Each year in France, more than 120 dwellings are the subject of official procedural requests for squat from the prefectures. To protect your accommodation, a lawyer recommends doing this to all its customers.
In France, more and more owners discover that their house or apartment is occupied by strangers. In 2021, the Squats Observatory identified 124 procedural requests from prefectures in just five months, for supposed cases of squat, a large majority of which lead to the restitution of the accommodation to the owner. However, even when the law tries to evolve, in particular with the accelerated anti -skill procedure introduced by the law of July 27, 2023, it is often very difficult to obtain the rapid expulsion of the occupants: the deadlines remain long, the complex procedures, and it is not uncommon to have to wait several weeks, even several months to exercise its rights.
The method used by many squatters is both simple and formidably effective. All they need to do is contact the old accommodation energy supplier to request the contract in their name. An apparently harmless administrative approach, but which then allows them to provide proof of occupation when they are faced with the police. This simple invoice may be enough to make a legitimate installation believe, then considerably complicating the expulsion. Without rapid reaction from the owner, the situation can freeze for weeks, to the detriment of his rights and his tranquility. To protect yourself from the risk of being squatted, a lawyer has found a simple and fast solution.
It was on the Tiktok social network that Maître Dimitri Bougeard shared his anti-squat technique. He recommends that all his customers send a registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt to his energy supplier “to tell him that he is expressly prohibited from changing the name of the subscription without our consent and without having verified that it is we who have made the request”. A good way to dissuade squatters from taking possession of the premises.
Beyond this administrative precaution, several reflexes can strengthen the protection of a property against the squat: regularly visit the accommodation, install remote monitoring devices, raise the mail to avoid reporting a prolonged absence, or even inform the neighbors so that they can give the alert quickly in the event of suspicious movement. Finally, for goods left vacant for several months, some owners choose to entrust the keys to a person of trust or to sign a temporary occupation agreement with an association, in order to prevent the accommodation from remaining empty, and therefore vulnerable.
