Since 2021, a year marked by an important victory for the town hall, when the Court of Cassation had ruled its regulations in accordance with European law, the City of Paris has obtained about 6.5 million euros in fines from the judicial court, she told AFP, confirming information from Franceinfo.
But this revenue is melting, amounting to 535,000 euros over the first seven months of 2023, for 65 cases judged, against 3.5 million in 2021 and 2.5 million in 2022, when 370 files had been processed.
"The regulatory arsenal" of the City "works, there are fewer offenses," welcomes the latter, stressing, however, that "the high figures of litigation in 2021 and 2022 were due to the resumption of 400 cases suspended from proceedings" pending a decision by the Court of Justice of the European Union.
At the same time, the average amount of fines has risen: from 15,000 euros in 2022 at first instance (22,000 on appeal), it now stands at 20,000 euros (31,000 on appeal) this year.
"The courts are tougher," says Ian Brossat, the housing assistant for whom "judges now assume that those who defraud do so knowingly".
A "multi-renter" owner of the sixteenth arrondissement of Paris has even been fined the maximum of 50,000 euros, an unprecedented penalty, says Mr. Brossat.
The owners convicted are for "absence of registration number or rental of a second home without compensation," recalls the communist elected official.
In Paris, where accommodation is a challenge, only main residences can be rented freely as furnished tourist accommodation, provided they are declared to the town hall and within a limit of 120 days a year.
The rental of a tourist furnished residence must be subject to a very restrictive change of use, with an obligation to compensate by renting in conventional housing of an equivalent area, or even double or triple depending on the area.
© 2023 AFP