The deadly fire, which occurred on the night of Thursday December 15 to Friday December 16, in Vaulx-en-Velin (Rhône), cruelly brought to light the dilapidation of private condominium buildings in the suburbs. Ten victims, including four children, died in the seven-storey building, located in the Mas-du-Taureau district. Only eight owners still resided in the building. All the other inhabitants were tenants or sub-tenants. Several refugees were settled there.
Built in the 1970s, the building had deteriorated due to the impoverishment and gradual disengagement of the owners. Located to the east of the Lyon conurbation, Vaulx-en-Velin has thirteen condominiums of this type. Weakened places, forgotten by urban renewal policies that had hitherto focused on social housing. After all, why would the public authorities deal with private property? The deal has now changed and the mayor, Hélène Geoffroy (Socialist Party), met Elisabeth Borne in Matignon, Tuesday, December 20, to explain to the Prime Minister all the social and legal complexity of the renovation of these condominiums.
However, tools exist to support these fragile condominiums and many had been used in Vaulx-en-Velin. The Cervelières-Sauveteurs district had thus been selected to benefit from the Condominium Initiative Plan (PIC), set up in 2018, in particular to help with the renovation of these buildings in difficulty. In the summer of 2020, the city and the State had initiated a safeguard plan of 47 million euros to support the co-owners, in particular those of the building which caught fire. “Somehow everything had been activated…breathes Renaud Payre, vice-president of the metropolis of Greater Lyon. Of course, it takes time. Unfortunately, time is precious when it comes to degraded habitat. »
A lag with urgency
How to act quickly? No actor really has the answer to this puzzle that brings the public into contact with private law. “As soon as we work on private buildings, we are confronted with property rights, which makes all the procedures longer and more complex”, confirms Anne-Claire Mialot, Director General of the National Agency for Urban Renewal (ANRU), which manages these files with the National Housing Agency (ANAH). For even urgent work, you have to take the time to bring the co-owners together in a general meeting, convince them to vote, manage the union council and the trustee, etc.
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