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Caution bancaire for renting

Caution bancaire for renting

Old Jul 29th 2013, 6:34 pm
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Default Caution bancaire for renting

Hi all,

I'm a UK student moving to Paris for 6 months pretty soon as part of the year abroad for my degree. I went out to Paris last week in order to look for accomodation, and I've found a place but the landlady wants a "caution bancaire" (bank guarantee) because I can't provide a French guarantor. The catch-22 situation, of course, is that it's very hard to open a bank account in France without a French address. My situation is perhaps made more difficult my the fact that I haven't been earning here in the UK and equally no utility bills bear my name.

I rang Crédit Agricole Britline, which seems the best way to set up a french account without a french address, and they said everything is possible but that it could take up to 3 weeks, which is too long really.

Does anybody know of any bank in France that would be able to help me out? I can go to Paris next week, and can provide proof that I will be working for 6 months in France.

Thanks for any advice, this is a tricky one.
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Old Jul 29th 2013, 8:13 pm
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Default Re: Caution bancaire for renting

Originally Posted by dubertle
Hi all,

I'm a UK student moving to Paris for 6 months pretty soon as part of the year abroad for my degree. I went out to Paris last week in order to look for accomodation, and I've found a place but the landlady wants a "caution bancaire" (bank guarantee) because I can't provide a French guarantor. The catch-22 situation, of course, is that it's very hard to open a bank account in France without a French address. My situation is perhaps made more difficult my the fact that I haven't been earning here in the UK and equally no utility bills bear my name.

I rang Crédit Agricole Britline, which seems the best way to set up a french account without a french address, and they said everything is possible but that it could take up to 3 weeks, which is too long really.

Does anybody know of any bank in France that would be able to help me out? I can go to Paris next week, and can provide proof that I will be working for 6 months in France.

Thanks for any advice, this is a tricky one.
Hi,

I have lived in Paris a few years ago and it is very difficult to rent an apartment. Most of the landlords ask 3 months deposit + guarantor. Worse for students.
My recommendation is you should get in touch with students associations (they are quite a lot) which should be able to help you.
Regards,
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Old Jul 29th 2013, 8:18 pm
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Default Re: Caution bancaire for renting

This might help you...


http://fr.answers.yahoo.com/question...8112850AAGdpNp
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Old Jul 29th 2013, 8:43 pm
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Default Re: Caution bancaire for renting

I'm afraid I agree with LordMayor. Does your UK university have any links with a Paris university that could help you get into student accommodation? Failing that you could look on leboncoin for shared accommodation, or private landlords who might be more flexible. Or, contact your employer and ask if they can help; they'll know the problem you're up against trying to rent somewhere in Paris, and if they've taken students on in the past they may be able to suggest something.

Please don't take offence but it's not clear from your post whether you fully appreciate that the "caution bancaire" usually means a bit more than a bank guarantee in the UK sense of a bank writing a letter to say you are a creditworthy person; French banks don't generally to do that even for longstanding customers. The caution normally means a substantial sum of money provided by you and blocked in a bank account that you can't touch for the duration of the rental.

If in fact you are aware of this and have the money available and it's simply the timescale that is bothering you, I believe you can also deposit the caution with a notaire who will put it in a holding account, which should also satisfy your landlady and which could be done instantly without opening a French bank account of your own.

Have you been through the links on this site?
http://www.paris.fr/english/guide-fo...modation/p8143

Bonne chance
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Old Jul 30th 2013, 12:46 am
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Default Re: Caution bancaire for renting

Thanks for your replies, I've found a colocation and now it's just a question of providing everything for the landlady.

I do understand what a caution bancaire is and it would be possible, the only obstacle being my lack of french address. The information about a notaire is very interesting, I hadn't heard of this. How do you go about getting that done? I imagine the fees would be quite high but it's certainly an option.

Regards
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Old Jul 30th 2013, 6:12 am
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Default Re: Caution bancaire for renting

Sorry, the locataire may be a red herring - it was possible 10 years ago because I looked into renting through an agency and that was what they insisted on, but having googled it just now, I can't find anything. My bad.
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Old Jul 30th 2013, 7:21 am
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Default Re: Caution bancaire for renting

Originally Posted by dubertle
Thanks for your replies, I've found a colocation and now it's just a question of providing everything for the landlady.

I do understand what a caution bancaire is and it would be possible, the only obstacle being my lack of french address. The information about a notaire is very interesting, I hadn't heard of this. How do you go about getting that done? I imagine the fees would be quite high but it's certainly an option.

Regards
I did this in 1999 for my daughter.
We basically got a letter from the landlord offering to rent the apartment then went to the bank where we opened the account.
We then went to the insurance agents to obtain tenants insurance.
We then went back to the landlord with the bank a/c details and the insurance in place and completed the lease.
Fortunately, the different offices were placed round the same square but it did involve a lot of to-and-fro-ing.
I acted as guarantor but I had to provide salary and bank details.
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Old Jul 30th 2013, 8:03 am
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Default Re: Caution bancaire for renting

Originally Posted by cyrian
I did this in 1999 for my daughter.
We basically got a letter from the landlord offering to rent the apartment then went to the bank where we opened the account.
We then went to the insurance agents to obtain tenants insurance.
We then went back to the landlord with the bank a/c details and the insurance in place and completed the lease.
Fortunately, the different offices were placed round the same square but it did involve a lot of to-and-fro-ing.
I acted as guarantor but I had to provide salary and bank details.
We were guarantors to our daughter in Paris, a relatively simple matter (all things being relative) as we had French incomes and a French bank account and there was an Insurance Agent just down the road...
It's usually parents (or family) who are guarantors, there's an awful lot of trust involved...
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Old Jul 30th 2013, 8:52 am
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Default Re: Caution bancaire for renting

dubertle, we organised a caution bancaire with the local French bank BNP Paribas. Others on this forum have had success with Crédit Agricole Britline (CA).

Our process from opening the account to signing the final document took a few weeks but, once started, our landlord was content. The bank will need to coordinate the paperwork with the landlord.

You may like to approach your landlord saying CA can provide the caution and ask if this is acceptable. The landlord will likely understand the timescales involved.
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Old Aug 3rd 2013, 10:19 am
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Default Re: Caution bancaire for renting

Originally Posted by dubertle
The catch-22 situation, of course, is that it's very hard to open a bank account in France without a French address. My situation is perhaps made more difficult my the fact that I haven't been earning here in the UK and equally no utility bills bear my name.
When I moved here, I opened a bank account with the address of the hotel I was staying at, then changed it as soon as I moved into rented accommodation.

If you have some form of accommodation available in France from now until you move into the flat then you could try that. You'd need a letter from the hotel (or whoever you're staying with, along with their ID and proof of address) explaining that you're living there (attestation d'hébergement).
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Old Aug 3rd 2013, 11:53 am
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Default Re: Caution bancaire for renting

Where is there a problem with opening a French bank account? We first opened ours in 1982 when we came down every summer on holiday and got fed up with the stupidity of changing money, travellers, and worse still, those stupid eurocheques.

We therefore had a compte étranger and statements were sent to our UK address. When we bought our house ten years later it was simply switched to a regular account. Our daughter and son-in-law did exactly the same 8 years ago before they bought their house - absolutely no problem.
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