Daily life. "We had no choice": falsifying your file to rent, a risky practice

Many tenants are still looking for accommodation this fall, a busy time of year with the summer in the real estate sector. Faced with increasingly high rents , increasingly strict guarantee requirements, and files being scrutinized by agencies and landlords, finding a rental property is a real obstacle course for many people in an increasingly tight rental market.

Candidates still looking for their future home know that sometimes a simple detail is enough to get their application rejected. Some therefore choose to falsify their application to increase their chances of success by inflating their income, for example, providing a fake employment contract or altering a pay slip, even though this practice is illegal.

According to a survey conducted by Flashs for Zelok, one in four tenants (26%) has already provided false information to obtain housing (*). "Today, rental pressure is at its peak and is pushing many applicants to falsify their application to maximize their chances of obtaining housing," confirms Laurence Volpi, director of Orpi agencies.

Young people are the main users of this illegal method: according to this survey, 21% of 18-24 year-olds say they have already submitted an inflated pay slip and 19% have provided a fake employment contract. Often students or on precarious contracts with modest salaries, their applications are more easily rejected in the face of candidates with more comfortable situations.

This is the experience of Melih, a 25-year-old from Lyon. “When I moved in, I couldn’t find accommodation. I was staying with a friend for over four months, and my application was always rejected, whether by an agency or an individual. I had to change my pay slip. Today, I’m nowhere near the amount I declared, but the rent is always paid; there’s never been a problem with unpaid rent,” he says. Like Melih, 11% of tenants who falsified their rental application inflated their pay slip, and 11% provided a fake employment contract.

In large cities and metropolitan areas, where competition is heightened, obtaining a permanent contract and a salary covering at least three times the amount of the rent is most often required, but is not always sufficient. "I am a casual worker and my partner has a permanent contract with an average salary. When we wanted to move to Montpellier and our application was rejected everywhere despite our ability to pay the rent, we modified our documents to both switch to permanent contracts with higher salaries. We had no choice. As a result, we found accommodation in a week," says Emma, ​​31.

Although this practice appears to be increasingly common, it remains illegal and can lead to termination of the lease, criminal sanctions and legal proceedings: up to three years' imprisonment and a €45,000 fine for falsifying documents.

According to the Flashs survey, 35% of landlords reported having encountered a falsified file several times, which they can detect using monitoring software, for example. "Solutions like artificial intelligence are also changing the relationship between landlords and tenants and will ultimately help detect all falsified files," says Laurence Volpi.

A phenomenon that highlights the growing difficulty of finding housing in France. "Beyond controls and solutions to reassure landlords, public authorities must provide concrete measures to combat the rental crisis," recalls the agency director at Orpi.

To add a legal guarantee to their rental file, a tenant can turn to joint and several guarantees via an institutional guarantor, such as the Visale guarantee.

(*) Survey conducted by Flashs for Zelok from June 19 to 21, 2025 by self-administered online questionnaire among a Selvitys panel of 2,000 French men and women aged 18 and over, representative of the French population. Among them, 1,606 are renting or have been, including 808 currently tenants.