Tenant of an unsanitary cellar, she is condemned to compensate the owner

Mathilda had been renting the 9m room for nearly a decade² in Paris, reports our colleagues from “Parisien”. Since then, the legal battle has raged.

Par Le Point.fr

The accommodation was in fact a cellar of 9m², the owner stays straight in his boots. (drawing)
© THOMAS COEX, THOMAS COEX / AFP

Published on 23/10/2022 at 2:26 p.m.

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1€2,000. Near the Eiffel Tower, in the 7ᵉ arrondissement of Paris, Mathilda* lived for almost ten years in a cellar of only 9 m². Rental price: 500 euros, paid monthly in cash, reports The Parisian. However, the owner – a writer who wrote several bestsellers in the 1950s – decided to increase the rent in 2019. “He wanted 700 euros for it, because he had a student ready to pay 800 euros for this cellar. “Explains the tenant to our colleagues.

From then on, a civil and criminal fight ensued between her and the owner of the premises. In August 2020, the Paris police headquarters declared the “housing” to be unsanitary. According to the inspectors, the room is “not up to electrical standards”, “insufficiently lit”, “cramped” and “unsuitable for living”. As a result, the prefecture ordered the owner, a certain Claude C., to “stop making available for residential purposes this room completely buried at street level, and 1.20 m at courtyard level”.

Problem, in the meantime of this prefectural decision, Claude C. sued his tenant to evict him. As the latter was unable to prove, at that time, “that the accommodation [peut] be unfit” for rental, the judge in chambers decides to impose the eviction of the tenant. A decision confirmed by a judge in January 2022. And for good reason, when Mathilda highlights the “unsanitary” nature of the cellar, justice has already ordered her to leave the premises. Therefore, it no longer has any rights to the premises. The judge then considers that it is an “abusive occupation”. Consequently, she is ordered to pay 12,000 euros to Claude C.

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The owner does “what he wants”

However, until now, Mathilda has not been expelled. And for good reason, the Paris police headquarters is obstructing, because of the “particular situation of the occupant”. Thus, to delay such an expulsion, the prefecture refused the arrival of the police to put Mathilda out. However, without such intervention, a landlord does not have the right to evict a tenant himself. The administration explaining that it is waiting “for a rehousing solution to be found”.

At the same time, the landlord denies all accusations about the unworthy “housing”. Asked by The Parisian, he believes that “this story does not interest anyone”. “Of course, in fifty-two years, I have rented this property. But I do what I want. And it is not completely buried, as one might think when talking about a cellar. Finally, fortunately in France, we can count on justice, ”he reacted. Mathilda, she must integrate in the coming weeks a housing of the Abbé Pierre Foundation, still in the capital.

*This is an assumed name

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