Real Estate: When Landlords Kick Out Their Tenants During the Summer
France Télévisions investigated the abuses surrounding leases chosen by some landlords, who want to ensure they can retrieve the keys to their house or apartment during the summer. What does the law actually say? Let's head to the Basque Country.
In the Basque Country, homeowners, lured by profit , are in the authorities' sights. To rent their property more expensively during the summer, they don't hesitate to evict tenants who live there year-round. For the third year in a row, Léa has had to leave her apartment in Saint-Jean-de-Luz (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), which was rented for four times the price during the summer.
Despite her couple's income of €4,000 net per month, she says she can't find a place to live with a 12-month lease. " We're not going to stay for three years, looking again and again. If we don't have anything by the end of September, we'll leave the region," she confides.
On apartment rental sites, most rentals are short-term: from September to the end of June, in the form of a student lease or mobility lease. The contract, strictly regulated by law, is only intended for students, employees in training, apprenticeships, or internships. In reality, many landlords circumvent the rule and offer leases to employees with permanent contracts. In 2024, the Pyrénées-Atlantiques prefecture recorded 117 fraudulent leases.
Watch the full report in the video above
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