• On May 10, the city council of Villejuif adopted the rental permit to fight against unsanitary housing and slum landlords.

  • From January 2023, all owners will be obliged to declare the rental of their accommodation to the town hall of Villejuif.

  • Owners of dwellings built before 1946, or of small size and built before 2005, will also have to request prior authorisation.

Towards the end of substandard housing in Villejuif?

The town hall establishes a rental permit for the owners of the city.

Created by the law of March 24, 2014, known as the “Alur law”, this permit is intended to fight against unsanitary housing and slum landlords.

The town hall began by making a request for rent control, challenged by the State.

A campaign promise from the municipal team then came back on the table: the problem of so-called “unworthy” housing.

“We need private rental housing, that's for sure, adds Alain Weber, deputy mayor of Villejuif (Val-de-Marne) in charge of housing.

But tenants must be able to live in decent conditions.

Adopted on May 10, the measure should come into force on January 1, 2023.

Prior authorization for the rental of T1 or T2

After the entry into force of the rental permit, the owners must declare to the city the rental of their property.

For certain dwellings, deemed “more at risk of being in poor condition”, they will also have to request prior authorization from the town hall.

Some cities define geographic areas for which permission is required.

The elected officials of Villejuif have chosen to define types of housing.

This concerns housing built before 1946, i.e. 450 housing units in Villejuif.

Small dwellings, studio or two-room type, and built before 2005 are also affected.

"The city has 1,400 T1 or T2 type accommodation that can meet these criteria," explains the deputy, who says he is confident in the effectiveness of the measure.

“Even if, obviously, for accommodation rented on the black market, we cannot carry out checks.

»

“Systematic” checks

"Only 1 to 2% of tenants of unworthy housing involve the city's hygiene service according to our estimates," explains Alain Weber.

Often they are already happy to have a roof over their heads and are afraid of getting into a bad position with the owner.

To remedy this, the town hall wants a more systematic control of the hygiene of housing, it will therefore be necessary to recruit municipal agents.

“When the owner declares the rental to the town hall, he provides several information, adds the elected official.

If the City considers that the accommodation is at risk of being unsanitary, depending on the location or the type of building, it sends its agents on site to ascertain its condition.

» In the event of unsanitary conditions, the agent draws up a list of work to be carried out before being able to rent the accommodation.

“We will have to do more paperwork”

“People who cannot find social housing may no longer be able to find private accommodation either,” argues Mahrouf Bounegta, elected opposition mayor of Villejuif, worried by the measure.

“In reality, most real estate agencies have been refusing substandard housing for a long time,” reassures Franck Conquet, manager of the Century 21 agency in Villejuif.

They are difficult to rent, and bring us bad feedback.

And then, we are responsible for rental management.

»

The real estate agent estimates that the rentals concerned will be above all "those made directly between the owner and the tenant", without an intermediary agency or controls.

“In the agency, all that will change is that we will have to do more paperwork, believes Franck Conquet, then wait for the response from the town hall.

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