INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM, TRAVEL AND HOSPITALITY LAW consisting in combating the rental housing shortage but was also proportionate to the objective pursued. Referring to this European decision, French courts are now applying the above-mentioned scheme with severity against lessors who are unlawfully letting their accommodation on a short-term basis to tourists via Internet platforms.6 Further obligations were imposed in parallel to Internet platforms in addition to the lessors’ ones. Indeed, Internet platforms that are dedicated to advertise offers for holiday lettings must comply with various obligations. They have: 1. To inform clearly the lessor who wishes to advertise his accommodation for short-term lettings on the platform website, of his own obligations in application of articles L.324-1-1 of the tourism code and L.631-7 onwards of French Construction and Housing Code; 2. To obtain a sworn statement from the lessor that he fulfils with such rules and that he has made the requested declaration or authorisation to rent; 3. To publish the rental advertisement together with the declaration (authorisation) number of the lessor obtained from the municipality; 4. To ensure that the accommodation is not rented for more than 120 days a year if this constitutes the main residence of the lessor. In addition, Internet platforms are also subject to control by municipalities that they comply with the above obligations. Upon a simple request from the mayor, they have to communicate information as to the number of days of rentals for each tourist accommodation they advertise on line. The purpose of this is to verify the real use made of properties in the concerned city – in other words, to find out whether the accommodations are still available to inhabitants as residential homes or offered to tourist lettings. Another purpose is to ensure each municipality receives payment of the tourist tax, where applicable, given that the tourism code introduced specific obligations for platforms in this respect. Failure for Internet platforms to comply with such obligations can also give rise to significant fines: 6 E.g. Cass. Civ. 3, 18 Feb. 2021, n°17-26156. CA Paris, Pôle 1 Ch.2, 7 July 2022, n°21/20085: in this case, the lessor was for instance held liable to pay two fines, one of euros 40,000 for absence of change of use and one of €5,000 for non-declaration to the city of Paris.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTE4NzM5Nw==