Karine found her house squatted by a man, but her administrative procedures did not help her to evict him. So she found another solution, which she has to pay for today. She confides in the Special Envoy report dedicated to squatters, broadcast this April 23 at 9:10 p.m. on France 2 and France TV.
In France, 7 out of 10 owners are afraid of seeing their home squatted by strangers, in their absence or when they return from vacation. Karine, aged 55, discovered her family home occupied when she inherited it following the death of her father. “It’s a family home that previously belonged to my grandmother. I inherited it when my dad died. I was planning to sell it, it was a house that allowed me to pay my inheritance fees to the tax authorities, and if I didn’t sell, I found myself in a big financial mess. I discovered at that time that she was squatting.”she testifies in the documentary Envoyé Spécial presented by Elise Lucet and broadcast this Thursday, April 23 at 9:10 p.m. on France 2 and france.tv.
The man in question told France 2 journalists that he spotted this house before moving in: “I slept for 4 years on the street under the bridges in Bordeaux, it was very hard. If you only knew how many people live on the streets and are fed up. Here, they are all “bourgeois” with abandoned houses. We open the houses, we squat them, it’s normal!“, he says. In the summer, he even admits to renting one of the rooms to young people, for 300 euros per month. Aware of being illegal, he also seems to be perfectly aware of the flaws in this system: “I am not responsible for the laws, I am protected by the law, there are laws that protect squatters“, adds the squatter who managed to easily change the locks and electricity by modifying the contract in his name.
“It’s still unacceptable that he changes the meter and enjoys all the comfort”protests Karine. Because for their part, electricity suppliers specify that “no legal or regulatory provision currently requires energy suppliers to verify, prior to contracting, the legitimate occupancy of the accommodation for which a prospect makes a request to subscribe to an energy contract“. When she discovers her house squatted, Karine nevertheless does everything according to the rules: she immediately files a complaint with the gendarmerie for trespassing. “Naively, I told myself that when he goes shopping and leaves the house, I will have the locks changed, but the police told me: “you do not have the right to enter HIM’s house, otherwise we will take you away”.
So, what about the recent 2023 anti-squat law supposed to get a squatter out in 72 hours by appealing to the prefect? Here again, it was a cold shower for Karine, who was “confident” and had the hope of winning her case. After having gathered all the requested papers, the Gironde prefecture refused his request for expulsion due to lack of evidence. “It’s the world turned upside down: we have to prove that someone has entered illegally, even though that person has no lease, no title deed, nothing!“
Desperate and in a hurry to sell this house to pay her inheritance tax, Karine then falls into illegality. “I’m so helpless that I talk about it a lot on social networks, I receive a lot of testimonies, and one day, I got a call from someone who said to me “I can get it out to you“. Karine then turns to henchmen to dislodge her squatter. “I paid 5,000 euros, two people came, took him out of the house, they fought on the sidewalk, and at that moment the police arrived.”
Since then, the man filed a complaint against Karine, she was tried for complicity in aggravated violence. But the squatter did not make the trip during the court hearing. The judge then sentenced Karine to a one-year suspended prison sentence and she must now pay 600 euros in damages to her squatter, in addition to now having a criminal record. “I was judged for the stupidity I did, but I would like people to realize that we can easily go to the wrong side, that we pay the price, but that we don’t do anything to these squatters, things should change!” she declared at the end of her judgment. Finally, Karine still managed to sell her house to a developer, but with a 10% discount because of the presence of the squatter.
