What happens if your Paris rental is deemed illegal?

From what I understand, you would be running around Paris trying to find a place to stay.

You could have your reservation canceled at the last minute. Some recommend making a cancellable hotel reservation as a Plan B just in case. If officials knock on your door while you are there, it is best just to refer them to the owner. I'm not sure they would kick you out, but any penalty would be levied against the owner, not the renter. If you do get kicked out, you would have to scramble to find a hotel room yourself and couldn't rely on getting a refund for the terminated rental.

Why would you even consider a location where you are worried that the owner has misrepresented the situation? If you don’t believe the registration number is valid, you should move on.

You bring up a good point - does a registration number guarantee rental legality? If an apartment has a registration number, does that provide some sort of legitimate assurance that my trip wouldn't be disrupted? I don't doubt the legitimacy of a number, I'm just wondering what real benefit having that number actually provides.

Until it is proven otherwise, the number is your indication that the apartment has been properly registered with the Parisian authorities and that is it. As of now, there is no master list of the registered apartments. So, could an unscrupulous person make up a number? Sure, but you have no reasons to think that has happened unless the person seems sketchy and then why would you rent from such a person in the first place. If the apartment has a 13 digit registration number beginning with 75, you have done just about all you can do to check on legality. Are there apartments with legitimate numbers that are not really primary residences being rented for less than 120 days per year? Yes, there are. I personally knew of two though one recently converted to a long-term rental, but you have no way of knowing that from publicly available data. You can sort of tell if an apartment is someone's personal residence or a second home or investment property. Lived-in apartments have a look that I have never seen replicated in an investment property or a second home, but there is always the possibility that you can find a super neat minimalist whose home looks like a rental.

Ultimately, your risk is that the rental being canceled at the last minute or that an investigator will appear at the door while you are there. If the latter happens, you may want to leave or the landlord may ask you to leave to help mitigate the fine that will be imposed. If you are traveling alone or as part of a duo, finding a replacement room should be pretty easy if you are flexible about location and budget but if you need multiple rooms or are inflexible on location, you may have a problem in June. One issue with apartments is finding a replacement if the one you have is canceled because there may not be as many resources available to help you find a replacement place. I once had a hotel cancel my reservation while I was on the way to the airport to fly to Paris but they found a replacement room for me in a nearby property and when I landed I had a text telling me about the resolution. The same level of customer service will not be available if you are renting from a single owner but may be available if you are renting from an agency or through AirBnb.

Ideally, you want to rent from an owner/occupant who has registered his apartment with the city.

There are about 150 legal commercial apartments in Paris but other than these, there are always risks. City inspectors will not evict you during your stay if the owner is caught renting illegally but they will force the owner to remove his apartment from the market place and prohibit any further rentals. If you happen to be the next occupant, you will have you planned accommodations canceled at the last minute.

It is also possible, under some circumstances, that you could be forced to vacate a short-term apartment rental if the owner is subject to a legal proceedings from the building syndicat or home owners association. This is fundamentally different from legal action initiated by city inspectors.

In any event, the visitor is never cited and subject to enforcement action nor is he ever liable for any fine payment. Only the owner, and now possibly the on-line platform itself, are subject to financial penalties.

Are Air B&B and HomeAway apartments registered?

@apadc: Look for the registration number in the AirBnB listing for the property you are considering. Not all listings have a registration number - it seems to be up to the host to obtain a registration and isn't enforced by AirBnB.

I believe that booking.com has removed all illegal apartments from their database. Airbnb has not and is subject to a lawsuit by the city of Paris, in their effort to force Airbnb into compliance with French law.

Tocard:

The word was that this lawsuit would be heard on June 12 or 14th. I have searched the web and found nothing about the progression of Paris' suit. Is there something I have missed? Is there further word on this law suit?

I follow Ian Brossat´s tweets, adjunct from the mayor´s office, and he has only written recently about the joint efforts of Paris, Barcelona, Amsterdam and other European capitals in combating illegal apartment rentals. Indeed, the day that Airbnb was to be in court in Paris there was an announcement of this joint effort.

What I believe has happened, though I have no details, is that Airbnb was successful in having their court case bumped up to an EU court in Brussels for an EU wide decision on their culpability in promoting illegal apartments.

I´ll agree that it has been difficult to find details about the city of Paris' case against Airbnb but I would not assume that the city is going to let this drop. Due to recent changes in the law, they now have documented evidence and an easy paper trail to follow to fine violators who continue to rent illegally. The city´s task force is now up to 30 full time inspectors and fines have increased exponentially over the last several months.

So I have rented thru Air BnB and the unit has a 14 digit code starting with 51, not a 13 digit code starting with 75.

When I asked both the host and Air BnB. they said it was a "professional" number, not a "non-professional" number. The host has good references.

Has anyone heard of a "professional" rental vs: a "non-professional" rental?

Those staying in illegal apartments are not fined by the government. Owner´s renting illegal apartments are subject to fines of up to 50,000€ plus new fines for on line advertisements soliciting business (such as illegal Airbnb listings). The government can also force owners to cease all illegal rental activity and immediately remove apartments from the marketplace. Your greatest risk is probably a short term or even last minute cancellation of your vacation accommodations.

One of the many ways that illegal activity comes to attention of authorities is complaints by disgruntled neighbors. Numerous apartment owners do not want transients in their buildings.