Expat Community > France

ukPaul
Joined 2002
Posts: 6

Renting in Paris!

22 years ago

I'm sure I'm not the first to need help in this area (or the last!), but...

My girlfriend and I are going through the stress of trying to find an apt. in (or around) Paris. So far we've experienced the agent who's shuffling clients through the same apt. at a rate of 1 every 5 minutes—the disinterested landlord who knows that someone's going to rent his place, and doesn't care who it is—and the landlord who seems to want paperwork of your family going back 20 generations (I'm exagerrating, but you get the point).

So can anyone help me out with my query...
Being an expat, I don't have any family here, so getting a guarantor is going to prove difficult, or impossible. I've heard of the "Caution bancaire" as an alternative, but I'm not sure exactly what it entails - everyone seems to have a different opinion on what it is. My French bank manager said it was a letter stating I was getting paid my salary and I honoured all my bills, whereas yesterday a landlord told me it was an agreement that my bank would pay my monthly rent for 3 years, should I stop paying.

Can anyone clear this up? or alternatively let me know how they went about circumnavigating the 'great paperchase'?

thanks

Paul

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