Renting your principal residence: an update on the regulations

Rent your primary residence is possible for short periods and under certain conditions that Service-public.fr reminds in its practical sheet.

The conditions

• the rental must be for the exclusive use of the tenant (you are not present during the rental). If it is only a part of your home (home room), other rules apply;
• the tenant must be resident there for a short period (rental by the day, week or month);
• the tenant must not make it his home (customers passing through);
• the rental must not exceed 90 days per customer. In some municipalities, such as Paris, Bordeaux or Lyon, the total rental period of the accommodation not to be exceeded per year is 120 days. Inquire with your local council;
• if you are a tenant, you will need to obtain written permission from your landlord and not charge your sub-tenant more than your rent;
• if the property is part of a condominium, you should check that the condominium regulation does not include a clause prohibiting any professional activity, including tourist furniture.

The steps

• The town hall:
  It is not always necessary to go to the town hall before renting your main residence, but some municipalities may require you to do so. In this case, you will be assigned a declaration number that must be indicated in each rental offer announcement (in particular in Paris, Annecy, Aix-en-Provence, Biarritz, Bordeaux, Cannes, Lyon, Nice, Strasbourg, Toulouse, Tours). Check with your local council to see if this procedure has been implemented. The total duration of the rental of this dwelling should not exceed 120 days per calendar year (except professional obligation, health reason or case of force majeure). The City Hall can also ask you to count the rental days of your accommodation until 31 December of the following year.
  If you use an internet platform, it must inform you of your obligations and you must provide it with a certificate on the honor indicating that the steps have been completed. The platform will be required to disconnect your ad as soon as the accommodation has been rented through it 120 days (between 1^er January and December 31 of the same year) and to provide the City Hall with a statement of the rental days of your accommodation if it so requests.
• Taxes:
  You must apply to the Sirène directory of the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE). To do this, you must contact the registry of the commercial court of the place of the rented accommodation with the aid ofa form entitled declaration of commencement of activity. This formality is free of charge. You will be assigned a SIRET number and you will have to carry it on your supplementary income tax return (income from the rental by a non-professional renter is subject to the progressive income tax schedule. Above a certain amount, you will also have to pay social contributions).
  If you use an internet platform, it must provide you, in January of each year, with a document showing the gross amount of transactions you have made through it over the past year.
  In some communes, you will have to collect the tourist tax from the holidaymaker and remit it to the commune. Since 1^er january 2019, if you use an internet platform as a payment intermediary, it is responsible for collecting the tourist tax.

You will find on the record of Service-public.fr details of all the rules applying to furnished tourist accommodation: rental contract, occupation of premises, insurance, policy form (information sheet with contact details of the tenant), income tax, social security contributions.