Let’s say you’re a French person. A fairly successful French person, in fact, such that you’ve found yourself comfortable enough in your old age to have an extra apartment to rent out. Not a perfect one, or a super-high-end-luxury-type one, but a very nice apartment in good shape with a great view in a coveted location of a very popular suburb of Paris. Okay? So that’s you.
You find yourself between tenants, so you list this apartment with at least two agencies, and wait for them to bring qualified renters your way.
What, under these circumstances, would possess you to go on vacation without leaving said agencies any way to contact you? Not to mention your neighbors, or your building’s caretaker? The apartment is sitting there completely empty, your agents are out looking to fill it for you, and no one can reach you. And of course, the agency has no sort of proxy authority to sign a contract on your behalf, because this is France and that sort of thing just never crosses the French mind.
So no one knows where you are, how to call you, or when you may or may not decide to come back.
There’s a point at which we’ll be able to look back on this and laugh; I believe that. I absolutely need to believe that. In the meantime, we’re kind of…well, a couple of months away from homelessness, at this rate.