I have rented four apartments in Paris over the years, and my worst experience has been at an apartment at 11 Rue Magellan 75008 Paris.
With regard to this apartment, there were issues small, big, and huge.
The owner was not there to handle check-in or check-out (a building cleaning lady gave us the key). Because of this you are taking the chance to have your deposit not returned because of the previous tenant.
The internet was not working on arrival and took 3 days to fix (there were two separate broken items, so this wasn’t something that had just failed). When my partner offered the helpful suggestion that the owner check things before tenants arrive, she accused us of playing games. She admitted that her only knowledge of the internet was that the previous tenant had not said it was dysfunctional. We had to sacrifice our vacation time to deal with the cable repairman and run up our SIM card usage and alter our activity plans around the repair.
The apartment was not properly cleaned beforehand, with silverfish in the bathroom when we arrived; the dishes had visible marks and had to be scrubbed before use; and when we wiped the shelves before putting clothes on them, the paper towel came away dark. There were missing basics, such as toilet paper (I am used to buying basics, but there should be a minimal amount on arrival, especially toilet paper).
The oven door would not open sufficiently to use it, and the kitchen sink faucet was loose. Some lights were not working when we arrived, and were not fixed by the time we left, despite assurances that bulbs would be provided.
But none of this matters as much as there was an hour of very loud noise from 3am to 4am most nights. There is a Hotel La Clef delivery backdoor next to the bedroom. The metal shutters and single pane window did nothing to stop an hour of delivery noise. From previous Paris experiences I am familiar with city noise, but this was far worse. We had to spend some nights in hotels to get a full night’s sleep.
The owner’s attitude on all these issues was that it wasn’t her problem. She was unhelpful, unapologetic, and uncivil. Her excuse for the non-working internet was that she paid her bill, ignoring the fact that this should have been checked before we arrived (lack of complaints from a previous tenant don’t count as checking). Again, my partner offered this sensible suggestion to her for the the future and her response was to accuse us of playing games. In response to our request that she help us to get the hotel to reschedule their deliveries, she said that we should have known better (my prior rentals suggest otherwise). Perhaps there is nothing that can be done about it, but she acted as if we were unreasonable for asking for help. She even suggested we complain instead to President Macron, which gives you an idea of her attitude. She accused us of demanding a cleaning service when my partner mentioned in passing that the apartment wasn’t that clean, which seems unhinged.
Seven days after check-out, my deposit has not been returned, without explanation or communication of any kind, though we left the apartment as we found it. (The contract the landlord signed calls for the deposit to be returned in 7 days.)
Avoid this place and avoid Paris Attitude because they won’t help when you encounter a bad landlord. Our trip was ruined; don’t ruin yours.
Update: 28% of our deposit was returned 34 days after check-out (27 days late). When we received the itemization for the deductions, there were several questionable deductions, and one clearly illegal. We complained to Paris Attitude about the illegal deduction, but they did not reply. We found out that Paris Attitude knew about Sonia Ramoino’s intent to make the illegal and questionable deposit deductions 18 days after check-out, but they never told us (we found directly from Sonia Ramoino). Paris Attitude can't even be trusted to forward email. We also found out from the Paris government that the apartment was not properly registered for tourist rentals, and so Sonia Ramoino is operating illegally.
Update #2: The illegal deduction from our deposit was credited back to us without explanation 42 days after check-out. No receipts for the other deductions have been received, and no credit for the non-working internet or other issues was made. It is also worth mentioning that Paris Attitude has not addressed our last email to them that raised six or more points.
See my Paris Attitude review for more about that company.
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Earl Killian <webmaster at killian.com> |
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| reviews/11ruemagellan.html 6595 2019-08-16 03:26:07Z | |||