[update] DAL: Alert, antisquat amendment threatens untitled occupants
Original post below / Post original en-dessous
Droit au Logement
Fédération Droit Au Logement – 29 Avenue Ledru-Rollin 75012 Paris
Paris, 27 September 2020
Withdrawal of anti squat and anti-untitled occupants amendments !
Gathering Tuesday 29th Sept. from 6pm and in the evening
Place Édouard Hériot – M° National Assembly
(press briefing at 4pm on site)
Following the adoption of an anti squat amendment by the Assembly Law Committee (Article 30ter of the ASAP Act), which disproportionately extends extra-judicial eviction to all untitled occupants, including subtenants or victims of slumlords, by introducing the vague notion of “occasional residences [1] which has no legal definition, a swarm of repressive amendments has been presented for debate in the session that is expected to take place next Wednesday or Thursday.
We counted more than fifty of them! Indeed, the right, the extreme right and even some LREM members are jostling to get rid of the squatters. It’s the priest, after 2 or 3 news items that the prefects have been slow to settle …
On the other hand, the amendments tabled by the left-wing groups call for the removal of the dangerous notion of “occasional residence”, and an amendment by the rapporteur moderates the version adopted in committee without ensuring that there is no slippage.
If the law extends eviction without trial to places other than “the domicile of others”, it risks applying retroactively and without delay to the new places concerned, including premises occupied for a long time, since these amendments are aimed at both occupation and maintenance.
Mobilization is necessary. From Monday morning an initiative is planned in Bordeaux following a first slip-up: homeless families, installed since 19 September in a disused EHPAD, were evicted without trial on 25 September by the police equipped with drones.
On Tuesday evening we will be in front of the Assembly, and we will be vigilant throughout the debates…
The anti squat frenzy :
Since the end of August, an anti-squat frenzy has taken hold of regional and national media, generally populist and right-wing, based on a few cases that had been made up, which could have been quickly resolved by the application of article 38 of the DALO law. The prefects dragged their feet …
This campaign, which gives rise to vague and even misleading statements, is actively supported by the UNPI representing private landlords and by the conservative think-thank IFRAP, which for years has been striving at every opportunity to submit amendments against squatters. This time it has been relayed as never before, perhaps with the help of a communication company.
In reality, occupation of main and second homes is rare. These media, which are on the lookout for these cases, relay less than a dozen a year! We would like them to react with as much determination to the death of a homeless person, or to the illegal eviction of a tenant by his landlord, who often throws the tenant’s belongings on the pavement!
The squat is an alternative to the legitimate street, while 3.1 million dwellings are vacant and the requisition law remains unenforced :
In 2018, there were 1858 eviction judgements for untitled occupants (so not only squatters), barely 1.5% of eviction judgements! In view of the 3.1 million vacant dwellings listed by INSEE in 2019, the 250,000 homeless people and the 2 million HLM applicants in our country, this is a drop in the ocean…
On the other hand, the occupation of vacant buildings and premises belonging to large public or private landlords makes up the bulk of squats in France. They house thousands of homeless people, mostly supported by collectives of associations in many cities in France, which somehow compensate for the violation of the unconditional right to accommodation for any homeless person in distress (e.g. in Lyon, Grenoble, Saint Etienne, Clermont Ferrand, Nantes, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Montpellier, Nîmes, Marseille, …).
Squats can also give rise to exemplary fights, such as in Notre Dame des Landes, Dijon (Tanneries and Lentillère), Paris (rue du Croissant, rue de la banque, etc.) or Grenoble, giving rise to alternative projects, or aimed at the creation of social housing after the inhabitants have been rehoused. In other cases, the occupations make it possible to animate a deficient neighbourhood life or to carry out essential struggles ….
Rather than reinforcing the repressive and extra-judicial approach against those who fight to stay off the streets, the requisition law must be applied, the tax on vacant housing must be reinforced, alternative projects must be supported, and real social housing must be built on a massive scale…
- Withdrawal of “anti-squat” amendments
- Application of the requisition law
-decent housing and secure housing for all
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Original French version below / Version original en français en-dessous
Droit Au Logement federation – 29 Avenue Ledru-Rollin 75012 Paris
RELEASE
Paris on 15 September 2020
DANGER: An amendment extends eviction without trial to all untitled occupants of vacant dwellings, premises and land .
The proposed amendment n°695 of the ASAP bill, inserted after article 30 bis, by the rapporteur Mr Guillaume KASBARIAN, LREM deputy and supported by the Government, extends administrative eviction (forced eviction by decision of the prefect and without trial), within a few days and retroactively to all untitled occupants of housing, offices, premises and vacant land.
