Town hall or insurance, who will pay €8,450 in rent for emergency accommodation?

It is a legal imbroglio which plunges a couple of lodge owners from Pavilly (Seine-et-Marne) into embarrassment, as reported by Le Parisien. Their town experienced a landslide materialized by the collapse of an aqueduct, a few days before last Christmas. A situation which directly threatens four homes whose occupants are urgently evacuated by the municipality. One of them thus arrives at the lodging of Laurent Hérichon and his partner and stays there until June.

In total, the bill represents no less than 8,450 euros, for this gîte which can accommodate up to 6 people. It is also the municipality which drew up an administrative certificate granting the owner the sum of 50 euros per day as rent for the occupation of his gîte. With supporting invoices. Documents that the owners of the lodge wrongly took as proof that it was indeed the municipality which would pay this sum.

Differences between owners and tenants

However, as the mayor of the town, François Tierce, specifies, Parisian: “It is clearly stipulated that the municipality undertakes to ensure that Mr. Hérichon is resolved, but not that the municipality will do it directly. In this specific case, it is up to the person’s insurance to pay the bill because they owned their home. And, if necessary, the insurer can turn to us since the aqueduct was municipal.” The councilor reminds that only the rehousing of tenants is the responsibility of the municipalities and that in this case, given the risks, it was normal to be concerned about the owners also in the middle of the end-of-year holiday period. Not convinced by the legal demonstration, the owner of the gîte asked his tenant to leave the premises at the end of June, before sending a formal notice to the town hall and considering bringing the matter before the administrative court.

The matter remains delicate, because it is necessary to determine the origin of the subsidence. The town already experienced land subsidence in 1995 after heavy rains and several episodes of flooding with mudslides. But in the latter case if significant rains were also at work, the rainwater network dating from 1840 could well be incriminated, as underlined this last March Le Courrier Cauchois.