sitting tenants!

[Rivington]

Can anybody help? Last September my friend rented out her house to a family who were looking for a place to buy and the agreement was that they must leave by the 1st of April.  However, I have been told by another friend who lives nearby, that there is likely to be a problem in getting these tenants to leave.

She only uses the house for holidays at the moment, and is staying with me for a visit to the area next week. She is meeting the tenants by mutual arrangement and at present knows nothing of any impending problem. I am in quite a dilemma - I don't want to worry her unnecessarily if there is no problem, but on the other hand forewarned is forearmed.

What I really need to know, if anyone can help, is - what rights do these people have? I assume she had them sign an agreement, or at least I sincerely hope she did! I know that French law can favour the tenant in a lot of cases.

Please can anyone give some useful advice?

[Mpprh]

hi

my understanding is :

A furnished lease can have terms agreed by the two parties

An unfurnished lease is more closely controlled and terms are defined by law. This includes the 3,6,9 years security of tenure. Assuming the rent has been paid, you can only require people to leave at the 3 year breakpoints, and only under specific conditions.

This is largely academic if the tenants don't want to leave. The legal process is long, tortuous, and ultimately may be unenforcable.

No evictions can be carried out in winter : six months notice of eviction must be given. If the tenant tells the huissier they refuse to leave it goes back to the court and the court requests the prefect to instruct the gendarmes to apply the force of law and order to effect the eviction. Or, more likely, not ! In some areas the prefect will not give the instruction. In others it has taken 10 + years.

The worst scenario is if the tenant has low income & no assets, and doesn't pay the rent. Any expulsion results in the authorities having the problem rather than the owner, so no action is taken. At the same time the tenant receives free legal advice. It is pointless spending a lot of money on legal costs to obtain a payment order if the tenant has no money ?

This explains why such tenants are often offerred a lump sum to go.

This may sound alarmist, and almost unbelievable, but I speak from bitter experience !

Peter

[Danglar]

This re inforces the case that there should be no winter lettings. I have seen recently an increase of postings in the Autumn from people seeking long lets and advertising on the forum.

I wonder...

If badly intentioned they may be mistaken in assuming they can take possession of a furnished property, but they can still cause anxiety and problems to us owners.

Want to move to France and start looking for a house whilst living there? Get yourself into a B&B.

They are cheaper and more comfy than those in England but back off my property, I'd say.

[Bones]

Having recently rented a French property owned by a fellow Brit to enable us to look for work and a property of our own please allow me to convey our experience.

Firstly we were told in no uncertain terms by the owner that he would like an agreement detailing the current furnishings at the property as he didn't know us from Adam and that we might run off with his stuff- fair enough I say.

Secondly we offered to pay the (not insubstantial) rent three months in advance.

After realising we were not going to have the finances to cover the rent into the new year we contacted the owner over a month in advance to notify him we were vacating. We left the property in as clean a condition as possible and there was no cause to deduct any money from the deposit; the owner very sportingly declined to take any money for breakages of pots etc. We also happily ferried the owner to and from the airport a couple of times and allowed him to work from the home on one trip over here mid rental term.

The property was very pretty but would have been very unlikely to pass French rental standards (freestanding stairs bolstered by breeze blocks etc.)

The money we paid for the property was paid directly into his French bank acct. and I assume this amounts to a small chunk of tax free income; if your friend is charging for the rental I hope she is declaring this to the relevant tax authorities? Has she checked this out?  You mention that there are currently no problems with the tennents yet your friend could actualy be the party engaging in a criminal act. Why don't you check that out if you are genuinely concerned for her welfare.

So you see it is down to the individual owner whether they would like to 'help' out newcomers by charging them for a property they don't use during the winter months and not declaring the income, having their property heated (expensive during the worst winter in years with no central heating) so you needn't return to a mouldy musty shell. I'd bloody do it!

Despite the reactionary 'I'm alright Jack' comments from the approprately monickered Dangler (?) the only real anecdotes concerning these types of lets in this thread are from myself and some tennents that are currently causing no problems. And yet it's been turned into a witch hunt.

Get a life. 

Apologies to Danglar, I'd misread your name....

But I stand by my kneejerk comments!! whistling: