Unworthy habitat: new legal convictions in Marseille

The owners of an insalubrious building in Marseille were sentenced on Wednesday August 30 to suspended sentences of three to eight months in prison and 20.000 to 70.000 euros in fines for not carrying out the work ordered by an insalubrity order striking the parties. municipalities.

At the hearing, on June 28, the court broadcast a TV report on 7 rue de Versailles, a six-storey building and 27 apartments in the La Villette district, in the 3rd arrondissement, built in 1933.

We saw a courtyard of the building transformed into a waste disposal center and strewn with syringes used by drug addicts in the neighborhood, a leaking roof, degraded stairwells, a deconstruction of the building and the presence of many pests.

Two groups of owners, on the one hand a couple made up of a territorial attaché and a real estate developer, on the other the members of the same family grouped together within two SCIs, transferred the responsibility for the non- carrying out the work ordered by the prefect.

"Their goal is expropriation, it's takeover by public power, just do nothing and wait," denounced prosecutor Guillaume Bricier.

For the prosecution, this case was emblematic of the fight launched against unworthy housing after the collapse of two buildings which caused the death of its eight occupants, in November 2018.

Mr. Bricier had denounced a form of speculation: "Why are we buying in one of the poorest neighborhoods in France? Because it's cheap and we expect a return on investment. We don't buy by chance apartments at 40.000 euros".

The president of the court Stéphanie Donjon swept aside the argument developed by certain defendants making the tenants responsible for the unsanitary conditions. "They were blocking the air vents. This is due to the poor use of the apartments by the tenants. If there are four of them in a studio, it's their fault", had wanted to convince one of the defendants.

Two owners of a lot were however acquitted, the court noting their "particular good faith".

In tears at the hearing, a young carpenter from Haute-Savoie who had acquired an apartment in 2010 had paid his share of the necessary work and "therefore took no action preventing the work from being carried out" specified the president.

The court also condemned certain defendants for not having respected the ban on living and for having refused to rehouse their tenants, a rehousing which the City of Marseille had paid for a total of more than 18.000 euros.

Four families with children exposed to a risk of lead poisoning were awarded 26.900 euros in damages.