Rent your second home (make it a furnished apartment)

Verified 10 March 2023 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)

Do you want to rent your second home for a short period of time, such as during your holidays or on weekends? You can do this, provided that you declare it in advance to the City Hall and the taxes, and respect the rules of rental of a furnished tourist. We'll explain.

The furnished tourist is an individual accommodation type villa, apartment, furnished studio offered for rent. In particular, it must include the following equipment:

  • Furniture
  • Bedding
  • Gas stove or hot plates
  • Refrigerator
  • Kitchen utensils

You must offer your accommodation to a client who meets the following 3 characteristics:

  • It has the exclusive use of the rented accommodation, i.e. you are not present during the rental
  • He uses housing as a second home, not his home
  • He resides there for a short time (rental by the day, week or month)

You cannot rent your accommodation to the same client for more than 90 consecutive days per calendar year.

Please note

You can use the mobility lease if the tenant meets the criteria required for this type of lease (apprentice, trainee, worker in training, etc.). Its minimum duration is 1 month and a maximum of 10 months, non-renewable.

If the customer is not a French national, you must have him fill in a font record.

When your municipality applies the tourist tax, the customer must pay for it. You must collect the amount of the tourist tax from the customer, then return it to the municipality. If you use a platform as a payment intermediary, it is up to that platform to collect the real tourist tax and give it back to the commune.

You can find out the amount of the city tax charged by your municipality using this online service:

Tourist tax rates per municipality

When the unit is part of a condominium, you must verify that the condominium by-law does not include exclusively bourgeois housing clause. The presence of this clause prohibits any professional activity, including furnished tourism.

You must apply to the Mermaid Directory of theInsee: titleContent. This formality is free of charge.

You must complete this formality on the website of the company formalities office:

Company Formalities Window

Once this has been done, theInsee: titleContent assigns you a SIRET number.

This number allows you to identify yourself to the tax services during the following steps:

  • Supplementary income tax return. In fact, income from the rental, as a non-professional lessor, is subject to income tax.
    If you use a platform to rent the furnished tourist, it must provide you in January with a document indicating the gross amount of your transactions during the past year.
  • Payment of social security contributions, beyond of a certain amount of rental income
  • Payment of the company property tax (CFE), depending on your situation (location and personal use of the rented property).
    You should consult the company Tax Office (SIE) of the location where the rented accommodation is located to determine whether or not you will have to pay this tax.
Who shall I contact

You must declare your furnished tourist in town hall.

3 procedures exist:

  • In some very large municipalities (such as Annecy, Aix-en-Provence, Biarritz, Bordeaux, Cannes, Lyon, Nice, Paris, Strasbourg, Toulouse, Tours...), you must first, request a change-of-use authorization. If you get it, you must then make the statement of your tourist furniture.
  • In the other large municipalities (in particular the municipalities of more than 200,000 inhabitants, the Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis and Val-de-Marne) you must first make a declaration and then apply for a change-of-use authorization.
    However, any other municipality may decide to apply this procedure.
  • In all other municipalities, to make a declaration enough.

You should ask your city hall about the procedure to do:

Who shall I contact
Authorization and then declaration
1. Application for a change of use authorization

You must obtain authorization from the City Hall to change the use of your accommodation in furnished tourism (transition in furnished tourism).

If the authorization is granted, you must change the destination of the premises to hotel accommodation.

FYI  

In order to obtain such authorization, the City Hall may impose a so-called of compensation. This rule requires you to buy from a commercial premises of the same area to transform it into a living space. Check with your local council to see if you are affected.

Failure to comply with this obligation is punishable by a civil fine of up to €50,000. The restoration of the dwelling to its original condition and a periodic penalty payment of €1,000 per day per m2 may be ordered.

2. Declaring the furniture

You must declare the property to the City Hall to obtain a declaration number.

Contact your city hall to find out how to make the declaration:

Who shall I contact

Upon receipt of your declaration, the City Hall will immediately issue you an acknowledgement of receipt including a declaration number. This number will have to be indicated in each of the advertisements for the rental offer of this accommodation.

