2024-01-23 07:00:06
In Paris, January 5, 2024. STEPHANIE LECOCQ / REUTERS
His rent of 1,600 euros immediately seemed far too high to him, for a 50 m2 apartment in poor condition in the 17th arrondissement of Paris. Just before leaving him, in January 2023, Aurélien (who wishes to remain anonymous) hears about the rent control system in the capital. The City is then preparing to take over the mission of controlling the application of this control measure, in place of the prefect. “I went to the platform, I did a simulation and I got confirmation that my rent exceeded the ceiling”explains the young man of 27, then an employee in a bank, who decided to put together a case.
“I was leaving, I would never have taken the step if the apartment had been perfecthe said, but it was winter, the insulation was terrible, the water heater was out of date, it was shameful, and with indexation, the rent was becoming unaffordable. » The town hall services ultimately assessed the excess rent at 142 euros, and the landlord, a retiree, was ordered to pay his tenant an “overpayment” of 3,700 euros. Aurélien informed the real estate agency when he returned the keys. “I asked them if they knew about the rent overrun. They told me yes, but that the landlord absolutely wanted to put the apartment at that price. »
Faced with very high and continuously rising rents, in a context of housing crisis, more Parisians are now questioning the prices charged by their landlord.
Read also (2023): Article reserved for our subscribers The number of cities affected by rent control should triple in the coming months
Significant sums
One year after regaining jurisdiction over rent control, the City of Paris unveiled its first assessment on Tuesday, January 23: it said it had received 1,631 reports on its platform in 2023 from tenants feeling aggrieved. “When we know that the State, in three years, presented a report of 120 reports, there is reason to rejoice in having taken matters directly into hand”, welcomes Barbara Gomes, delegated advisor in charge of rent control at the City of Paris. Nearly 60% of these reports were investigated, 490 formal notices were sent to owners, and the first hundred or so files were regularized – like that of Aurélien.
The sums involved are significant, since, on average, the excess observed amounts to 159 euros per month, while the “overpayment” reaches almost 3,500 euros. Eight out of ten reports concern small areas and housing built before 1946, and they are concentrated in particular in the 18th, 11th and 15th arrondissements. After several reminders sent to recalcitrant landlords, seven fines were imposed on them, for an amount of nearly 35,000 euros.
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