What's up with housing rent contract in France? Isn't it just sign the term of contract and when the contract is due, just return the house keys to the landlords? So easy right? NOPE.
As we are moving out of the 3years old rented house very soon, my husband's company assigned an agent to help us with the moving, selling of the cars, internet and etc. One day, the agent, H, called me up and told me that she is coming over to the house to check on the house. I believed she meant to see how the house has been maintained. Now, I am not trying to be proud here but I must admit that I am a cleanliness freak. :D I vacuum the house everyday and every other day, I mop the floor, wipe the exterior of all cupboards, shine the mirrors. And the house we rent is 2 storeys high. I am a very busy SAHM. Haha.
So she rang the doorbell and I let her in, together with my landlord and his wife?! What is happening here?! Being polite, I let them in. (Now, here in France, Landlord cannot show up at the house unannounced.) After that, H asked for my permission to take photo of the house and I'm like "ok", maybe husband's company wanted the photos of the house for documentation purposes.
Next, H started to walk around the house and went to the kitchen first (landlord and wife following closely behind her). So suspicious. H looked under the stove hood and said "Ah, you need to clean the hood mesh." I said "ok". We are not returning the house yet, so I'm not going to clean it now. If not, I have to clean again, I thought.
Then they looked up at the ceiling, all corners of the walls and air vents and said "there are spider webs, you need to clean it." I wanted to laugh. Even if I clean the spider webs now, they build another one by the afternoon. I swear! Beside, when we first came into the house, the house was filled with spider webs and VERY big spiders. Ok,I exaggerated. Maybe about half the size of my palm ( and my hands are not small ok :D ).
Later, I spoke to my friend who has been staying in Toulouse for many years. She is from Singapore too. She warned me that landlords here will "sabotage" the tenants, especially those who are not French and may not know the rights as a tenants. The reason is that they do not want to return the security deposit. They tried to point out here and there and said the house is not to their cleanliness state. Also, landlord will come over to check on the house at the very last minute so you would not have the time to clean and probably rushing to the airport. She said a lot of her foreigner friends got this from the landlords all the time. Deducting money here and there.
I have to emphasise this, landlord cannot come to the house without seeking permission from you first. They can't show up just like that. If that happen, feel free to chase them away. Nicely please. :D
And when the contract is almost up (like 1 month before), landlord can arrange for people to view the house but he can't simply take over the keys from you, even if you are not at home. It is for your own security. My landlord and H tried to convince us to give up the house keys to them for people to view the house when we wanted to go on a holiday. We didn't do that of cause.
Let's talk about the house when arrived in Toulouse, France. It was not ready for us to move in so we put up in a service apartment for 3 weeks. We have already signed the rental contract and we were supposed to move in a few days later when we arrived. The house is empty without the essential furniture, except the kitchen. It is quite normal to rent an empty house or apartment in France and once the contract is due, people will just sell away the furniture. The house have nothing to sit on and mind you, people here wear shoes into your house. We don't! As the house just finished with the renovation, the floor was very dirty and you definitely don't want to sit on the floor. The windows on the house were filthy with dust from the renovation and the walls were infested with thick spider webs. yucks! I cleaned that up all for the landlord. so he should be grateful, right? or so I thought.
Now, after 3years, We have to return the house. guess what? the landlord uses the same tricks as other landlords. Finding little specks of dusts, a little black line on the walls, walls have to be extremely white ( he is asking us to paint his walls for free!). So my hubs spent about 2 hours arguing with the landlord. Luckily, we have our agent with us and all was resolved without us paying any cents. phew.....
See in France, is like this. just be careful and knows your right. take photos of the house before and after. Cover your back.
