Many people come up against this selection criterion, but it is not included in any official text.
This confuses a lot of people. Finding accommodation is often a long obstacle course, especially in big cities. Managing to land a house or apartment you like is not easy as there are so many conditions to meet to obtain a roof over your head. And this, without mentioning the subjectivity of the owner’s choice when he has two identical files.
To decide to whom he will rent his property, he cannot (theoretically) base himself on the age, sex, sexual orientation, physical appearance, disability, religion or even the political opinions of the person. candidate. But for the latter, it is difficult to prove that it was because of one of these criteria that it was not selected.
On the other hand, an owner can absolutely make his choice in light of the financial situation of the suitor. The type of contract (CDI, CDD, temporary, etc.), the presence or absence of a guarantor and, above all, the income of the future tenant are therefore determining factors. If he judges that the resources are insufficient, the lessor is within his right to refuse to rent his property to the applicant. This is not considered discriminatory depending on the site service-public.fr while the texts indicate that “no person can be refused the rental of accommodation for a discriminatory reason”, including their “economic situation”.
If the vagueness remains on this point, it also persists on the rule very often applied by owners and real estate agencies: having a net salary three times higher than the amount of the rent to be able to qualify for housing. A criterion which, most of the time, results in a good number of files being skimmed, leaving so many candidates in the lurch.
This “standard” was established based on statistics which estimate the share of housing in the budget at 30%. To prevent tenants from finding themselves in the red and, therefore, unable to pay, landlords prefer those who fall into this category (often with a guarantor). Yet nothing in the law requires tenants to earn triple the rent they pay. It simply entered into custom and became common usage.
A practice which, although it does not ensure owners pay rent more, should intensify. According to the latest figures, 1 in 30 tenants are more than 30 days late on payment, compared to 1 in 100 in 2019.