Encourage tenants to file complaints and sanction landlords who fail to correct the situation: the Paris City Council intends to make good use of the delegation obtained from the State to enforce the rent in force in the capital.
With this new weapon against rent inflation in the capital, which came into force on January 1, the Paris town hall wants to “limit abuses as much as possible and finally achieve a fully respected rent framework”, summed up the deputy. Ian Brossat during a press conference on Thursday.
The first city to have applied rent control in mid-2019, since joining several communes or urban communities known as narrow areas (Lille, Plaine Commune, Lyon-Villeurbanne, Est Ensemble, Montpellier, Bordeaux), Paris is ” doubly pioneer” from is “the first city to benefit from this transfer of competences”, welcomed the communist elect.
If since 2019 this framework has made it possible, according to Ian Brossat, to “stabilize Parisian rents globally after years of exponential increases”, the complaints (120) collected and the fines (ten) imposed by the state have been insufficient for the town hall .
According to the Parisian conurbation rental observatory (OLAP), cited by the town hall, around a third of the new lease contracts signed in the capital in 2021 exceeded the maximum rents, the result of several criteria (empty or furnished, date of construction, number premises and neighborhood).
This does not necessarily mean that landlords are outlawed, as breaches may be justified by the exceptional characteristics of the accommodation.
The overruns amount to an average of 161 euros and mainly concern “small surfaces, studio flats, service rooms, with 8 out of 10 illegal advertisements”, specified Ian Brossat.
With the new online platform, the Municipality wants to achieve a “maximum number of complaints” so that “the maximum number of landlords respects rent control”.
Concretely, tenants can first check there if their lease respects the framework, then report, if necessary, the excess which will have to be confirmed by the town hall.
The latter will then give formal warning to the landlord to update the lease and return the excess payments, within three months. In case of non-compliance, the town hall can impose a fine of up to 5,000 euros for a natural person and 15,000 for a legal person.
“The mere fact that the tenant kidnaps us will have dissuasive effects against the majority of landlords”, Ian Brossat wants to believe who already lists more than ten complaints, out of nearly 2,000 connections.
According to Olap, in 2021 in the capital the average rent for a 50m2 was 1,200 euros a month. Of the 1.1 million primary homes, 45% are private sector rentals.