There's No Guarantee with AUP Housing

Ever wire a security deposit before seeing your apartment? Or signed a leasing contract in a language you need Duolingo for? Have your calls and emails to your landlord about that broken shower gone unanswered for weeks (or even months) so you just become a regular at the local gym shower? 

If you answered 'yes' to any of those questions, you are not alone. You are just in Paris.

When I moved to Paris back in August, I did not expect to see this when walking into my shared apartment for the first time:

Mold growing in the shower-room ceiling. Bedding stained with mysterious bodily fluids. A broken kitchen sink. The only things not pictured are the horrendously clogged toilet and the additional roommate hiding in another bedroom.

Thankfully, after a lot of crying, dissociating and throwing the word 'fraud' around at the French property manager, my new roommates and I were promised a new shower and fixed amenities. 

Still, there was an overwhelming question lingering in my mind: How did this happen? 

I found Colivys (the property owner of my current apartment) through Spotahome, a real estate agency suggested by The AUP Housing Office. At AUP, Graduate students must secure their own housing for the duration of their degree. The AUP Housing Office offers some assistance in the housing search by giving students access to its Housing Database and some French real estate agencies ie (Seloger, Spotahome, Studapart).

As an incoming graduate student with no experiencing renting in France, I felt most comfortable applying to apartments through The Housing Database. I scrolled through the available listings, submitted the required housing form, and nearly each was returned with 'unavailable'. Things looked bright when I was put in contact with a landlord for one of the listed studio apartments. Wildly enough, a few minutes before we were set to facetime, the landlord cancelled our meeting, telling me she had given the apartment to someone else. What was worse was that I only had two weeks before I had to be in Paris and I still didn't have a place to live. 

My mind turned to the 'Searching on Your Own & Housing Resources' section of AUP's Housing Office Website. 

I remembered there were several housing "agencies" posted there. I chose the first listed agency, Spotahome, which offers a 25% discount code for AUP students, and also advertises as making the rental process 'secure', 'simple', and 'stress-free' for users. 

But here's the catch. Spotahome doesn't explicitly name the landlord, or in my case, the real estate company. You do not know who you are sending your money to until after you've paid Spotahome's service fee.

Here's a few examples of what I'm talking about:

See? Nice looking rooms, right? 

Let's see who owns it.

Ah, the transparency of a 'Professional Landlord' emblem, 4.3/5 star rating, and verified by Spotahome? Personally, it wasn't enough for me. But seeing that AUP endorsed Spotahome through its Housing Office page, and I only had two weeks before I had to be on campus for orientation, I went with it. 

Less than a day later, my booking request was accepted, along with my payment of nearly one-thousand-euros. Only after the payments were made did the 'Professional Landlord' reveal themselves to be a French real estate company called Colivys. 

Colivys sent additional emails containing a leasing contract and additional payment requests. 

All of which were required to be made before I'd ever seen the apartment. It was pretty suspicious to me, but being in a desperate, time-sensitive situation and completely ignorant to the French housing system, I suspended my hesitance and continued with the company.

That's how, two weeks later, I ended up in an apartment that looked like a war zone. 

Today, my roommates and I are in a different space. After hounding Colivys about the condition of our apartment (and I do mean hounding), the management built us a new shower, fixed our sink and renovated our toilet. Still, feelings of insecurity and mistrust linger. Luckily, most of us are only staying in our rental for the semester. 

But even with the eventual fixes made in my apartment I wondered: has anyone else at AUP gone through something similar? 

What were other students experiences using the AUP Housing Office's resources?

At AUP, the type of housing resources available depends on the student's year of study. AUP provides housing to first-year and first-semester abroad students only. Graduate students, like myself, have to navigate the French housing system on their own. 

To get more perspective I spoke with Erin Gray, an American student in her senior year at AUP. She has attended AUP since freshman year and agreed to share details about being housed at the AUP Residence 'Heliopolis.'

