This article concerns Students who are paying for illegal accommodations that provide only an “attestation d’hébergement” and not a valid rental contract.
Hope you are aware of the following risks and the basic rights that you are missing out.
Attestation d’hébergement:
- Attestation d’hébergement should only be given free of charge and no rent must be charged for it. It’s illegal to give or take money for this document.
- The person giving the attestation and the person receiving it, should live in the same address.
- If a landlord is charging rent against this attestation, it’s means that the rental is not declared to tax department and the landlord is not paying the relevant taxes.
Housing Subsidy: #APL #CAF
- Students are entitled to a housing subsidy called APL from CAF. Around 35-40% of the rent is subsidized by the French govt. This allocation can go higher for job seekers.
- A valid rental contract is mandatory for this subsidy.
- If you aren’t staying in a legal accommodation, you are missing out on this important subsidy.
- So, CROUS residences should be your first option. If not, try to find a private accommodation that provides a valid rental contract via studapart, seloger, etc. You can find all the relevant information in the following article..
Everything to know about a student accommodation in France?
Things to know:
- you think that you are paying a lot less for an illegal accommodation, you are losing many other things.
- You won’t be able to declare income taxes if the landlord doesn’t provide all the required documents. Students can submit a zero-tax declaration, if they are not earning any income. This is very important for so many things in the future, including the 10 years resident card and French citizenship via naturalization.
- The landlord can ask you to leave at any time even during nights or winter months. This can get very complicated.
- Often, these landlords don’t return the rental deposits. It gets complicated because the tenant is equally responsible for this situation.
- France has a winter truce between November and March. So, a landlord cannot evict a tenant during these months. However, this protection may not be applicable for people living illegally without a contract.
- Students might face some issues while renewing their student visas. Often, the landlords of these illegal accommodations don’t provide the documents required for the process.
Attestation d”hébergement as address proof:
If you are using the “attestation d”hébergement” as an address proof, you have to attach the following documents along with the attestation.
- An identity proof of the landlord or the tenant.
- French or European Citizen: Photocopie of the National ID card.
- Non-European Citizen: Photocopies of the Passport and a valid french titre/carte de sejour.
- An utility bill less than 3 month old. For example : electricity bill, gas bill, landline number bill, mobile number bill etc.
