Renting an Apartment in France

Finding and renting an apartment in France can be somewhat daunting. If you can, try to take over an apartment from somebody who is already there. Otherwise ...

Le B.L.A.N.C. in Grenoble

If you're going to Grenoble, there's a service there that helps visiting researchers get settled in. The service is called Le B.L.A.N.C. (Bureau de Logement et d'Accueil des Nouveaux Chercheurs). They can arrange furnished apartments, insurance, and can answer many of your questions. They also speak English (but prefer French, of course) and have email to which they respond quickly. Le B.L.A.N.C. has a limited number of apartments available. If they don't have what you need, you'll have to search on your own. As of September 1999, here's the contact information:

    Le BLANC (Bureau de Logement et d'Accueil des Nouveaux Chercheurs),
    rue du manège, 38000 Grenoble
    phone: +33 4 76 46 89 00
    fax:   +33 4 76 46 88 88
    email: B.L.A.N.C@wanadoo.fr

Searching on your own

If you will be searching for an apartment on your own, you should of course check the local papers, which have long listings of rentals. But more convenient is the online service at www.bonjour.fr, which lists apartments all over France. ``Bonjour'' publishes weekly papers that include the apartment listings for the local publishing region. In Grenoble, for example, the weekly is called Le Trente-Huit after the number of the French département (Isère, 38) that contains Grenoble. The online listings are more up-to-date; they include apartments that will appear for the first time in next week's paper.

To search at www.bonjour.fr, you should follow these links:

    -> Immobilier                 (lodging)
       -> Petites annonces        (advertisements)
          -> Location             (rental)
             -> Appartements      (apartments)

                  -> You'll be asked for a city name (or department)
                     and some other information.  For the city name,
                     try the city itself and any municipalities that
                     lie adjacent to the city.  Otherwise, you will
                     not see all listings that may be of interest.

Most apartments in France are rented through an agency, which acts as a middleman between the owner and the renter. For this service, the agency collects a hefty fee, sometimes up to a month's rent. Some apartments are rented directly by their owners. If you can find such a one, you'll avoid the agency fee and might get a more caring landlord while you're renting.

Some things to be aware of

There are lots of things to look out for when you're searching for an apartment:

• Almost all apartments are rented unfurnished.
• Almost all apartments do not have a stove, range, refrigerator, dishwasher, or cloths washer. You will have to buy these, probably second hand (there are a number of places to do this in Grenoble). Apartments do include the kitchen sink, however.
• Does it have gas or electric heating? Electric is substantially more expensive.
• If it's above the first floor (the first floor is always one above the ground floor) does it have an elevator? Many apartments don't!
• Even if there's an elevator, it may be small. When you visit an unfurnished apartment, determine how you will get large furniture into it. Some furniture is actually lifted by ladder from outside the building, into your apartment.
• Make sure you have a complete list of the fees (described in gory detail below).
• Since you're not a French resident, you'll likely be asked to supply a resident person who will act as a guarantor. This person will have to sign a form (and provide some documents, of course) that makes them responsible for absolutely all costs arising from the apartment.

The various fees

There are many fees which can magically appear when you rent an apartment:

• The rent (loyer) is of course your principal concern.
• Separate from the rent are the fees for maintenance of the building (charges). The charges recur monthly, so you should just consider them part of the rent. They're like condominium fees, but occur with all apartments in France.
• There's a 2.5% monthly rental tax (droit au bail or DAB) that's applied to all rent. It's not applied to the charges.
• Warning: The person who occupies the apartment on January 1 of each year is responsible for another tax, this one annual, which is typically some (large) fraction of the rent, exclusive of charges.
• Beware of the agency fees (frais agences). These are typically between half a month's rent and a full month's rent. These are a one-time cost that you just have to pay if the apartment is rented by an agency.
• The heating (chaufage), electricity (électricité), and water (eau) are usually not included in the rent. You usually have to pay these directly to the appropriate company.
• A surpising fee that some enterprising agencies will charge is the ``apartment inspection fee'' (l'état des lieux or EDL). This very detailed inspection occurs before you move into an apartment, and you'll be asked to sign the inspection report. When you move out, you'll be responsible for any damages or degradations that have occurred. But most agencies include this in their overall agency fee.
• You'll likely be asked to supply a two month damage deposit (caution) which, in principal, is returned when you move out. It's not clear that you'll receive that whole amount back if you're dealing with an agency; check whether they deduct a mandatory cleaning charge when you move out.

  I'm told that the agency has three months after you leave to return the caution. The amount returned is often different (plus or minus) than the sum given because the charges may contain an estimated fee for your water consumption, which is calculated exactly only upon your departure.

Looking at the petites annonces

Apartments are classified by their number of rooms, exclusive of the bathroom, toilet, and kitchen. For example, a two-room apartment will be listed as F2, T2, 2P+C, or 2P+K (see below for details).

When you look in the newspaper or on www.bonjour.fr, the advertisements should appear incomprehensible to a non-French speaker. Included below are many of the short forms that I encountered, and my guess at their translations. I've put ``???'' where I'm even less sure than usual.

James Stewart 2001