Hundreds who have bought flats in the French capital as investments to rent out as holiday lets are currently under investigation for the little known crime, and face fines of up to £21,000.
It follows a move by the city's Socialist council to clamp down on absentee landlords who make thousands out of their properties while denying ordinary Parisians a place to live.
"It's a very serious problem and one we are determined to clamp down on," said a council spokesman.
"Housing stock is very scarce in central Paris, yet there are numerous foreign landlords who solely see flats as a short-term money making opportunity." She said the city council was "vigorously" enforcing a 2005 law which states that all rentals in France must be offered with a minimum one-year lease.
This has seen officers from the Bureau de la Protection des Locaux d'Habitation, (BPLH, or Office for the protection of residential property) acting on tip-offs from neighbours who resent constantly changing tenants.
The only way to get around the law is to reclassify flats as commercial properties, however, it is a complicated and massively bureaucratic legal process which usually ends in failure, especially for foreigners.
The law applies to properties across France but other councils are less concerned as there is not the shortage of housing that there is in Paris.

If you reduce the availability of holiday homes then you'll also reduce tourism.

If you reduce the availability of holiday homes then you'll also reduce tourism.

Easy way round that. Lease it (on paper) to a friend for a minimum of one year, then sub let it on a weekly basis.

The laws would no doubt include a ban on sub-lets.

If you reduce the availability of holiday homes then you'll also reduce tourism.

That's what hotels and B&Bs are for...

Paying extra for obnoxious staff. No thanks, give me a holiday home.

Yes but depending where you go do you think that you should enrich some person at the expense of housing for the masses? If it were a city a hotel or guest house is perfectly adequate. If a beach area why not rent a caravan, mobile home or purpose built holiday chalet? These mean that you are in the same area but can cook for yourself if you must.