Apartment Hunting in FranceFinding an apartment in France

This was originally posted in the Live in France Yahoo! group. I thought it would be useful to others so with the permission of the poster I’m publishing it on Americans in France. It’s about finding an apartment in France and how a difficult that can be.

We usually find apartments (and most other things) on craigslist. But the Toulouse craigslist is virtually empty so that wasn’t an option – it could be a good resource if you live somewhere else though – Paris looks especially good. We just looked through online listings (ex: www.seloger.com/, http://www.explorimmo.com, www.immostreet.co.uk, www.toulouseweb.com). We found sites through online searches.

We thought we’d proceed as usual – inquire, visit, make a decision. But most of the apartments listed are represented by agencies and, as in the US; it is more difficult to rent from an agency than directly from the landlord. The first question we were asked was if one of us had a contract of definite (CDD) or indefinite duration (CDI). Unfortunately, ours was for a definite duration (CDD). This knocked us out of the running for most apartments handled by agencies and some agencies would not even let us visit their properties. We also found out that even if you have a contract of indefinite duration (read: a “regular” job), you are out of the running for the first three months because that is a trial period during which you can be fired.

The answer to this, we were told, is that we needed to have a guarantor for our lease, basically someone to co-sign. This person would need to be a French person with a job of indefinite duration and a monthly income three times our rent. As a cosigner, they would be legally responsible for our lease. We didn't know anyone we could ask to take on this responsibility. We were also told that there was an option for some program that certain workplaces belong to which helps you in these situations. I can’t remember exactly what it was called but we might be able to fine it. We asked at work and they didn’t know what we were talking about. The other option we heard about was setting up a “guaranty” bank account in which you deposit money that you cannot touch but is held for the length of your lease. We asked at our bank about this and the woman at the front desk set an appointment for us. However, when the bank manager overheard our discussion, he came over to tell us that it was a program open only to tose less than 30 years old. However, someone else on this list said they were able to do this so it must be available somehow. We just couldn’t figure out how.

Ultimately we were told that we would need to find a way to rent directly from a landlord because it was more likely that they would be less strict than the agencies. This was also the answer we received when we contacted the Toulouse government office that advocates for renters. There are some websites to find apartments directly from owners/particuliers (ex: www.pap.fr ). We perused those voraciously but to no avail. Finally, my we found www.locservice.fr and for 12 Euros he could register our information. Landlords would review it and call if they wanted us to look at their place. This generated a number of leads, and we were able to say on the profile that we had no guarantor. Landlords that called knew our situation. We also got a lead through a non-profit that assists visiting scientists: www.fnak.fr. Unfortunately, we weren’t too crazy about any of the apartments we found through this route. (I think when landlords come knocking they are probably desperate and there is likely a reason for their desperation!)

As we were pulling our hair out, I put out a call on this list for assistance and received the link to a local agency that specializes in assisting foreigners in finding furnished apartments (www.logisrelais.fr). We found some apartments on their website, called and looked at four in one night. We started by explaining our situation, which we had gotten into the habit of doing, and the agent said it was not a problem as long as he had a job with adequate income (three x rent). The agent said something to the effect of “well, that is what we do” in terms of finding places for foreigners. When we decided on an apartment, we had to submit a dossier. We did not have to submit bank accounts, etc. We just basically had to have an attestation from an employer regarding contract and income. I have heard that you need to submit three months’ worth of check stubs but we just started work Oct 1 there were not any.

The catch is that we had to pay the agent nearly 1000 Euros and we had to put almost three months’ rent down as a deposit. So, moving in will cost nearly 5000 Euros. In addition, the rent is slightly more than we had originally budgeted. The true irony is that we found a furnished apartment online through www.toulouseweb.com a couple of months before moving to France. The landlord was ready to rent to us but we backed out because we were not yet familiar with the city and we weren’t sure about the location. Since it was so easy for us to find that place, we thought finding another (especially once we were here in person) would not be difficult, if we knew then what we know now, we would have taken that first place. It was much cheaper than the one we are taking and there was no agency fee. Oh well. We also thought it would be better to look for apartments closer to the time we needed one but we found out that, l unlike the typical one-month notice in the US, people usually give a notice of three months here. So looking a few months ahead is not a bad idea. And try to avoid agents and their requirements and fees if at all possible.

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