Covid19 and rental restrictions?

Like probably all gite owners, our rentals have pretty much all been cancelled, at least for the next few months.
We have had an enquiry for a one to two month (we do do these off season) starting May 11th (they are in france and have to leave their current rental apparently). Originally this would not have been considered due to existing reservations, but now it is. Apart from the travel restrictions, which may or may not be relaxed on the 11th, are there any other restrictions regarding gite rentals at the moment? I’ve looked and can’t find anything specific.

Be very careful of this. We and many others have had enquiries for out of season for one ot two month stays which have turned out to be scams.
One of them said that their planned gite had been flooded.
When you take it up their is always something fishy how about the way they want to pay.
They are money laundering.

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We have years and years of experience dealing with longer term rentals. I’m not concerned about it being a scam, only about the legitimacy of accepting the booking.

I believe that at present it is illegal to accommodate tourists. Tourist accommodation can only accommodate people who are using it as their domicile. And people should not be changing their domicile/place of confinement right now.
https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=JORFTEXT000041723302&categorieLien=id
“Hébergement touristique et autre hébergement de courte durée lorsqu’il constitue pour les personnes qui y vivent un domicile régulier”

IIRC Macron said that he hopes to relax certain restrictions on 11th May but the final decision on this won’t be taken until that date because it depends on how things progress between then and now. If things get bad again it could be that no restrictions are relaxed. Hopefully things will have improved and some restrictions will be lifted. Holiday accommodation may or may not be one of those.
I guess there is nothing to stop you accepting the booking, but you may be obliged to cancel it.

FWIW I agree with Jane, it smells fishy.

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Hi Mark

I thought there was something in place… whereby folk could not be turned out… so these people might not have to go anywhere…

for them to be quoting 11th May does seem a bit odd… since it has been made clear that the world will NOT return to normal on “a date” … it will take time… and be progressive… but no firm date for when that will even begin.

Just to add - Macron also mentioned that the lifting of restrictions will not happen the same across the country; obviously it will depend on the local situation. In places that have passed the peak, more restrictions can be lifted than in places that haven’t. I guess it will be down to your préfet to decide what is appropriate.

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Just a thought. For anyone receiving guests/paying or non-paying…

surely there is going to be a serious question of health-safety. If someone rents my gite… do I have to prove it is not already “infected”… and must they prove they are not already infected… you see where I am coming from.

I’d hate to have someone fall ill at my home… and have to stay there, in isolation…for as long as… Obviously this is happening now, within families etc… but the idea of taking in “strangers” in gite or B&B… with no idea of their actual health situation… would make me want to step back… as I must not put OH in danger…

just saying…

(and lest anyone call me uncharitable… that is far from the case…)

I’m sure guidelines will be put in place… when the time is right… so until then…

I guess that is exactly why the government has ruled it out for the present time.
If and when it rules it back in, hopefully it will issue guidelines for both lessor and lessee.

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Thanks everyone, all taken on board and grateful for the advice. FWIW, fairly certain it’s not a scam, but have told them we cannot accept them until things are clearer (and safer), and also that they can’t be forced to leave their present accommodation.
Pity, could do with the money…:persevere:

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You might well be able to get financial support of some sort… check every avenue…

good luck

Don’t think we’re eligible, I’ve just started to get my not very much private pension.

We’re not eligible either because of OH’s state pension. Resigned to loosing most if not all of the rest of years’ rentals. Half are French, so we are hoping that we will still get at least some of these ones even if Germans baulk at coming to infected France. Ho hum.

Our tourist office has told us that gîtes etc should be closed except for housing any key worker (and since low virus in our patch there aren’t any incoming key workers). The noises made by Eduard Philippe on Sunday don’t suggest this will change quickly. I can’t remember the exact phrase but it was something about don’t expect normal summer holidays. He did make one exception tho’:

“Pour continuer à limiter sa propagation, le Premier ministre prévoit que les personnes testées positives au Covid-19 auront le «choix entre un confinement dans une chambre d’hôtel mise à disposition et un confinement à leur domicile»

Any takers??

I’m sure you’re as adept at scam spotting as we are…but we did have one recently which was that they were being turfed out of their existing gîte accommodation.