Law on paying for Gites

[Guest CFrost]

Hello

I tried to book a holiday recently and paid the 25% deposit in advance.  I am informed that I pay the rest on arrival.  The holiday will be mid February.

I said I would like to pay the full amount all at once - to avoid charges.

The Agency (Travel Agency) informed me that it is French law and are not allowed to take my money in advance.  Is this true.

If it is the law, but is it practised.  I know several of you who own gite business' take a deposit and then expect full payment at least 6 to 8 weeks before arrival.

Your opinions would be gratefully appreciated.

Cochet

[Liz]

If you deal direct with a french owner or agency I think you will find that they will treat the payments as you have described, 25% deposit and the balance on arrival.  AFAIK that as the law.  If you book with a UK agency they will almost certainly take the payments in the British fashion, ie a percentage deposit, not usually as high as 25% and the balance some weeks before arrival.  You will probably also find that somewhere in the small print it will say that the contract is governed by English law.  I am not at all surprised that you know of owners (British I assume) that do things the 'British' way maybe for convenience or maybe because they were not aware of the French law.

Liz (29)

[CatherineS2]

I do it the "British" way - not for convenience, but because by asking for the balance to be paid 8 weeks in advance at least I will have a chance to re-let the property if they pull out. If they did not have to pay until their arrival then what would I do if they didn't show up?

[The Riff-Raff Element]

[quote]I do it the "British" way - not for convenience, but because by asking for the balance to be paid 8 weeks in advance at least I will have a chance to re-let the property if they pull out. If they did ...[/quote]

...which is absolutely fine (we are talking commercial agreements here) provided that both parties explicitly submit to English law and the jurisdiction of the English courts. For safety, this should, as I understand, be included in rental agreements that are signed by both parties.

Presumably doing things the "French" way implies that the contract binds the parties to French commercial law. I wonder how many UK customers would be comfortable with that if they realised?

[Jo Taylor]

The relevant point here is that the deposit is being taken by an agent.

If the property being let is in France, French law applies.

French law states that an agent may not take more than 25% deposit, and it must be stated whether it is arrhes or acompte.

If you let property that belongs to you, and take the deposit yourself with no intermediary, you can take any percentage you choose; it is entirely legal to take full payment upfront if that's what you prefer to do.

HTH
Jo Taylor

[Owens88]

Good clarification Jo. I was worryiing a bit as 'pay on arrival' is just not practical.

 

I did have one (French) prospective renter pull out because of the pay in full 8 weeks beforehand rule. I bent over backwards for them, even finding a way of taking credit card payment so they had some insurance and additional come-back on me. But no that isn't what they wanted to do.

I do wonder how this 'pay on arrival' thing works ? What if an owner said 'ok, if its empty when you arrive'  ?

John

[Jo Taylor]

For many years the concept of a gite was a property under the auspices of Gites de France; to many French people that's still what it means, and GdF's contracts stipulate the 25% + balance on arrival. They're simply used to doing it that way...

The owner, if they've taken the deposit on these terms can't really say 'ok, if its empty when you arrive'  because they've entered into a contract. If the property is unavailable on arrival, the situation then depends on what type of deposit was paid (which is why it should be specified in the contract - if it's not, it's assumed to be an arrhes).

If the client pays an arrhes he loses it if he cancels. If the owner cancels he must pay the client twice the amount of the deposit. If the client pays an acompte the contract is binding, and if he cancels he must pay the whole amount due. If the owner cancels, he can simply return the deposit, but the client may claim damages.

Fun, innit?

Jo