To accept a tenant, landlords or the real estate agents who represent them generally ask for a monthly income equivalent to three or four times the amount of the rent. They prefer that the tenant have a permanent job and sometimes want someone to stand surety.
In addition to recent payslips and a tax notice, the candidate for hire must often be able to provide an employer’s certificate indicating that he is neither on a probationary period, nor on notice before a dismissal. .
This is why when you are independent, self-employed, recently hired, or when you have no one in your entourage able to stand surety, the temptation is great to embellish your file.
“We had a person who used old payslips by changing the date, when she had a very good guarantor who could have enabled her to obtain the accommodation. Another time, a candidate for hire took his sister’s payslips by just changing the first name ”, says Sébastien Bouvron, head of rental management at the Parisian real estate agency Junot.
Prison and fine
It is impossible to quantify precisely the number of files thus tampered with. A 2019 survey on youth and housing conducted by Opinionway for the insurer Homebrella indicated that 25% of young people had falsified their file to obtain housing. This figure even reached 29% in Ile-de-France. If no survey has been carried out on other age groups, it is likely that a wider public will resort to these subterfuge, especially as many websites propose to carry out false payslips (they justify often their activity by explaining that these documents are intended for a “Purely recreational use”).
Providing false documents is punishable by three years in prison and a fine of 45,000, according to thearticle 441-1 of the penal code. In addition, if the owner-lessor or the real estate agency that represents him realizes the deception, trust is broken, the coveted accommodation escapes the tenant, who will never again be able to present a case to the agency.
While it is easy for a rental candidate to falsify a file, is it easy for a landlord to spot scams? Donors and agencies are increasingly armed against this type of practice, thanks to artificial intelligence.
The start-up Monsieur Hugo, a rental management support platform, offers private landlords the opportunity to verify the authenticity of pay slips. “With algorithms, we can check the consistency of the information provided by the person and we quickly identify false payslips”, details Bruno Cantegrel, founder of Monsieur Hugo. As for the start-up Meelo, it is developing this type of service for real estate agencies, also using algorithms.
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