# Issues being able to rent. Foreign income



## BoilingFrog

Hi, we're already struggling to find a suitable home to rent in France, and have now come up against a seemingly intractable problem.
Only i am earning at present and that is foreign paid, in Norway.
This is creating a problem for landlords as the normal rent insurance, which covers them in case we stop paying rent, doesn't accommodate a foreign income.
We have funds to pay for a year or rent, if this would help, but it seems not to be an option 
Has anyone found a workable solution to this situation?
After weeks of searching, to finally have properties to view, to now find, despite having funds available, we can't rent them, is extremely frustrating.


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## Bevdeforges

Is there any way you can be paid directly into a French bank account - or arrange to have a fixed amount transferred to your French bank account on a regular basis? (Meaning that it would be available to a French landlord to take the rent each month.) Opening a bank account in France can be something of an obstacle, but it's part of the settling in sequence.


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## Nunthewiser

Have you tried getting a commercial garant such as Garantme to back you?


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## BoilingFrog

I do have a French been account now. But not sure that solves the problem. I'm ask


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## BoilingFrog

I also am not sure whether GarzantMe does. I suspect it should, but maybe the agencies get money for using whatever insurance product they use? If we get registered with GarantMe we can explain this to the agencies, but it may not change anything


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## BackinFrance

If you can find temporary accommodation in an area where you intend to settle, it might be best to do that and wait until your wife is working before looking for something more permanent. There are areas where most long term rentals use this insurance and others where it is less of a thing, but even in the latter you would likely need some sort of garant. You have moved to a country that has a very severe shortage of housing that also has laws that protect tenants. Some banks will go guarantor for you subject to conditions,but paying a year's rent in advance is illegal for good reason.

Good luck.


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## Chrissippus

This is an interesting wrinkle. Are there retired Americans here who have decided to direct their SS benefits payments to a French bank to facilitate a rental agreement? I am not planning to do that when the time comes, but I would if necessary.


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## Bevdeforges

Chrissippus said:


> This is an interesting wrinkle. Are there retired Americans here who have decided to direct their SS benefits payments to a French bank to facilitate a rental agreement? I am not planning to do that when the time comes, but I would if necessary.


Not to facilitate a rental agreement, but in some cases, having your US SS direct deposited to your French account may actually facilitate the opening of an account in the first place. The French banks like to have a regular source of income coming into a new account to establish the new customer's "stability" - or something like that. Net-net, it's the landlord who pulls the monthly rent payment from your French bank account (as a standing order that you have authorized) so having a history of receiving regular income in your French bank account serves many interests.


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## bhamham

I believe having my rental dossier from DossierFacile, le dossier de location numérique de l’État helped me get my 3yr unfurnished rental in Nantes. My agent was really impressed that this dossier is supported by the French govt. I didn't have to show my French bank acct although I could have. I had been transferring monthly deposits to it from my savings labeling them 'pension pmt'. I only showed my benefit letter from the SSA and a benefit statement from my work pension. I did not show any savings either, this was in Dec last year. I had my certification from Garantme added to the dossier and had given them my savings acct info. 

It's a neat, organized and presentable package. Definitely worth checking out if you don't have a dossier to give to agents and landlords.


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## Peasant

BoilingFrog said:


> We have funds to pay for a year or rent, if this would help, but it seems not to be an option
> Has anyone found a workable solution to this situation?


There's something called a Caution Loyer, but you'll have to find a sympathetic rental agent and landlord/lady.

If your landlord/lady agrees, you deposit a year's rent with a bank into something similar to an escrow account. The bank then issues a letter guaranteeing that if you don't pay the rent, they will. You get charged a monthly "maintenance" fee and have a year's rent sitting in a bank for what could be the life of the lease. We got one when we moved to France seven years ago and the rental went well. When we renewed our lease after three our landlady (who lives in the apartment below us and who we get along with) agreed to lower the Caution from a year's rent down to €5000. We're hoping that at the next renewal we can get it lowered to a normal one-months-rent deposit, but there's no guarantee of that.

When my sister rented an apartment near by she got one too.


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## bhamham

Peasant said:


> There's something called a Caution Loyer...


I'm looking into this one from Credit Agricole for my renewal





Quelle caution immobilière pour votre location ? - Crédit Agricole


Fournir une caution immobilière est un passage quasi systématique pour prendre une location. Comment cela marche ? Explications.



www.credit-agricole.fr


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## BackinFrance

bhamham said:


> I'm looking into this one from Credit Agricole for my renewal
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Quelle caution immobilière pour votre location ? - Crédit Agricole
> 
> 
> Fournir une caution immobilière est un passage quasi systématique pour prendre une location. Comment cela marche ? Explications.
> 
> 
> 
> www.credit-agricole.fr


But it still means that you have to find a rental property that is not the subject of an insurance policy that covers failure to pay etc.


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## Chrissippus

bhamham said:


> I believe having my rental dossier from DossierFacile, le dossier de location numérique de l’État helped me get my 3yr unfurnished rental in Nantes. My agent was really impressed that this dossier is supported by the French govt. I didn't have to show my French bank acct although I could have. I had been transferring monthly deposits to it from my savings labeling them 'pension pmt'. I only showed my benefit letter from the SSA and a benefit statement from my work pension. I did not show any savings either, this was in Dec last year. I had my certification from Garantme added to the dossier and had given them my savings acct info.
> 
> It's a neat, organized and presentable package. Definitely worth checking out if you don't have a dossier to give to agents and landlords.


I am aware of DossierFacile and plan to use it when we arrive in France. So the "savings account" info you provided was of your US bank account or where ever your home country is? When you say that you didn't have to show your French bank account do you mean that you didn't have to show it to the landlord or to DossierFacile? How do you pay your rent? Have you authorized automatic withdrawals from your French bank account by the landlord or do you pay by some other method? How long a history of monthly deposits to your French bank account did you have prior to opening the DossierFacile account?

Just by the way, how is the landlord's information verified? In New York City, which also has a perpetual housing shortage, scam artists sometimes rent an apartment they don't own to as many victims as possible.


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## bhamham

No, I didn't have to show my French bank acct to the agent or give it to Dossier facile. After I looked at the house and said I'd like to rent it, he took my dossier to the landlord. He came back to me with her approval and asked for his agent's fee after we signed the contract. I paid that with a Wise transfer. I paid the security deposit and first months rent with a Wise transfer, too. Then I did a prelevement for the rent payments from my French bank but I probably could pay it from Wise - how the rent is paid never became an issue. The agent just gave me RIBs one for his fee and deposit and another for the rent. The agent called Garantme and then I paid their fee. Next was renter's insurance.

I didn't bother verifying the landlady's information. The agent was from a known local agence immobilière. Is scamming rentals a thing in France?


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