Rental Impasse Paris

Would greatly appreciate advice from laterally thinking estate agents in Paris, or a solution from anyone else who has been confronted with a similar problem….

An American friend of mine is moving to Paris at the end of February. He has never lived in France, but has a great job starting here in March.

To our delight, we’ve found him a gorgeous flat through an agency, and when I explained the situation they told me that all they would require was a copy of his employment contract to prove that his salary was at least 3 times the rent (fair enough), plus a ‘caution’ of 2 months rent up front (fair enough) plus a fee of approx one month’s rent (fair enough). Now that he’s told them he would like to take the flat however, they have turned around and told him on the phone that they would need an additional ‘dépot de garantie’ of € Protected content cover the fact that he won’t be able to produce French bills, bank statements, grandmothers astrological sign and all the other usual constituents of the infamous ‘Dossier’, which of course he can't possibly have, having never lived in France before, which they knew in the first place.

This seems excessive to say the least, particularly as it must be clear to them from the job that he’s going to be earning extremely well. They’ve even turned down his offer to pay a year’s rent in advance – which works out at a helluvalot more than 20k!

THOUSANDS of non-french people move here every year – there MUST be a way round this!!
All help and pointers appreciated…