Cécile Duflot's Alur Act is certainly a time-consuming piece of legislation. Alongside provisions that often impose onerous and superfluous formalities, there are other pieces of legislation that, while not yet applicable, already need to be rethought.
This is the case for the provisions relating to the obligation to provide a universal rent guarantee (GUL), which was intended to apply to 28 major conurbations. As with rent controls, which in the end apply only to Paris, even though 28 conurbations were initially covered, the government is continuing to tidy up this law, which was undoubtedly enacted prematurely.
In place of this guarantee, a system called "Visale" will provide greater flexibility while being less expensive, costing around 120 million euros, compared with 400,000 million euros for the GUL.
Under the new scheme, the landlord will be able to collect the rent if the tenant defaults on payment, with a rent ceiling of €1,300, rising to €1,500 for properties rented in Paris. In addition, the Visale guarantee will only apply to employees in a precarious situation (permanent contracts during a trial period, fixed-term contracts (CCD) or casual workers). Unemployed people, as well as those on permanent contracts, will not be eligible, unlike the GUL.
How the Visale guarantee works
The Visale guarantee must be taken out no later than twelve months after an employee under the age of 30 is taken on. For others, the deadline is three months.
Tenants eligible for the guarantee must not exceed an affordability ratio (rent and service charges as a proportion of earned income) of 50%, or between 30% and 50% for young employees under the age of 30 with an open-ended contract who have completed their trial period.
The landlord will be paid by Action logement if the tenant fails to pay the rent. The tenant will remain liable to Action Logement for the said sum. The Visale website should enable online payment of the outstanding amount, with the option of paying in instalments.
All the necessary steps can be taken on the Visale website.
- Step 1: Before signing a lease, the tenant must obtain a visa certified by Action logement, so that the landlord can be sure that the tenant benefits from the Visale guarantee;
- Step 2: Within 2 working days, Action logement undertakes to certify the visa;
- Step 3: The landlord must sign up to the scheme on the basis of the certified and valid visa presented by the future tenant, before signing the lease, by accepting the terms and conditions of the guarantee.
