This can harm the tenant, but also to the owner.
It is a reality. For many tenants, financial aid such as those of the Family Allowance Fund are essential to find accommodation, even more today. Faced with ever higher rents and sometimes too fair income to cover everyday expenses, aid necessarily becomes essential. They make it possible to lighten certain invoices, and sometimes to avoid having to make drastic choices. Without these boosts, some would be forced to turn to smaller housing, far away or in poor condition, or even give up their independence. But it is still necessary to respect the conditions of the organizations to continue to perceive these aids.
Indeed, CAF can suspend the payment of aid if the beneficiaries no longer fulfill the eligibility criteria. Said like that, we immediately think of the income or the family situation of the recipient, but there is another point on which CAF is uncompromising: the decency of the accommodation. Since the law relating to solidarity and urban renewal of December 13, 2000, known as the SRU law, each “Donor is required to give the tenant a decent housing not revealing manifest risks which can harm physical security or health and equips elements making him conform to residential use”.
Previously, for CAF aid to be suspended, an expert had to move and attest that the accommodation was not decent. From now on, the withdrawal of aid is automatic if the accommodation is classified G at the energy performance diagnosis (DPE). Today, decent housing must meet five criteria: “Minimum surface and energy performance, lack of risk for the security and health of the tenant, absence of harmful animals and parasites, provision of certain equipment”can we read on the public service website.
If this is not the case, the lessor has the obligation to undertake work to remedy it, and this, within 18 months. Meanwhile, CAF retains aid for the tenant, such as personalized housing assistance (APL), social housing allowance (ALS) or family housing allowance (ALF). For its part, the occupant of the accommodation continues to pay its rent, but by removing the part usually covered by the aid. The owner then finds himself impacted, since he touches a reduced rent. At the end of the work, if carried out, all the aids are returned to the owner and their payment is restored. On the other hand, if “The work is not carried out within the time limits: the housing allowance kept by the CAF is definitively lost for the landlord and the payment is interrupted”, specifies the national family allowance fund in a official document.