In the Basque Country, a real estate agency convicted for fraudulent leases

The company was fined 10.000 euros and its manager was given a three-month suspended prison sentence and a fine of 3.000 euros.

The courts accused this concierge service based in Biarritz of providing postdated notices: at the time of signing the lease, which was supposed to last one year, the tenants also signed an early departure notice, dated the following April or May, just before the summer.

"A number of owners thought it would be a good idea to rent out during the eight off-peak months before they could get the property back for the summer and charge the weekly monthly rate," the prosecution said.

Although ten victims were identified in the case, only two became civil parties.

The president of the concierge service, who admitted the facts, explained that she had committed a "professional error" due to "lack of experience". "For me, it was very clear that the rental ran until June, it was done by mutual agreement with the tenants", she said.

Her lawyer believes that his client is being held up as an "example", supposed to "single-handedly address the problem of poor housing in the Basque Country". Mr Pierre-André Truttmann said he was "strongly considering appealing".

The practices of this agency were highlighted in 2022 by the association for the right to housing Alda, a civil party.

"These post-dated leases are symbolic of the pressure that landlords and real estate agencies can exert on tenants who have no choice but to accept these conditions," Malika Peyraut, co-president of the association, said at the bar.

Student leases to non-students, mobility leases for year-round resident workers, leases with post-dated notice periods... These practices have led to the launch of a fight committee that is unprecedented in France, led by the department's prefecture and the Bayonne public prosecutor's office.

Two years after this creation, 33 reports were made, six of which had a criminal outcome, according to the Pyrénées-Atlantiques prefecture.

"The State wanted to send the signal that we cannot take advantage of the housing tension (...) and we are convinced today that this committee has had a dissuasive effect," declared Joëlle Gras, sub-prefect in charge of housing, contacted by AFP.