“My ordeal as an owner facing a tenant who hasn’t paid for almost a year”

TESTIMONY. From the simple debate over responsibility for housing repairs to unpaid rent, relations between landlords and tenants are not always smooth sailing. For Romain, this relationship turned into a nightmare.

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The haunting of everything owner lessor of accommodation can be summed up in three words: unpaid rent. For Romain, this fear has become reality. For five or six years, he has been renting the three-room apartment of 60 square meters that he bought in Haute-Savoie before moving into his partner’s apartment. Until May 2023, everything was going well, “the tenants stayed a year, a year and a half in the premises”the good being rented furnishedtherefore with a 12-month lease, relates Romain.

But the tenant who moves in in May 2023 pays his first rent with delays of 15 days to a month. “My wife and I were flexible on this subject because I too had a bit of difficulty finding accommodation when I arrived in the region. And the tenant is a self-employed person, with not always regular income, like me.”explains Romain.

Three commandments to pay, in vain

He and his partner therefore did not take advantage of the six-month period before the anniversary date of the lease which would have allowed them to take back the apartment. It was bad for them because, once this deadline had passed, their tenant simply stopped paying rent. Emails, phone calls, messages via WhatsApp… His tenant remained deaf to requests for explanations from Romain, who manages the rental of his property directly, without going through an agency. He therefore shifted gears by sending his tenant a first command to payvia a bailiff. Then a second, and a third, for a total cost of 750 euros. “But no payment ever reached me”deplores Romain. And this, although its tenant seems known as the white wolf for unpaid rent: “The bailiffs told me that this was not his first attempt.”

Romain then decides to call on a lawyer, for nearly 2,000 euros. Summary of the races, a hearing between himself and his tenant is planned before the courts, in…December 2025. And even if the judge ordered the eviction of the tenant, this could not take place before the end of the truce winter, March 31, 2026. During all this time, Romain’s tenant will remain in the apartment, without paying him a single euro.

Nearly 25,000 euros lost in unpaid rent and legal costs

“I find myself in an unbearable situation. The 950 euros of rent, charges included, are used to finance part of the monthly payment. credit that I still have to repay on this property. But I haven’t received these 950 euros since March 2024…”sighs Romain. Who doesn’t roll in gold, with just one minimum wage. He made his calculations: if his tenant is actually evicted in March 2026, he will have lost nearly 25,000 euros, between unpaid rent, bailiff’s fees and lawyer’s fees.

Not to mention that “I don’t know in what state I will find the apartment…”breathes Romain. He feels “abandoned by a system that is supposed to protect owners as much as tenants. The procedures are long, costly, and ineffective”regrets the one who cares “warning about an ordeal that can happen to any owner.”

If you too would like to report on difficult relations between owners and tenants, anonymously if you wish, do not hesitate to write to the editorial staff of Capital.