Published on Oct 7, 2023 at 9:17 am
Faced with the housing crisis in the Paris metropolitan area, some landlords do not hesitate to defy the law to increase their rents. While Plaine Commune and Est Ensemble have been experimenting with rent control in their territory for two years, a study by the Consommation Logement Cadre de vie (CLCV) association figures that only 60% of rental advertisements comply with this regulation in the two communities in Seine-Saint-Denis. In other words, 40% of advertisements ask for a rent higher than the legal maximum.
By comparison, in Paris, which the study also looked at, this rate of announcements respecting the law amounts to 77%. It must be said that the capital has been experimenting with the system since 2015 (despite a suspension in 2017), and that the health crisis has caused rental prices to drop there.
From ignorance to dishonesty
As a reminder, rent control, permitted in the form of an experiment by the Elan law, aims to reduce the price of rents, and consequently that of real estate, in the most tense areas. Concretely, the prefecture divides the communities concerned into sectors, for which it establishes each year a reference rent per square meter (median of prices observed in the sector). It deducts a rent increased by 20%, which lessors only have the right to exceed in special circumstances. In addition to Paris and these two communities of Seine-Saint-Denis, Lyon, Montpellier, Lille and Bordeaux are also experimenting with the system.
The CLCV study analyzed 1,800 advertisements published between 2022 and 2023, including 400 for Plaine Commune and 400 for Est Ensemble. On average, non-compliant advertisements announced a rent 143.68 euros higher than the legal ceiling (140.05 in Seine-Saint-Denis), for various reasons. “There is really everything: from the poorly informed landlord, who for example does not mention the reference rent at all in his ad, to the visibly dishonest person, who asks for example 840 euros in monthly charges for a three-room apartment, a way of circumventing supervision,” notes David Rodrigues, real estate lawyer at CLCV and author of the study.
Even more surprising: in Seine-Saint-Denis, 34% of the advertisements studied and published by real estate agencies do not comply with the law. “But professionals are supposed to know it. But we know that landlords put pressure on them, sometimes threatening to go to the competition if they do not offer a higher rent, even if it means signing a release…” says David Rodrigues.
Fines still rare
Remember that in the event of non-compliance with rent controls, and at the request of the regional prefect, lessors are exposed to an obligation to bring the contract into compliance and reimburse the tenant for any overpayments. Failing this, they may be fined by the prefecture with a fine of 5,000 euros for a natural person and 15,000 euros for a legal entity.
However, this remains quite rare: no “investigation” unit is in place, and any procedure must come from the tenant who can refer the matter to the Departmental Conciliation Commission. In addition to the complexity of the procedure, this implies the engagement of a power struggle with the lessor, which is uncomfortable in times of housing crisis.
From January 1 to September 1, 2023, the City of Paris, which was delegated this responsibility by the prefecture, collected 1,181 reports on its Ad hoc platform. 183 gave rise to a formal notice and 7 to a fine.
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