While finding rented accommodation is now a way of the cross in many French cities, some people no longer hesitate to falsify their file to win the Grail. A technique which can sometimes turn against the tenant.
Have you ever lied on your rental application to make it more attractive? If so, you are not alone. Increased pay slips, falsified tax notices… Some tenants no longer hesitate to resort to cheating to move their file to the top of the pile. According to the manager Imodirect, 12% of files transmitted to the provinces contain at least one falsified element. Paris and the inner suburbs, this figure would even rise to 23%, or almost one in four cases.
It must be said that the situation continues to get worse for rental candidates. While the rental tension score [calcul sur la base d’un ratio entre le nombre de candidats locataires ciblant une zone, et le nombre d’offres de location dans cette zone, NDLR] for the whole of France stands at 3.35 this year (compared to 2.71 in 2022), this score climbs 9.79 Rennes, making the Breton city the busiest city for rental searches, ahead of Lyon (9.76) and Annecy (8.83). Paris comes in 4th position, with a rental tension score of 7.18.
Lying on your file, with little or no risk?
Faced with these difficulties, and while owners often ask to earn at least 3 times the amount of the rent to hope to rent, the temptation is strong for some to improve their file a little. But what is the risk of falsifying your rental file? When there is falsification, there is never a procedure launchedannounces Patrice Petit, manager of the property administration division of the Orpi network, with RMC Conso. The file is simply discarded. Clearly, apart from the risk of being blacklisted by the real estate agency, there is little risk of having problems.
And if the deception is not discovered when the file is studied, there is no risk of being charged, assures Arnaud Hacquart, president of Imodirect: It is rare for an owner to notice the deception after the tenant has entered. in his accommodation, if he honors his rent without problem.
On the other hand, in the event that a bad payer has decided to lie on his file, this can land him in serious trouble. Because if the penalty is in fact almost never pronounced, cheating on one’s documents constitutes the use of forgery, an offense punishable by three years of imprisonment and a fine of 45,000 euros according to article 441-1 of the Code penal. As recalled France Infoin 2022, the Vannes court sentenced four months in prison and 2,500 euros in compensation to a tenant who falsified several pay slips to obtain accommodation.
Real estate: for tenants, finding accommodation is now hell