FYI  

Failure to declare your accommodation in a town hall is punishable by a civil fine of up to €5,000.

Declaration and authorization
1. Declaration of furnished furniture

You have to declare the housing in town hall.

You must use the following online service:

Declare in town hall a furnished tourist

FYI  

Failure to comply with this obligation is punishable by a fine of up to €450.

2. Application for a change of use authorization

You must obtain authorization from the City Hall to change the use of your accommodation as a tourist furniture.

Failure to comply with this obligation is punishable by a civil fine of up to €50,000. In the event of a conviction, the housing must be restored to its original condition and a penalty payment of €1,000 per day per m2 may be ordered.

FYI  

In order to obtain such authorization, the City Hall may impose a netting rule. This rule requires you to purchase a commercial space of the same surface area to transform it into a living space. Check with your local council to see if you are affected.

Statement

You have to declare the housing in town hall.

You must use the following online service:

Declare in town hall a furnished tourist

FYI  

Failure to do so is punishable by a fine of up to €450.

How do I get the ranking?

You can ask for the classification of your piece of tourist furniture to the accredited or approved evaluating body of your choice (listed on the lists on the Atout France website) using the following form:

Request for classification of a piece of furniture for tourism

The evaluating body visits the dwelling. Within one month of your visit, you will receive a certificate of inspection that includes the following:

  • Report and Control Grid
  • Proposal for a decision to classify your furniture for the category mentioned in the inspection report

You have 15 days from the receipt of the certificate of inspection to refuse the classification proposal. After this period and in the absence of a refusal, the classification is acquired.

The decision is valid for 5 years. It shall indicate the following:

  • Your name (and possibly the name of your representative)
  • Address of the furnished tourist accommodation, number of persons who can be accommodated and classification category of the furnished accommodation

You must display the classification decision visibly in the furniture.

In case of absence or serious insufficiency of maintenance of your furnished furniture, the prefect can delete it from the list of classified furnished.

If the advertised description or the ranking displayed does not correspond to the characteristics of your furniture, the client can refer to the Departmental Directorate for the Protection of Populations (DDPP or DDCSPP) for deceptive commercial practice:

What are the advantages of ranking?

The classification of a piece of furniture allows to indicate its level of comfort and equipment to the customer. There are 5 categories (from 1 to 5 stars).

FYI  

Classification sometimes allows you to benefit from tax advantages (exemption from housing tax and property tax) in ZRR, flat-rate allowance on rental income for micro-enterprises). In addition, it avoids the application of an increased tourist tax.

To do this, you must use these forms:

Request the exemption from the housing tax for bed and breakfasts and tourist furniture located in rural revitalization areas (RRZs)

Apply for property tax exemption on built-up property (TFPB) for hotels, tourist furniture or bed and breakfast in rural revitalization areas (RRZs)

The forms are to be sent to the Public Finance Center:

FYI  

You can also apply for a label (including the Tourisme & Handicap label), in order to inform the future customer of the specificities of your furnished tourist.

If you use an intermediary (intermediary or negotiator, or internet platform), they must inform you of your obligations (declaration, request for authorization).

Prior to the publication of the rental advertisement, you must provide this intermediary with an attestation on honor. Your honor must certify that you have fulfilled the prior obligations (declaration, or even authorization for change of use) and that the dwelling is not your principal residence. If you have been assigned a declaration number by the City Hall, you must also provide this number to your intermediary.

You can help yourself with this model of attestation on honor:

Attestation on honor

FYI  

  • The advertisements for the rental of furnished tourist can also be consulted in the town hall and in a tourist office.
  • To report a deceptive commercial practice on a furnished tourist rental, you can contact the Departmental Directorate for the Protection of Populations (DDPP or DDCSPP).

You must comply with the other rules for renting a piece of furniture, especially as regards lease and insurance.

Who can help me?

Find who can answer your questions in your region

FAQ