Lay My Hat

Hi folks, I wonder if you can provide me with some advice. We have run our gites for the past 4 year, have got our business registered (SIRET etc.) and pay all our taxes etc. This year we have been approached by someone who wants to rent one of the gites for a 6 month period over the winter. He is renovating a house nearby. My question is is there anything I can fall foul of as far as my AE regime is concerned?
Masy thanks in advance.

make sure you have a contract drawn up, ideally through a notaire. French law is on side of tenants - you cannot evict between 1st november & 1st april & many renters know this. Standard long-term rental contracts in France are 1yr furnished, 3yrs non-furnished. Also if renting during winter think carefully about heating costs - log burners can consume a lot of fuel so make sure you charge for wood inc cost of your labour to keep them supplied. Shouldn't affect your tax situation unless you exceed the limit, but I understand Macron proposes increasing the limit

have done it twice before and would never touch a long term rental over winter again. Non-payment, cheques cancelled (illegal in France), gendarmes not interested.
My advice walk away.

We did a long term (6 month) rent through Winter for someone converting a barn in the same village. Never again!

Oh dear, you have worried me now, I was a little worried beforehand and now you've got me really worried. Maybe its time to walk away from this one.

You can't kick them out so why would they pay?
I have heard so many stories locally where they have never paid a penny.

We don't entertain long let's anymore either ! Always ends in tears ! You have to give them a good price because it's low season/6 month let. They leave lights and heating on with windows open, wear and tear on your property, re-decorating ! Just not worth it !

You can get some right weirdo's too ! Always said clients can check us out on trip advisor but you can't check your clients out. We live on site so 6 months can be very long when you have strange un's in

On the other hand, they may also be very nice people who are about to live in your neighbourhood and want to develop good relations with their community. They may be excellent tenants.

My worry would be that their renovation may run over time and may wish to extend their stay. I have had winter lets in my apartment in Nice, usually 3-4 months and these lets have generally worked out fine. These are oversea guests and have a set start and finish date so less likely to overstay.