Since rent-control legislation was introduced in the French capital in August, cases of tenants suing their landlords for illegally high rent have started trickling through the courts, with interesting results. One case reported in Le Parisien involved a 33 square meter (355 square foot) apartment in Le Marais rented out for €1,990 ($2,161) a month—that’s €550 ($597) above the legal rental ceiling imposed by the new law. The landlord’s justification for this higher price was the apartment’s roof terrace, offering a view across the neighborhood’s rooftops. The court ruled this unfair, and the tenant has since got a chunk of their money back.
This sort of case might suggest Paris is getting a major rent overhaul. It is, in fact. Since the beginning of 2015, the average cost of new rentals in Paris has gone down by 1.9 percent. This is partly thanks to new rental stabilization laws, which are similar to those introduced last year in Berlin. Since August 1, a Paris rent observatory has calculated median rents for each area, classified apartments by size, age, and quality, then set a rent ceiling.