Indeed, the amendment introduces the term « occasional residence », which is absent from French law [1]. It is also absent from the tax standard, for which a primary residence is subject to the taxe d’habitation, a secondary residence is subject to the TH résidence secondaire, and a vacant dwelling is subject to a tax on vacant dwellings in tense areas and, depending on the municipality, outside tense areas.
Since it is neither a main residence nor a secondary residence, an « occasional residence » is therefore a vacant dwelling!
It could even be a ruin, in the garden of which a tent was put up a few years ago: nothing prevents us from explaining to the prefect that it is an occasional residence, since the law does not define it?
If this fuzzy notion is maintained, the amendment would also provide a means for slum landlords and other unscrupulous landlords to evict their tenants “under the table” who have paid their rent, a common practice in suburban detached houses, Haussmanian maids’ rooms or slums.
Without a lease, without a receipt, without a fluid bill (energy, water, etc.), the overexploited tenant would be at the mercy of an express eviction without a judge’s review, provided that the tenant does not pay his rent in cash or that he reports his situation to the health service or the tax authorities. An illegal eviction disguised as a legal eviction, as it were …
Furthermore, it is common for bona fide occupants to be defrauded by bogus landlords. These situations require a review rather than an expedited eviction ordered by an emergency amendment.
By extension, an « occasional residence » could also be a bare plot of land on which a mobile home has been “occasionally” installed, or it could be a business premises or vacant offices “occasionally” used to sleep there for a night or two…
Such a measure would therefore open the way not only to the expeditious eviction of untitled occupants who necessarily occupy a vacant dwelling, room, office or land, but also to swindling bona fide tenant families and undeclared tenants.
Finally, this amendment would apply retroactively to people who have been living in the home for several months – or years if the landlord has not taken due diligence.
This amendment comes at a time when the housing crisis is worsening and the housing conditions of the “first on the job” are deteriorating. Every year, the figures break sad records: vacant housing – 3.2 million -, eviction judgements, homeless people, unsatisfied HLM requests, DALO priorities not re-housed, etc.
Where the requisition law should be applied, and a national strategy to mobilise vacant housing should be put in place, it is chosen under the media pressure of a few high profile cases to put people in precarious housing on the streets.
Indeed, since 11 July, when the winter break in evictions ended, thousands of untitled occupants of vacant premises and land have been evicted by thousands and most of them abandoned on the streets, at best after a few nights’ accommodation.
From a moral point of view, this measure severely burdens the homeless who do not resign themselves to dying prematurely on the pavements.
Every year several hundred homeless women, men, elderly and disabled people die as a result of their miserable living conditions and the violation of their primary right to stable accommodation until they are rehoused.
If this brutal provision, which we discovered on Tuesday afternoon, is adopted by the law committee on Tuesday night in the assembly, we will have to mobilise, because the emergency is there:
There will only be one debate left in the assembly session from 27 September and a final adoption in the Joint Joint Committee to change the course of things once again.
Unavowed intention or error of appreciation by the Government? The words « occasional residence » must be deleted and a housing policy must be implemented to house the population.
A roof is a right!
[1] The term « occasional residence » was introduced by INSEE in the 1990s to designate dwellings occupied intermittently by their owner for professional reasons (e.g. MPs, pied à terre …). But an INSEE standard is not the law. The introduction of this standard in the census had the effect of temporarily reducing the number of vacant dwellings …
Droit Au Logement fédération – 29 Avenue Ledru-Rollin 75012 Paris
tél : 01 40 27 92 98 • http://www.droitaulogement.org/
COMMUNIQUÉ
Paris le 15 septembre 2020
DANGER : Un amendement élargit l’expulsion sans jugement à l’ensemble des occupants sans titre de logements, locaux et terrains vacants…
La proposition d’amendement n°695 du projet de loi ASAP, inséré après l’article 30 bis, du rapporteur Mr Guillaume KASBARIAN, député LREM et soutenu par le Gouvernement, étend l’expulsion administrative (expulsion forcée sur décision du préfet et sans jugement), en quelques jours et rétroactivement à l’ensemble des occupants sans titre de logements, bureaux, locaux et terrains vacants.
En effet, l ‘amendement introduit le terme de « résidence occasionnelle », absent de la loi française[1] . Il est également absent de la norme fiscale, pour laquelle une résidence principale est soumise à la taxe d’habitation, une résidence secondaire est soumise à la TH résidence secondaire, et un logement vacant est soumis à une taxe sur les logements vacants en zone tendue et, suivant les commune, hors zone tendue.
