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Everything need to know when renting in France

Last time we have talked about how to find a rent house in French. Click here if you havent read it. 

After knowing how can we find a rent house, today we want to share about everything you need to know when renting in French including choices of house type, expenses, contract and etc. 

At the below, we will mention about:
- What is Crous? What is the difference between meublé and non meublé?
- What taxes do tenants need to pay? 
- What is trêve hivernale? 
- Why we need to apply for justificatif de domicile?

1. Type of Housing  
Besides picking the area to live, it is also important to choose the house type for your living place. 

a. Appartment 
Just like other cities around the world, appartment is most common house type in french's city too. Normally, it is the first choice of everyone when trying to find a place to live. 


b. Studio 
Unlike there are multiple rooms in appartment, studio shared all facilities like kitchen, bedroom, living room in the same place and bathroom is only separated room. This kind of house is suitable for people who do not want to sublet and enjoy their own space. 

c. Mansion
If you want to have a bigger living space, mansion would be your good choice but numbers of mansion in city is much less and rental is high compared to other types of house. 


d. Crous
If you are a students in French, then applying for crous might be a good choice. They will provide a independent room for living and all the public facilities in the building can be used freely. The most important thing is the rental of crous is much cheaper than renting at outside. 

Regardless of any house types, they all can separated to 2 types: meublé (furnished) and non meublé (unfurnished). Only the house that prepared the basic livelihood facilities prescribed by the French government can be called as meublé. But this kind of house is surely more expensive than non meublé house.

2. Common expenses for renting a house
We need to make sure that every expenses are disscussed and agreed with parties before signing the contract, this can avoid the dispute happen in future. 

a. rental 
The rental is vary according to the house type or the area you choose to live, you may find the right house based on your need. 

b. taxes
When renting in France, it is necessary for tenants to pay various of taxes including residence tax, waste collection tax, contribution to public broadcasting and etc.  

c. insurance
By the rules in French, tenants need to buy residence insurance before renting a house. The residence insurances come with difference price level based on different requirements. Most of the banks in frence provide residence insurance and you can buy it by visiting their branch.  

d. deposit 
In general, for the furnished house we need to pay for 2 months rental as deposit while unfurnished house is 1 month only. The person who is under 30 years old can ask for guarantee through French government's Visale and save the cost of finding guarantor or deposit. 


3. Rental contract 
The contents of contract should be well discussed and checked carefully before signing it. This will avoid dispute in future. 

a. Lease term 
The minimum term of renting an unfurnished house is 3 years while the furnished house is 1 year only. But started from 2019, mobile contract was launched by government and whoever has the reasonable reason can shorten the lease term under this kind of contract. Besides that, every November until March of the next year is called trêve hivernale for French. During this period, landlords are banned to kick out tenants from the house no matter any reason. 

b. Proof of residence  
After renting a house, we need to apply the proof of residence to prove that we have a place to live in Frence and it also can help us to get the rental rebate from governemt. 

c. House condition list 
A house condition list completed by third party is needed to include along with the rental contract. The expense of doing this is divied by landlord and tenant. 

All above are the information that you can use while you are trying to find a rental accommadation in French. Hope the information that we provided can help you find your very own ideal house. Besides above, welcome to share your comments in below and exchange the information with others! 

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