A few dishonest people have transformed and entire mentality in France, for we see many from diverse nationalities (even Anglo-Saxons whose discipline is well-known) who confess to not paying the last one or two months' rent because they've been encouraged to protect themselves! This attitude must cost them deeply, but it is thus that one makes his own justice in France. For example, an expatriate who was renting a furnished apartment and, according to French law, can have his security deposit returned to him only after two months following the termination of the lease, how will he be able to defend himself once he's returned to his own country if he never receives it at all or if it is unfairly truncated?

Recently, a landlord billed an American family for a boiler, even when they had been paying their annual revisions to the boiler charges and, additionally, the boiler was working when they left. Only, after doing the final walk-through and all smiles, the landlord suddenly slipped away (an important business meeting, wouldn't you know) without having signed the agreed-upon inventory. Easy to do after the fact and, what's more, three months later to charge 500 € for cleaning and 1,600 € for the boiler!

It is naturally impossible to get justice from so far away along with the security deposit, even if it amounts to 5000 € being a relatively small loss compared to the 10,000 € cost of taking legal action. However, if the renter takes the time to write up what was done to him, there is a French organization that has an impact:

Préfecture de Paris
Commission de conciliation des rapports locatifs
50 avenue Daumesnil
75012 Paris

All renters may put their unfair, prejudicial experience in writing. They will then be summoned with the landlord to find conciliation. Often, the affair is settled before ever meeting. The procedure is free of charge.

Concerning the wronged landlords, the examples frequently tend to prove that an above-the-law attitude has been established at their expense. A foreign renter, an artist (painter), announced in good faith that she would not pay the last two months' rent for her furnished apartment in Paris. The panic-stricken landlord contacted us for he feared for the parquet floor and, without the security deposit to cover the possible damages, how will he pay for the restoration of the floor, or any other unhappy surprise? In his case, to have recourse with the Commission de Conciliation would not be at all helpful because if their response is delayed, the renter will already have left Paris. But the landlord can call on a bailiff to place a conservative hold on the bank account. This procedure can happen quickly and costs are proportional to the retrieved sums. In general, the renter prefers to pay the last month or months' rent and lift the restrictions on his bank account.

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