I asked what justified this supplement. And I was told ‘Listen, it’s an unobstructed view of the Garonne and you can see a little of the Cité du vin’. more than I’ve seen, it’s around 800 euros [en plus] for a terrace and a refurbished kitchen”.
“You can have an apartment that is not isolated, but it has the character of the old… Completely rent. to overcompensate.”
Aude, resident of Bordeauxat franceinfo
Aude sent Franceinfo a long list of private announcements or agencies where rent supplements actually raise questions. In Bordeaux, she says, the supplement has become landlords’ trick to drive up rents: “We are starting to see rent supplements for everything and anything. The decor that is redone, the tapestry for example, geothermal energy or double-glazed windows, a balcony or a bathtub”.
In Paris, rents increased by 30%
Bordeaux is not an isolated case. Since the summer of 2022, in all cities where rents are regulated, unjustified rent supplements have been flourishing. And the champion is obviously Paris and it is not Sophie Morvan who will say the opposite. In the capital, explains this lawyer who is on call for the Departmental Housing Information Agency (ADIL), the most frequent argument to justify increased rent is “the presence of an equipped kitchen”. However, this cannot be considered an exceptional characteristic, she recalls. Likewise “a long balcony” Or “the presence of a cellar” do not justify a supplement.
“A rather funny case that I saw a few months ago, says Sophie Morvan, it was the fact of renting accommodation in Paris which is located not far from the shops and the metro and for the modest sum, all the same, of an additional amount which was equivalent to 550 euros, which corresponded to almost more than 30% of the amount of the rent excluding initial charges.”
Few tenants report fraud
According to the Rent Observatory of the Paris conurbation (OLAP), nearly 10% of the 100,000 dwellings re-let annually in the capital would be outside the nails of the rent control because of these supplements slipped into the lease contract. An estimate impossible to verify, recognizes OLAP at franceinfo.
I managed to lower my rent from 800 to 580 balls by contesting an additional rent for my apartment in the center of Paris. Find out about your rights and assert them! Y at ADIL there for you, https://t.co/0PLzkAc26k, and instances to seize if necessary
—Arno Pedram (@arnopedram) November 9, 2021
Even if they have signed their lease, tenants can denounce an excessive rent supplement and obtain a refund. They have three months after the signature to seize the Departmental Conciliation Commission. But the reality is that very few do. In a Parisian rental market under pressure, a tenant is tempted to accept an illegal supplement, these 50 euros for a renovated kitchen, these 100 euros for a quiet courtyard… Under penalty of seeing the accommodation pass under his nose.
Turning against your tenant is also the risk of losing your home. “I can very well take this apartment and denounce the additional rent, but how long will it take?, asks Aude. And already, it takes crazy energy to find an apartment. Me, I am this week with three appointment cancellations, apartments that are not yet on the market, but already rented, unsanitary apartments. So if behind it is necessary to denounce, to be in bickering with its owner, we will not succeed“.
“I wouldn’t say it’s legit, but it’s understandable”
Jean Pinsolle, the president of the Chamber of Landlords of Greater Paris, recognizes that unscrupulous landlords abuse the rent supplement. The latter is, he adds, poorly defined by law, very subjective and without a real scale. But he also recalls that the owners are also under pressure: “The energy renovation work, the constraints that weigh, the increase in property taxes… [Quand] what you get from renting an apartment or several apartments or a building is reduced, how do you manage to maintain your building? That’s the question. The additional rent is the ink bottle. So, yes, we’re trying to get a little more performance and I wouldn’t say it’s legitimate, but it’s understandable.”
According to a very recent study by the Clameur association, the rental yield continues to fall. It is currently 5% for owners. Is the abuse of rent supplements misusing the system supposed to protect tenants? In any case, it pulls prices up. The interest of reading your lease carefully or having it read by professionals such as ADIL lawyers, before signing the lease for an apartment with a view (or not).