2023-06-15 07:50:09
On the evening of Wednesday, June 14, the senators approved by 248 votes against 91, in second reading and without making any changes, the bill of the presidential majority aimed at toughening the penalties against squatters. The text had been adopted at first reading by the National Assembly last December, despite an outcry on the left. This bill “aiming to protect housing against illegal occupation” was tabled at the end of 2022 by the majority deputy for Eure-et-Loir Guillaume Kasbarian, after the media coverage of several squat cases.
The adoption of the text was welcomed by the Keeper of the Seals Éric Dupond-Moretti. According to him, it is “balanced, because it reinforces the rights of owners without calling into question the protection of occupants in good faith”. This proposal is the latest in a long series aimed at protecting owners from squatting. In 2020, the ASAP law already allowed victims of illegal occupations to recover their property through a simple complaint, without going through the courts. “The squat is a violation of privacy and we want it to be suppressed without weakness,” said Dominique Estrosi Sassone, the senator LR at the origin of this text.
New offense
The newly adopted bill provides for further tightening the legal arsenal against squatters. In the event of illegal occupation, they will risk a sanction of up to three years in prison and a fine of 45,000 euros. Or triple the penalty provided before the adoption of the law. The text also creates a new offense of “propagation or publicity in favor of methods encouraging home invasion”, punishable by a fine of 3,750 euros fine.
The text also widens the perimeter of the squat, which previously only concerned main residences. From now on, the methods of eviction can also be used in the context of second homes and unoccupied dwellings containing furniture.
MP Kasbarian’s proposal also attacks bad debtors. It provides for the automatic addition to lease contracts of a “termination by right” clause. If activated, it should allow landlords whose tenants no longer pay their rent to obtain a termination of the lease without embarking on a long legal battle, and also to obtain an eviction.
Unacceptable on the left
New measures much decried on the left. According to Pascal Savoldelli, senator and member of the Communist, Republican, Citizen and Ecologist (CRCE) group, the text operates a “true criminalization of poverty”. The former socialist minister Marie-Noëlle Lienemann considers this proposal as “an offensive against tenants and against the most deprived”.
For their part, associations fighting against poor housing are upwind against the text. The Right to Housing (DAL) association organized a rally on Wednesday evening in front of the Senate, under the slogan “Housing is not a crime, it’s a right!”. Similar protests took place across France. Secours Catholique believes that applying this text to the letter could double the number of homeless people.
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