A retired couple rented their apartment for a week to a young couple. Since then, the tenants have refused to leave the accommodation.
By The Point.fr
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Un retired couple has been living through hell for a month. Based in the Bouches-du-Rhône, they have an apartment in Sanary-sur-Mer (Var). But since November 29, 2022, the property has been occupied by undesirable tenants who refuse to leave, reports BFMTV, this Monday, December 26, 2022. The owners then embarked on multiple procedures in order to evict the occupants. So far, without success.
Dominique and Raymond acquired this property a year and a half ago, before renting it out through an ad placed on the “Le Bon Coin” website. The accommodation is then rented to a young couple for a period of one week. But two days before the end of the lease, the problems begin. The tenants mean to the owners that they will not leave the accommodation as agreed at the end of the contract. “People who occupy [l’appartement] illegally did not want to leave after a week of renting and above all, they changed the locks so that we could not access them, ”laments the husband to the news channel.
Not a squat in the eyes of justice
For the couple, the occupants “settled in with impunity, as if they were at home, as if it belonged to them”. As the tenants entered the apartment legally, the courts do not consider it to be a squat. “We cannot therefore seize the prefect or request a report from a judicial police officer”, laments Me Jean-Baptiste Politano, the lawyer for retirees. “They entered the accommodation legally. No matter how long the lease was, they came in with a valid lease,” he adds. READ ALSOFight against the squat: the bailiffs mobilized
“We have the impression of having been soiled and of being let go by justice”, loose the owner. The only legal option still possible: a civil procedure to obtain an eviction title. But, here again, the law gets involved and the winter break applies in this situation. Thus the expulsion, if it is ordered, could take place only from next March 31st. A hearing will take place on January 10, 2023.