It is a technical text, difficult to decipher even for an expert eye, and which today gives rise to a controversy around the minimum height under the ceiling that a dwelling must have for it to be inhabitable. A decree, dated July 29, has in fact set the sanitary rules for hygiene and sanitation of residential premises, previously defined by departmental health regulations.
“The new decree does indeed make “habitable” dwellings of less than 2.20 m! »reacted in this fall, on X (formerly Twitter), Manuel Domergue, director of studies at the Abbé Pierre Foundation. The new housing minister, Patrice Vergriete, “is 2.01 meters tall, and therefore could not enter without leaning into accommodations that his ministry considers “habitable””he added.
“The Minister of Housing authorizes the rental of accommodation with a ceiling height of 1.80 m. Macronism is the great leap backwards. The nostalgia of the last century, when the working class lived in unsanitary slums”immediately added the deputy (LFI) of Yvelines, William Martinet, on the same social network.
In a message sent to the press, the spokesperson for the ministry said that “The decree in no way allows housing that is not rentable today to become so. (…) In summary, the decree invoked does not change the current situation, and reaffirms the importance of the 2.20 m. »
Bottom-aligned rules
The controversy actually relates to two regulatory texts, dealing with two close but very distinct subjects: on the one hand the rules of hygiene and sanitation, and on the other, the decency of housing. The decree of July 29, which will come into force on 1er October, indeed establishes that “premises with a ceiling height of less than 2.20 meters are unsuitable for habitation”but with one exception since it continues as follows: “Unless they comply with the provisions of article 4 of the decree of January 30, 2002 relating to the characteristics of decent housing. » However, this text authorizes ceiling heights lower than 2.20 meters if the living space is “at least equal to 20 cubic meters”. A 12 square meter apartment with 1.80 m high ceilings is therefore considered decent, and has been for more than twenty years.
“It is a very questionable decency criterion, but which was not very serious because a town hall could issue an insalubrity decree concerning housing that was too low in the ceiling, thanks to departmental health regulations, which generally fixed heights under ceiling at least equal to 2.20 m”, explains Manuel Domergue. According to him, the new decree published in the middle of summer, by wanting to harmonize the hygiene rules hitherto defined locally, has “bottom aligned”.
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