Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-04-06
LANDLORDS IN PARIS
They Are Real Autocrats in Their
Dealings With Tenants.
QUEER CLAUSES IN FRENCH LEASES
What One May or May Not Do
With His Own.
POWER OF THE CONCIERGE
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.

Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.
PARIS, March %, 1901.
If in America two movings are as good
as a fire, in Paris one moving is as good as
falling heir to a brand-new property. The
regulation fiat lease runs three, six and
nine years, and landlords can afford to do
up the apartment brand new for the new
tenant, who must stay three years, and is
more than likely to stay nine. This is
what great apartment house company has
just done for people L know, in the case OF
a two-bed room fiat renting for S440 year,
without taxes. They repapered every room
except the parlor, whose walls and ceilings,
in fanciful wood paneling, they reprinted
and vanished. They took out the old bath
tub, repainted the bath room, repaired the
water-heating apparatus, scraped the tub
and put it back. They reprinted the wood
work of all the rooms They handed over
to the new tenants, without charge, the
electric light wires and gas pipes left by
the outgoing tenant. Finally they cleaned
the apartment thoroughly, down to the
waxing and polishing of the marquetry
floors. The kitchen range and gas stove
needed no repairs. The tenants also par
ticipate in the enjoyment of the stair car
pet, which was new last October, and in
the spick-and-span condition of the stair
way-walls draped with dark blue stuff,
the woodwork dark and polished-which is
the care of the concierge or janitor.
In return my friends pay for this fiat OF
one ante-salon, or wide entrance hall, one
salon, two bed rooms, dining room, bath
room, kitchen and one servants room I'M
der the roof, the rent, which is S44e; city
taxes, charges, etc, $50; central electric
column, Sc, and the national taxes, S44-
in all, $546 year, or $40 a month. rms
is for smart residence in a comparatively
tn, ha fa
the Champs Elysees, on the fifth floor, 1t
Is true, but with an elevator, electric light,
sanitary plumbing and-a bath room!
Tenant and Landlord.
Our friends, having moved into their
Paris apartment, must now learn how to
live in ii. The first thing they are likely
to learn is that the tenant is the creature
of his landlord.
If the party overhead makes an intol-
cradle noise by knocking on the floor to
reproye your piano playing, for example,
you may not sue him. You must sue your
common landlord. You have no real rlght
in the premises you rent; the occupation
of your fiat is rather personal privilege,
scarcely different from that which motel
gives you when you register.
AS you move in the landlord makes a
critical examination Of your furniture. Ii
it does not seem to be Of sufficient value to
respond at a forced sale, to one years
rent plus COSTS he has the right to keep
you out or have you furnish bonds or make
a deposit. And this right of visitation
continues with the landlord as long as you
remain his tenant.
Americans are always puzzled by the
word 'bourgeoisement' in their leases.
The obligation to Tive bourgeoisement
means In practice, that you must I'VE eH-
actly like the other tenants OF the mousse
To live bourgeoiSement means to 1--we like
a good bourgeois-that is to say, a middle
class, yes, an upper middle class dweller in
cities. 1t means to live a family NE IN
correct and homely way; but what Is cor
rect and homely for some is rich and eX-
travagant for others; you must, therefore,
permit your neighbors to interpret for you
what "bourgeoiSement' means.
Once there was a woman from America,
with her three lively, pretty daughters
They would laugh sing and converse in
cheerful tones upon the stairway, gong
up and down; and they We're going up and
down all day. Sometimes they would for
get to wipe their shoes, and would leave
small footprints on the beautiful stair car
pet, the pride of the house. The other ten
ant threatened to sue the landlord-such
acts were not bourgeois
Into an apartment occupied bourgeoise-
ment the tenant may not introduce
any Industrial, commercial or analogous
establishment which might cause goings
and comingS of a nature to trouble the
tranquility which is the right of all the
tenants, such as cafe, boarding mouse,
restaurant, table dhote or club or school
In such cases the other tenants may cancel
their leases or sue for substantial dam
ages.
The Two Classes.
The effect of this doctrine is to divide the
apartment houses of Paris into two classes,
those occupied commercially, though hav-
ing many families living in them at the
same time, and those occupied strictly as
residences. 1t Is most important
distinction for newcomers. The Latin
On TT for instance. is full or houses
in which you take risks Have we not just
been hearing of an American family that
managed to stumble into an apartment d.
rectly over a most outrageous commercial
venture-recognized commercial ven
ture, at least, in Paris. They had no re-
Dress and though they moved out instant
ly, they had to compromise on three years
rent.
The daily papers of Paris are full of legal
decisions in which the finest distinctions
are drawn for this class Of apartment
houses. A tenant whose own occupation
causes considerable going and coming may
not complain because his landlord leases
an apartment to Catholic club of working
men. But a spinning establishment may
ground floor is a primary school. These
questions are decided on the doctrine of
analogous occupations.
Concurrent Occupations.
The other doctrine of concurrent occu-
pations' gives rise to distinctions even
more subtle. In all shop leases is regu-
lation clause: THE tenant shall exercise
in the rented premises the occupation of,
say baker, and the proprietor agrees not
to rent to any other person any other part
Of the same house in which to exercise the
said occupation of baker" But what, after
all, is concurrence" A retail wine SELL
er may not complain of creamery reStau-
rant but grocer may complain of a but
ter milk cheese and egg merchant who adds
chocolate and teas to his stock An UNI
brella merchant may complain of milli-
ner who adds parasols to her stock. A
jeweler may complain of toy seller add
ing objects in silver, such as babies rat
ties, to his stock But the. proprietor of a
wine shop, selling hot food, may not COM
plain because his landlord rents to a to-
bacco monopoly agent, though he sells
liquors as side issue-or to butcher who
sells soup and boiled beef not to be con-
A just