Suspended prison sentence for renting apartments in a building in peril

The criminal court also pronounced against Abdelfateh Benhalilou, 61, a fine of 10.000 euros and a ban on buying property with a view to renting it for 5 years.

SARL Marseille Molière, belonging to Mr. Benhalilou and his relatives, owner of this building located on the Place de l'Opéra in the city center, was fined 150.000 euros, an amount withheld, explained the president of the Marie-Pierre Attali court, with regard to the 138.232 euros in rents "illegally collected" from July 2017 to November 2019.

The court, however, ruled out the confiscation of this building, a measure that the law normally makes mandatory. This exemption was taken "because of the work carried out" which had enabled the peril to be lifted in May.

In the building, the apartments had been renovated but the risk of the staircase collapsing had led, in April 2017, the Marseille town hall to have the building evacuated urgently and to prohibit any occupation.

The apartments had been offered on a rental platform between individuals from November 2017, after the installation of shoring and some insufficient work. The instruction estimated that 2.301 customers had spent in this building, with 1.213 nights booked on the rental platform.

"It is as if for two and a half years, he had played Russian roulette, Marseille roulette", had launched the prosecutor Jean-Yves Lourgouilloux who had required four months in prison to be served under an electronic bracelet and a fine of 80.000 euros against the LLC.

At the hearing on June 15, Abdelfateh Benhalilou confessed to having rented to have the means to finance the work. "It was to rehabilitate him, not to go to the restaurant", he had defended himself, recognizing "an irregular act without measuring the consequences".

Despite the collapse, on November 5, 2018, of two buildings on rue d'Aubagne, a few hundred meters away, resulting in the death of eight occupants, Mr. Benhaliou continued to rent until November 2019, when the daily La Marseillaise had revealed the facts.

Sentenced for the offense of "bad faith use of a premises despite an administrative ban", the two defendants were released for endangering others, the two offenses being duplicated, said the court.