We are looking for a rental home for about 6 months, from the start of October or November, somewhere in the area of Niève (58), Saône-et-Loire (71), Allier (03), Loire (42), or anywhere around there. We are a couple of 27 and 37 years old with a small dog and two cats. We are planning on buying a property at some point, but we’d like to rent first, so that we can look around and discover the area.
Does anyone have any recommendations or ideas for us?
At the time we are unemployed, but we have sufficient funds from the sale of our previous house. So we thought it’d be better to rent from a private landlord instead of an agency, since we don’t have proof of income but we can pay for the full 6 months in advance if needed. Any knowledge on this topic is welcome as well.
We were looking at rentals on different portals, and saw some nice ones on Leboncoin, but we can’t create an account to reply to the advertisers because we don’t have a French mobile number. If anyone here maybe has an account already and can pass us the phone numbers of the advertisements we are looking at, please let us know, that would be great!
What part of the world are you from? Are you European citizens, otherwise you will need a visa for a stay of six months.
As for the mobile - probably is a bit chicken and egg if you have no address in France but you should be able to pick up a prepaid SIM to get you going.
In fact under French rental law a furnished residential let must always be for a minimum of one year. An unfurnished let is for a minimum of three years.
That doesn’t mean the tenant can’t leave before the end of the contract but it does mean that the landlord can’t ask you to leave. But it may mean that offering six months rent in advance (I am not sure this is strictly legal) would not be attractive to a residential landlord.
You may find it easier to find for instance two consecutive three-month lets in tourist accommodation (gites) where it’s normal to pay the rental upfront.
Oh thank you, that’s good to know. Since you mentioned two consecutive three-month lets, are tourist accommodations limited to consecutive periods of maximum 3 months?
We’re from the Netherlands, so that shouldn’t be a problem!
Yeah we thought to pick up a prepaid SIM, but we’re currently renting in Castalla, Alicante (Spain), so we’re not really close to the border to just go and take a drive just for a SIM. But my inlaws are visiting soon and they’re passing through France, so they might be able to pick one up for us.
There are also apps that can give a virtual French telephone number. We had Cloudsim recommended to us by SELECTRA (French electricity people). https://cloudsimapp.com/
