Ask Karen: Rent a Furnished Apartment or Ship Furniture?
- SUBSCRIBE
- ALREADY SUBSCRIBED?
BECOME A BONJOUR PARIS MEMBER
Gain full access to our collection of over 5,000 articles and bring the City of Light into your life. Just 60 USD per year.
Find out why you should become a member here.
Sign in
Fill in your credentials below.
You have many options and yet, there may be too
many. If you knew you were DEFINITELY coming to Paris for ONLY
one year, I’d advise you to go the furnished route. Shipping
furnisher rarely does any good for its condition.
If you were
able to get your employer to let you buy furniture for the amount of
the shipping costs (to and from France), I’d rent an unfurnished
apartment with the three year lease. Be sure it’s an apartment with an
equipped kitchen. Outfitting appliances gets expensive.
Then, I’d head to IKEA
and outfit the apartment. The chain has some very good-looking
furniture (make sure you use their delivery and assembly team — it’s
worth the extra money), and you can have almost an instant apartment.
The
reason for this advice is that a landlord has the right to evict a
tenant after a year if the apartment is furnished. If you have a
three-year lease, it’s automatically renewable UNLESS the landlord
wants the apartment for himself and/or his immediate family. The
other out is if he wants to put the apartment on the sales market.
However,
as France is very tenant oriented, you can break the lease with three
months notice and/or if you are transferred for your work, with only a
month’s notice.
There’s a definite secondhand market for furniture. The best place to advertise is www.fusac.fr. Just be sure that the purchasers know that it’s cash and carry.
Hope this helps you in your decision making process!
Best,
Karen