Finding somewhere to live in Paris

The dossier

The dossier de location is prescribed by law: the landlord may ask for documents from a defined list and nothing outside it. The conventional expectation is net monthly income of around three times the rent, evidenced by payslips and the previous year's tax assessment, plus the same again from a guarantor. Assemble it as a single, clearly labelled PDF before you view anything, because you will be sending it within minutes of leaving a viewing.

• Pièce d'identité — passport or residence card.
• Contrat de travail or attestation d'employeur, plus the last three bulletins de salaire.
• The most recent avis d'imposition, or a foreign equivalent if you have not yet filed in France.
• Justificatif de domicile — the last three rent receipts, or an attestation from your current landlord.
• A landlord may not lawfully demand a bank statement, a photograph, or your medical records.

The guarantor problem, and the ways round it

Almost every landlord wants a garant: a French-resident individual, usually earning around three times the rent, who signs an acte de cautionnement solidaire and becomes liable if you default. Newcomers do not have one, and this ends more Paris searches than price does. The two established substitutes are Visale, a free state-backed guarantee scheme run by Action Logement, and commercial guarantee companies that charge a percentage of the annual rent. Both are far more widely accepted than an offer to pay a year up front, which many landlords cannot legally accept anyway.

• Visale is free, applied for online, and issues a visa you present with your dossier — get it before you view.
• Commercial guarantors typically charge a few per cent of the annual rent.
• Some employers, particularly large ones, act as guarantor for relocating staff — ask.
• A landlord who has taken a guarantee cannot generally also demand an insurance policy against unpaid rent.

Furnished, unfurnished, and rent control

An unfurnished lease — location vide — runs three years and is hard for a landlord to end, with a defined list of grounds and long notice. A furnished lease runs one year, or nine months for a student, and is easier to terminate. Paris also applies encadrement des loyers, a rent cap: for a given area, size and period of construction, the rent may not exceed a published reference figure plus twenty per cent, and any excess must be justified by a complément de loyer for an exceptional feature. The reference figures must appear in the lease.

• Location vide: three years, deposit capped at one month's rent, tenant notice one month in Paris.
• Location meublée: one year, deposit capped at two months' rent, and the furniture list is legally defined.
• Check the loyer de référence majoré stated in the lease against the published figures for the quartier.
• A complément de loyer must be justified by something genuinely exceptional, and it can be challenged.

Fees, insurance and the état des lieux

Tenant-paid agency fees are capped per square metre and vary by zone, so a fee quoted as a percentage of the annual rent is outside the law. You must produce an attestation d'assurance habitation at signing — it is cheap and can be arranged online in minutes — and renew it annually. The état des lieux d'entrée, the move-in inventory, is what decides your deposit at move-out, so it is worth the hour it takes to do properly.

• Agency fees: capped per square metre for the visit, file and inventory, and split with the landlord.
• Assurance habitation is mandatory and the landlord may terminate the lease without it.
• Photograph every mark and note it on the état des lieux before you sign it.
• The deposit must be returned within one month if the exit inventory matches, two months if it does not.

In order

1. 1Apply for Visale, or line up a commercial guarantor, before you start viewing.
2. 2Build the dossier as one labelled PDF and keep it current.
3. 3Open a French bank account for the RIB — landlords want a French one.
4. 4View, then send the complete dossier the same hour.
5. 5Check the lease states the loyer de référence and that any complément de loyer is justified.
6. 6Take out assurance habitation and bring the attestation to the signing.
7. 7Do the état des lieux d'entrée in detail and keep your signed copy.
8. 8Check whether you qualify for APL housing assistance and apply through CAF.