"Throughout the year, I'd say it was pretty bad," she said, "All of our spaces were destroyed. But, that was really us. The kids in my housing weren't held accountable for anything they made dirty or broke and it came out of a collective security deposit. The common areas (were) broken. I can tell you who broke that."

"One of my friends, when she moved in, had underwear in her room. It was very clear before we moved in -- I don't think they walked through," Erin continued. "Everyone's room was kind of dirty. The floors were dirty. The walls were scuffed up. A girl found literal underwear in the drawer."

When recollecting The Housing Office's response, Gray said, "Throughout the semester, any problems you had were not fixed. My room (in the winter) didn't get above 15 degrees celsius, which is freezing. My radiator almost never worked." 

I then asked Erin about her experience finding an apartment on her own and if AUP had been involved in the process. She shared that she had recently been scammed by a fake landlord she found through Seloger (a housing agency suggested by AUP). 

Erin described the landlord as 'pushy' and 'scary', not allowing her to see the apartment in person. She brought the leasing contracts to AUPs Housing Office for help: 

"I went to AUP Housing and showed them the contracts and everything he had given me, and was like 'What do you think about this?' and they were like 'These look like real contracts.' They did warn me that some things are too good to be true because it was a good price for the apartment that I was looking at. It was under 1600 (euros) and on the canal." 

Erin admits, "You can convince yourself of things when you want it to be true. I showed them (AUP) and they didn't tell me it's a scam. But they did say all the contracts and stuff look good. So I'll send him the security deposit,"

With AUP's assurance, Erin wired a security deposit to the landlord. 

"Immediately, I felt in my gut, 'that was wrong, I shouldn't have done that." 

But it was too late.

Erin's requests to see the apartment were ignored by the "landlord," who then to pressed her to pay first and second month's rent, made an offer to return her security deposit and, finally, stopped responding to Erin altogether.

Erin did report the scammer's bank account to BNP, but did not receive any help. 

"I thought about doing a police report, but I researched it," she said, "And basically, if you send money to someone and it's a scammer, (French police) are like 'You're stupid'. They're not going to do anything."

Still, Erin needed a place to live, and found that through the agency Paris Attitude. 

When talking about her current apartment, she shares, "When I landed in August, I went straight to the place and got the keys. It worked out. I like my apartment. It is what it said it is. It is the same listing. The landlord is really great."

The AUP Housing Office agreed to an interview to discuss Housing at AUP and in Paris.

Siham Mouahid, Associate Dean of Residential Life, described some of the Housing Office's duties as:

"We have the database, we also have the CAF. We can consult on non-AUP related housing. We've looked over postings before to tell the student -- to raise any flags. We've read over contracts to advise if they're standard to what we're used to seeing."

"One of our biggest constraints for (The Housing Office) is that we don't own any buildings," Siham told me. 

When it came to the housing database, Siham shared, "We don't manage those housings. The landlords don't pay us a fee to post. The students don't pay us a fee to use. So in those situations, we try to remain neutral. Our goal with the database is to make that sure our students are advocated for and that there are no unfair practices. But also that our landlords don't get cobbled by someone who doesn't pay their rent and then leaves."

When it came to the efficiency of AUP's reliability in services to students finding their own housing, similar sentiments persisted.

"We try our best," she said, "But when you don't control the housing, you can't guarantee anything." 

Upon sharing my experience with Colivys,  Siham offered her condolesnces:

"What I have the most trouble with in assisting the students, and it's not the fault of the students but the fault of the system, is I can never make that guarantee. You can do everything right, get connected through the database, and the landlord ends up renting to someone else." 

This sentiment 'no guarantee' does echo explicit statements on The Housing Office's website, which states (in referencing housing agencies): "The AUP Housing Office cannot make any guarantees regarding the services listed below."

As the semester comes to a close, I'm not sure yet if AUP Housing will be a factor in my upcoming housing search. With students being scammed through AUP's suggested housing resources, and the Housing Office's limited ability to intervene, having a 'no guarantees' policy might be a smart business move for AUP, but could be dangerous for students.