Rental, caution bancaire and banking in France

[Giacomina]

Thanks very much Audry, I will surely try that first.

Bev, Yes, 'been there done that' in Italy when renting before viewing. Both times it worked out fairly well, the apartments were great, the surrounding areas were not. But it got us in, if you know what I mean. I found working with agencies at least all the basics were there, like water and toilets. But with private rentals quite often the basics were not quite on yet, but promised. Is that similar to how it is in France?

I'll try the regular rental, three month up front idea to start, from what I am seeing the holiday rentals are two or three times more expensive than a longer term rental.

Meanwhile french language is becoming intelligable and pronouncing it is improving, thanks to the new online translate aps and learning videos.

These aps are so incredible to me, when I think of all the Italian language books, tapes, dictionaries and notebooks I used when learning Italian.

In learning french, the audio side is absolutly necessary side by side the grammer IMO.

[DPK]

If you take on a "holiday rental" out of season ie Sept/Oct to about April, you will pay a monthly rental figure which is on par with a normal commercial residential rent, or even a little lower.

The owner makes their income in the summer months, so a winter let is often viewed as a bonus, and keeps the property safe aired and occupied.
There is no agents fee to pay and the deposit is usually one months rent or less.
The paperwork/lease is a short term holiday let contract, usually on a monthly basis, but you can request 2/3/6 months, whatever is agreeable to the house owner until the start of the season.

If you google "long term rental france" some of these winter let sites pop up.

I did this at the begining of the year, my landlord then gave me a reference, detailing my rent and the additional items I had paid for, water, broadband elec. The letter explained that the utility bills were in the landlords name but I had actually paid for them.

This reference letter, together with bank statements from the UK, proof of income and my passport enabled me to open a normal french bank account with card and cheque book with CIC.

Hope that helps.

Denise

[Amandapanda]

Thanks to everyone for your helpful advice and sharing your experiences. I'm lucky enough to have a friend down there who can do a bit of research for me, but I'm hearing such mixed messages! I'm going to try not to do the caution bancaire, it just sounds like it could be a nightmare if I were to encounter an unscrupulous landlord. It seems crazy the amount of red tape there is in France! I'm on a one year contract, surely I should be able to get a one year rental!?

I will post how I get on to share my experiences with anyone else in my position, but any more advice/stories will be gratefully received.