The City of Paris has developed an online platform for renters to report if they believe their rent is too high. This initiative was presented by Jacques Baudrier and Barbara Gomes as they aim to allow hundreds of thousands of people to lower their rent. The option allows tenants to fill out a form with nine fields, and if the rent is found to be excessive, they can report it with just one click.
Surprisingly, only 1631 out of nearly 80,000 generated forms led to actual reports in the past year, accounting for just over 2%. However, the potential impact of this initiative is significant, especially for those who are in precarious financial situations, such as young students. This group accounted for a large majority of the reports, with an average of 159 euros per month in excess rent.
Despite the potential for fines of up to 5000 euros for individuals and 15,000 euros for companies, only 7 fines have been issued in the past year. The main goal of this initiative is to open a dialogue with landlords and encourage them to lower their rents on their own before it escalates to a fine. In 2023, 104 cases were successfully addressed by the City of Paris after taking over the responsibility for rent regulation.
