PARIS FLATS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21214, 8 December 1938, Page 10

PARIS FLATS

LAW IS SELDOM ENFORCED When there is a flat to let in Paris the announcement which will appear by the side of the front door of the house—it generally sticks out at right angles to the wall as if it were pointing the direction to something across the street—will never refer you to a house agent for particulars. There are house agents, but the notice on the house itself will say nothing about where you should apply, as everyone knows it is the concierge on the premises who can give all particulars. The particulars which she will furnish however, and more particularly the rent, are sometimes apt to vary according to the apparent capacity to pay of the inquirer and his anxiety to be lodged, and this is particularly true of small flats, of which there is still a shortage, while big flats can be had for very modest rents.

In this connection an ingenious searcher has discovered that among the hundreds of laws which are passed in France and never enforced is one which dates as recently as 1926, and requires that on any premises to be let there must be a written statement of the fact—which there often is not, as lettings are done by private connections and with private commissions—but that this statement must also give particulars of the number of rooms and must in every case include the rent.

It appears that the department of the Paris municipality, which is called the “service de la repression des fraudes,” and is responsible for taking action in such cases when a complaint is made, has only received one complaint of the kind this year.