Airbnb laws in Paris get even stricter

The laws around Airbnb have just got even stricter in Paris

As regular readers will recall from our past articles, the rental laws in Paris regarding Airbnb were already strict. Well, now they have got even stricter, with a steep increase in fines for property-owners who don’t comply, so it’s important to know the rules.

As a quick reminder, home-owners in Paris are allowed to rent out their apartments on short-term rental websites for up to 120 days a year. Any more than this, however, and it is then considered a business – so becomes subject to tighter regulations and additional tax. Also, the 120-day rule only applies if the apartment is your primary place of residence – a special license is required for secondary residences and this can be an expensive and difficult process.

Furthermore, every property now has to be registered with the City of Paris – and the ensuing registration number has to be included on any adverts. Indeed, earlier this year, the Paris mayor, Anne Hidalgo, announced that she was intending to fine Airbnb a record sum of €12.5 million for listing 1,000 addresses that had not been officially registered.

Meanwhile, the regulations have been strengthened in other ways, too, with some fairly eye-watering fines for property-owners as well. For instance, if you rent out your principal residence without registering with the town hall, the civil fine is now 5,000 EUR, instead of the 450 EUR imposed before.

Also, if a property-owner exceeds the limit of 120 days, they could be looking at a fine of up to 10,000 EUR. The same fee applies for anyone who does not inform the town hall of the number of nights the property has been rented out.

The penalties are even worse if you try and do any of this with a secondary residence, which, as mentioned earlier, requires special authorisation to turn into furnished tourist accommodation. The penalty is 50,000 EUR per offence, plus a penalty of 1,000 EUR per day and per square meter until the property is returned for residential use.

Lastly, property-owners are also required to report to the French administration any income generated from rentals, and will be taxed accordingly.

Here at VINGT Paris, we are specialists in this field and can advise specifically on the most lucrative option for your apartment whilst still remaining within the law.