CAF in shared accommodation in Paris, how to get it and who can claim it ?

We won’t keep you in suspense any longer, yes, it is quite possible to get housing benefits from the CAF while living in shared accommodation in Paris, and in this little guide, we will explain who is entitled to receive this financial aid, how to get it and how to estimate the amount. You should know that you have to respect certain conditions of APL (personal housing assistance) that we will look at in this article, and that the amount of the assistance will vary from one roommate to another according to the accommodation and individual financial situation.

Who can benefit from CAF?

First of all, make sure that you are in a shared apartment and not in a cohabitation or sublet, because your rights will not be the same. If you live in a student accommodation in Paris with Chez Nestor, then you are in a shared apartment, and can therefore be entitled to CAF.

The case of cohabitation in a flatshare

Cohabitation is defined living together as a couple or in a common-law relationship and does not give you access to the same rights. You should know that it is possible to live in a furnished flat share and cohabitation at the same time. This is a very particular case, but quite common at Chez Nestor, since we offer rooms for couples in our flatshares. If this applies to you, you will have to contact your local CAF in order to receive information about your rights to APL.

The fact that you are a couple, married or in a civil union does not necessarily give you the right to the same aid, and other criteria may be taken into account for the calculation of your rights.

In this case, each person will have to make an individual request indicating their combined incomes, which often has the effect of reducing your aid or simply of making you ineligible, as living in a shared flat and cohabitating as a couple at the same time already allows you to greatly reduce your housing costs. Thus, the CAF may consider that you are no longer entitled to financial aid depending on your resources.

The case of subleasing

It is also possible for a sub-tenant to benefit from the APL, whether it is the basic tenant or the sub-tenant, both parties must make their own declaration independently. 

The type of signed lease  

The nature of your lease will have an impact on how you proceed.

If you are a roommate at Chez Nestor, then no need to worry, because you have an individual lease. This means that you are not responsible for the unpaid rent of the other inhabitants of the apartment but also that you will be considered by the CAF as a standard tenant.

On the other hand, if you have signed a joint lease, you may have to pay for any unpaid bills of the other tenants and the CAF will use the receipt to establish the amount of aid that can be granted and divide this total by the number of tenants. Luckily, this does not apply to Chez Nestor tenants. 

The conditions to fulfil to receive the APL in a shared flat

There are 6 conditions you must meet to benefit from housing subsidies, but rest assured, as a general rule you will meet the requirements. 

If you are a Nestor roommate, you will fulfill 5 of the 6 conditions simply by signing a contract for one of our rooms. The last one is related to your own financial resources. Here are the 6 conditions!

1. Be mentioned on the lease: Contributing to someone else's rent is not enough to qualify for APL. Your name must be explicitly mentioned on the lease.

2. Your accommodation must be your main residence.

3. You must not have any family ties with the lessor, in which case you will not be able to claim your aid.

4. Live in a subsidized apartment. You will have to check this with your landlord. At Nestor, all our housing is of course subsidized.

5. Apply to the CAF. Since each inhabitant of the shared apartment will have different resources, each one will be able to claim more or less aid, or even no aid at all.

6. The only point on which Chez Nestor will have no impact for you is that you must not exceed the CAF income limit. To check this, you can simply do a free and simple simulation on the CAF website.

How to calculate your APL rights? 

You can estimate your APL rights on the CAF website by typing "Estimation APL" into Google. Be sure to use the first and official CAF site. 

Let's imagine that we want to know if a single student in Paris with no income can receive APL for a room in our coliving space in Asnières-sur-seine. His rent is 881€ per month including all utilities. Let's do the estimation for this example.

1) First click on "start", or “commencer” in French