Rent apartment / house
Rental contracts tend to vary from 1 year contracts for furnished places to 3 year contracts for unfurnished dwellings. Don’t be scared by the length of the contract as you can leave at any time by giving 3 months notice. You may be able to get out of the contract faster, giving 1 months notice, in exceptional circumstances such as:
Security Deposit / Dépôt de GarantieA security deposit is taken when you sign the rental contract. This deposit is generally equivalent to 1 months rent and is returned to you within 1-2 months when you leave the property in good condition. The deposit can be increased to 2 months rent for furnished properties.
Documents needed to rent a property in France
How much can I afford to pay in rent?Real estate agents consider that your rent should not exceed 1/3 of your income so this is a good measure to use when determining your rental budget.
What to do if you do not have a job?Not everyone arrives in France with a job in hand and it can be challenging to rent a place without one, especially if you do not have anyone in France who is willing to act as Guarantor. Some rental agencies will allow you to rent a property if you lock funds into a “caution bancaire” as proof of financial support.
The caution bancaire is set up by your financial institution and the real estate agency / owner may require you to lock away 1 to 3 years rent. This money is not held by the agency or the owner but the owner is listed on the caution as being a beneficiary in case of insolvency.
The caution bancaire is not used to pay for your rent, rather it is there to protect the owner against your insolvency, so you will need to ensure you have enough money to pay for your living expenses once the funds have been locked away.
The caution will generally be lifted once you have a permanent contract and have passed the trial period however be prepared for this to take some time as the banking system can sometimes be a little inefficient – it took us almost 3 months to recover the money from the bank once the paperwork had been sent to them.
The caution bancaire is not very commonly used so you may need to do a little research into it before going to see your bank.
Rental contracts tend to vary from 1 year contracts for furnished places to 3 year contracts for unfurnished dwellings. Don’t be scared by the length of the contract as you can leave at any time by giving 3 months notice. You may be able to get out of the contract faster, giving 1 months notice, in exceptional circumstances such as:
- losing a job,
- getting transferred,
- death or illness in the family etc
Security Deposit / Dépôt de GarantieA security deposit is taken when you sign the rental contract. This deposit is generally equivalent to 1 months rent and is returned to you within 1-2 months when you leave the property in good condition. The deposit can be increased to 2 months rent for furnished properties.
Documents needed to rent a property in France
- A RIB (Releve d’Identité Bancaire) – bank account details
- Proof of employment (work contract)
- Proof of Financial support (recent pay slips or caution bancaire if unemployed)
- ID (carte d'identite, passport etc)
- References from previous rentals – although some agencies will overlook this
How much can I afford to pay in rent?Real estate agents consider that your rent should not exceed 1/3 of your income so this is a good measure to use when determining your rental budget.
What to do if you do not have a job?Not everyone arrives in France with a job in hand and it can be challenging to rent a place without one, especially if you do not have anyone in France who is willing to act as Guarantor. Some rental agencies will allow you to rent a property if you lock funds into a “caution bancaire” as proof of financial support.
The caution bancaire is set up by your financial institution and the real estate agency / owner may require you to lock away 1 to 3 years rent. This money is not held by the agency or the owner but the owner is listed on the caution as being a beneficiary in case of insolvency.
The caution bancaire is not used to pay for your rent, rather it is there to protect the owner against your insolvency, so you will need to ensure you have enough money to pay for your living expenses once the funds have been locked away.
The caution will generally be lifted once you have a permanent contract and have passed the trial period however be prepared for this to take some time as the banking system can sometimes be a little inefficient – it took us almost 3 months to recover the money from the bank once the paperwork had been sent to them.
The caution bancaire is not very commonly used so you may need to do a little research into it before going to see your bank.
