Airbnb type tourist rentals: the rules of the City of Paris validated by French justice

With this decision, an apartment can no longer be legally rented for more than 120 days a year on a platform like Airbnb, without being declared as a "commercial space", a very restrictive change of use and, de facto, dissuasive.

The soap opera is very followed by European metropolises, faced like Paris with a housing shortage, and who want to better regulate platforms such as Airbnb, Booking.com, Tripadvisor or Abritel / Homeaway.

In various judgments delivered on Thursday in cases opposing lessors to the municipality, the Court of Cassation ruled that this prior authorization system targeting second homes was clear, suited to the need to fight against the housing shortage and was not neither "arbitrary" nor "disproportionate".

The judges estimated that a landlord wishing to rent accommodation for "a period of less than a year", "per night, week or month, to passing customers", had to make a "change of use" : it becomes a commercial premises, subject to municipal authorization.

Only three exceptions are tolerated: rentals of main residences for less than 120 days per year, the mobility lease (for people on short employment contracts), and 9-month rentals to students.

The Court has thus validated the very restrictive mechanism known as "compensation": an authorization is issued to the owner wishing to dedicate a second home to short-term tourist rental, only if he buys a commercial space of equivalent surface - even double in certain areas, to transform it into a dwelling, in order to compensate for the "loss of accommodation".

"This is a very important victory for the City of Paris, which has been fighting for many years to regulate these tourist rentals, but also for other French cities: many mayors from all political stripes who wish to regulate this sector will be able to do so. support this decision to set up similar compensation mechanisms, "said the housing assistant (PCF) of Anne Hidalgo, Ian Brossat.

21 million

"It is also a victory for the right to housing" which suffered from the development of these rentals. In fact, with the health crisis that caused tourist numbers to fall, "many homes" have switched back to conventional rentals, he said.

This favorable decision will allow the French capital to resume legal proceedings - suspended since 2019 pending this clarification from the Court of Cassation - against 420 donors from whom it claims on average 50.000 euros, or up to 21 million euros. euros in potential fines in total.

From 2016 to 2019, the city, which attacks "as a priority the lessors with many properties" and employs 35 agents dedicated to controls, pocketed 5 million euros in fines, said Mr. Brossat.

For Airbnb, which recalls being "not a stakeholder in this affair", this decision concerns only "a minority of guests renting their second home as furnished tourist accommodation", while most rent their main residence. “95% of entire homes rented last year were rented for less than 120 days,” she says.

"By saying this, Airbnb gives the impression that 95% of the properties rented on its platform are in compliance with the law, but this is far from the case: more than 60% of the ads do not have an ID number. 'registration and many homes rented less than 120 days but which are not main residences, have not requested a change of use, and are therefore in violation, "said the city services.

Five months earlier, the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union had already ruled that the French legislation governing the rental of second homes on Airbnb complied with European regulations, while referring to the French courts the task of examining the compensation mechanisms created by cities.