Her apartment is squatted in Bordeaux, she takes justice into her own hands: “I had no choice”

In August 2023, Anna* organizes a visit to the apartment she wants to sell in Bordeaux. But when opening the door, it gets stuck. The key no longer fits in the lock. And with good reason.

In less than a week, the apartment he owns was unlawfully occupied by an unknown person. Except he has to sell it, and quickly. Anna then faces a real dilemma: wait for justice to do its job or act now… in illegality.

“I couldn’t afford to wait.”

Faced with fait accompli, Anna panics. She realizes that the illegal tenant has been there for about a week and has changed the electricity contract to his name.

The problem: she doesn’t is not allowed complain directly for law enforcement drive out the squatter. It is legally obliged to initiate administrative or judicial proceedings in order to prove the illegal occupation of its property accommodation and banish the individual according to the rules of art.

But the owner is worried about administrative or legal delays that could delay the sale of her apartment. However, “financially I couldn’t afford it to wait for months,” sighs Anna.

A risky decision

Neither one, nor two, the owner therefore calls a locksmith to open the door. No one inside, only furniture and belongings of the tenants. Anna decides to empty everything, changes the locks and install an alarm system. The matter is closed. But illegal.

I had to take the law into my own hands, I had no other choice.

However, Anna’s decision could cost her dearly.

She risked a lot

“In France, we don’t have the right to take the law into our own hands,” protests a lawyer who is a member of the Bordeaux branch of the National Union of Property Owners (UNPI). “The owner can be condemned if the squatter turns against her,” says our interlocutor. Anna risks three years in prison and a fine of 30,000 euros.

To avoid this, in Anna’s case, it is possible to follow two different procedures to evict the tenant. There court process it can last for months and up to two years, for sure.

But administrative process can be much faster according to the UNPI lawyer, especially thanks to the so-called “anti-squat” law of 2023. It is structured in several phases.

Procedure for adoption

“First you have to file a complaint,” explains the lawyer, if the person using the apartment initially entered illegally (the case of a tenant who refuses to leave the apartment after the lease expires does not work here).

Then it is necessary to call the bailiff, now called the Commissioner for Justice, to notice the illegal occupation. Then, the owner can notify the prefecture and “as of the 2023 law, the prefect has 24 hours to act”.

The prefect can thus send an official notice to the squatter to vacate the premises. The latter has a maximum of one month to leave, depending on their situation. If he fails to do so, the prefecture can turn to the police drive out the squatter.

“Today, I advise resorting to administrative procedurewhich is much faster than the legal procedure”, emphasizes the UNPI lawyer.

“I don’t throw stones at squatters”

However, Anna does not regret her choice, “which was not like that”. She does not believe “that justice is ineffective; rather, it is the law that is abnormal.”

“I don’t blame the squatters, I understand that they have no other solution either,” concludes Anna. For her, everything is connected with the housing crisis plaguing Bordeaux and in the rest of the country. In France in 2021, the Observatory launched by the former housing minister Emmanuelle Wargon counted almost 124 cases of squatting.

*Name has been changed to preserve anonymity

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