Puisqu’il n’est ni une résidence principale, ni une résidence secondaire, « une résidence occasionnelle » est donc un logement vacant !
Il pourrait même s’agir d’une ruine, dans le jardin de laquelle a été planté une tente il y a quelques années : rien n’empêche d’expliquer au préfet qu’il s’agit d’une résidence occasionnelle, puisque la loi ne la définit pas…
Une autre dérive de cet amendement si cette notion floue est maintenue serait de donner un moyen aux marchands de sommeil et autres bailleurs indélicats d’expulser leur locataires « au noir » à jour de leur loyer, pratiques courantes dans les pavillons de banlieue loués à la découpe, les chambres de bonne Haussmaniennes ou les taudis.
Sans bail, sans quittance, sans facture de fluide (énergie, eau …), le locataire surexploité serait alors à la merci d’une expulsion express et ce, sans examen du juge, pour peu que le locataire par exemple ne règle pas son loyer en argent liquide ou qu’il dénonce sa situation au service de l’hygiène ou au fisc. Une expulsion illégale déguisée en expulsion légale, en quelque sorte …
Par ailleurs, il arrive fréquemment que des occupants de bonne foi aient été escroqués par de faux propriétaire. Ces situations nécessitent un examen plutôt qu’une expulsion expéditive commandée par un amendement rédigé dans l’urgence.
Par extension, un « résidence occasionnelle » pourrait aussi être un terrain nu sur lequel a été installé « occasionnellement » un mobil-home, ou être un local d’activité ou des bureaux vacants servant « occasionnellement » à y dormir une nuit ou deux …
Une telle mesure ouvrirait donc non seulement la voie à l’expulsion expéditive d’occupants sans titre qui occupent par nécessité un logement, local, bureaux ou terrain vacant, mais aussi des familles locataires de bonne foi escroquées ainsi que des locataires non déclarés.
Enfin, cet amendement s’appliquerait rétroactivement aux personnes installées depuis plusieurs mois – ou années si le propriétaire n’a pas fait diligences.
Cet amendement vient dans un contexte d’aggravation de la crise du logement et de dégradation des conditions de logement des « premiers de corvée ». Chaque année les chiffres battent de tristes record : logements vacants – 3,2 millions – , jugements d’expulsion, sans abris, demandes HLM non satisfaites, prioritaires DALO non relogés, .
Là où il faudrait appliquer la loi de réquisition, et mettre en place une stratégie nationale de mobilisation des logements vacants, il est choisi sous la pression médiatique de quelques affaires montée en épingle de mettre les personnes en grqnde précarité logement à la rue.
En effet, depuis le 11 juillet fin de la trêve hivernale des expulsions, les occupants sans titre de locaux et de terrains vacants sont expulsés par milliers et abandonnés pour la plupart à la rue, au mieux après quelques nuits d’hébergement.
Au plan moral, cette mesure accable durement les sans logis qui ne se résignent pas à mourir prématurément sur les trottoirs.
Chaque année plusieurs centaines de sans abris, femmes, hommes, personnes âgées, handicapées , décèdent du fait de leurs conditions de vie misérables et de la violation de leur droit primaire à un hébergement stable jusqu’à leur relogement.
Si cette disposition brutale que nous avons découvert mardi après midi, est adoptée en commission des lois dans la nuit de mardi à l’assemblée, il faudra nous mobiliser , car l’urgence est là :
Il ne restera plus qu’un débat en séance à l’assemblée à partir du 27 septembre et une adoption définitive en Commission mixte paritaire pour changer encore une fois le cours des choses.
Intention inavouée ou erreur d’appréciation du Gouvernement ? Il faut supprimer les mots « résidence occasionnelle » et conduire une politique du logement pour loger le peuple.
Un toit c’est un droit !
[1] Le terme de « résidence occasionnelle » a été mis en place par l’INSEE dans les années 90 pour désigner les logements occupés par intermittence par leur propriétaire pour des raisons professionnelles (députés par exemple, pied à terre …). Mais une norme INSEE ne fait pas loi. L’introduction de cette norme dans le recensement avait eu pour effet de réduire temporairement le nombre de logements vacants …
Droit Au Logement fédération – 29 Avenue Ledru-Rollin 75012 Paris
tél : 01 40 27 92 98 • http://www.droitaulogement.org/