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@cyd2706

Hello CYD,

    Long and short term rentals are easy to find in Beziers. You don't need to put up a year's salary. Two or three months will do it. There are mostly unfurnished places with a few furnished thrown in. Plenty of stores to pick up furniture in. Advise you to come and spend a few days looking. We don't have a car and take the train to most places. If you have a car then look for a rental with a garage. Street parking is hard to find. Good luck with your find.

Ken

@kwpflorida

Ken, how kind to reply so quickly.  Is it better to go direct to the landlord or are agencies ok to use.  We do not have a car, but my daughters who live in 06 do, and hopefully they will come and visit.  (One of the reasons I am moving back to France after a 14 year break.)

Thank you again,

Cyd

Cyd,

    I'd advise you to go through an agency. They will charge you, but you don't want to get into a situation if there is something wrong after you rent. Things work slow in France as you know. Come, spend a few days and look around to the different parts of the city. Were you would like to be and where you don't want to be.

Thank you

@cyd2706

Try looking at Garantme for an third party guarantor. Although agencies who are signed up to GLI, will not accept this. It's actually really pretty difficult as a non-French resident to rent unfurnished, as competition is steep, and the dossier you need to compile is expected to have your French payslips and income tax statements in it.  By law, they SHOULD accept foreign tax statements, but realistically, if they are presented with a dossier in a format and language they understand, versus the opposite... Another option you could propose to agencies/landlords is a Cautionnement Bancaire'. This is where you put an agreed sum of money into an escrow account at the bank and it is held in case of you 'disappearing' owing rent. Again, not all agencies/landlords/owners will want to be bothered with this. It's fiddly and adds time to the dossier processing. What they don't understand as yet is that ex-pats are often the best form of tenant - we don't tend to run away without paying rent, we don't want to rock our residency boat for a start, and we have already been vetted financially in most cases (non-EU) for our financial solvency. Furnished is a much easier rental option, but there aren't as many about. Email me for more info. Best, Nicole in Béziers

@nicole8535

Thank you Nicole, this is very helpful.

@nicole8535

Nicole,

I'm planning to arrive in France in May and need to rent a 90 day at least or one year. What do you know ( or anyone else reading this) about rentals in Narbonne.What can you tell me about the ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ community English Speakers ( US and Brits) of mature single women in Narbonne?Thanks, Hannah

My experience was far from simple Nicole

I am a dual US/Portuguese citizen. I was well established in Portugal. Phone, bank, apartment, vehicle, license etc.

To break my lease and phone I needed to show a lease in France, where I was moving.  I remted an Air BnB in Toulouse, my new town. This provided me with an essential item for all that followed.

In Toulouse most rentals are through rel estate agents who operate in a totally different manner than in the US. Each agency is indepent of all others, controlling only it's own listings. This means you must visit and view each listing seperately.

Property owners in general, refuse to rent to persons with non EU income streams. In general, they are unwilling to risk financial litigation overseas. After 60 days of traipsing about, being shown properties, I was consistently told "I'm sorry, the owner will not consent." Perhps Beziers is different. I would not count on it so make your moves quickly.

During this same time I had numerous tasks to perform.

I had to open a bank account. My bank in Portugal attempted to open an account in France and was declined. Millennium bank in PT and FR are independant of one another. Several other banks also declined. I will be blunt. They are 1) lazy and 2) unwilling to make the effort to regularly report . Through the good graces of persons here, I was advised to go to Le Credit Lyonais. They agreed to open an account and stated "it's our job" and "others are lazy and don't want to report".

This in turn required my passport/ID, and the following items:

I also tried to open a phone account. Same. This is part of the "know your neighbor" policy. I opened a temporary phone account at Orange. I had to show 1) a residence (my 90 day rental lease) proof in the form of an electric bill from the landlord and an hebergement: a vouching of ownership and my agreement. My bank information (RIB) accnt. Number and income stream/employer, and Proof you paid your taxes.

This collection allowed me to open a bank account and once I had a long term residence, a phone.

These documents were essential for all that followed. They are assembled as your Dossier.

This then returned me to the apartment issue.  There are INDEPENDANT landlords who will rent to foreign account holders (a government pension in my case). Prices are higher and the selection more limited. I reached the point of preparing to leave the country when I fell across and independant developer/agency combination.

This raised the next, and to me, more bizarre issue. I was told I earned too much money. There are high and low limits on income for rentals. I was regularly told "you earn too much". I later realized this was agin laziness, when my agent said "we will submit your numbers".  They had not even run the formula, but simlpy declined. When my numbers were run lo and behold I met the income parameters.

Now I had an apartment, I could get a permanent phone and complete the bank application.

I then notified SSA of my change of address and the embassy in Paris.

So maybe things are MUCH easier in Beziers. I suggest you run a few forum searches about people unable to access a renatl for verification.

There is a French National online system for assembling all of your forms, policies, accounts and information. You then have a pre-developed submission document that you send to banks and landlords. Find it and use it. They recognize it and are comfortable with it. Someone here will be able to get tou a link to the France services online dossier.

I had to hustle every day to get this done.

I found the French governmental site for assembling your dossier.

Being governmental its free and once you assemble it you send it to your potential landlord.