Tenants prevent paying hire to protest unsanitary situations
It’s been over a month that Nicole and Pascal Vermeulen, a middle-aged couple from Lignières, France, have had to sleep in fear of someone certainly on foot in their home at night. That’s because they don’t have a front door anymore, or windows for that matter after the house proprietor removed them as punishment for not receiving the rent.
Three years ago, when the Vermeulen family found a one hundred ten square-meter house for lease in the village of Lignières for €500 a month, they thought they had been getting a good deal, but things started going south soon when they moved in.
The building’s septic tank got clogged years ago, rendering the toilet and bath unusable. The tenants have had to deal with human waste coming up through the toilet and shower drain on more than one occasion, and the restroom walls are constantly blanketed with mold. Also, their garage always smells like a sewer.
Despite their repeated pleas to the condo owner to get the septic tank fixed and the home being declared unsanitary using the CAF (Direction of Family Allocations), the proprietor genuinely unnoticed the troubles.
Because Nicole and Pascal have a low monthly profit, they can’t afford to look for another place to live, so they did the most extreme thing they could to get the proprietor’s attention—they stopped paying their rent.
That didn’t pretty exercise the session as they had hoped, though. Instead of getting the septic tank fixed or asking them to go away if they didn’t locate the residence according to their wishes, the person took a few drastic measures, cutting their power and water.
Nicole Vermeulen has to wear an oxygen mask at night, so having no strength became a huge deal, but the couple decided they weren’t going to go into reverse. They refused to leave or pay the monthly lease, which only made the proprietor angrier.
Last month, he got here and honestly removed the house’s front door and home windows, the living room door, the mailbox, and the garden gate. The tenants could do nothing but sit down and watch because they have been his property.
“We do not sleep at night; we take turns preserving protection,” Nicole said in a radio interview. “Since we have no greater doors, we’re afraid the proprietor will simply walk in.”
The couple is terrified because the proprietor of the house reportedly has a previous conviction for armed violence for the duration of preceding neighborhood warfare.
In case you’re thinking whwonderingrmeulen’sVermeulens report a grievance or take the proprietor to court docket, they seemingly already did that, but have little to reveal for it. Afy won the trial and the attraction. A judge ordered the house proprietor to pay the couple €2,800, but they have not seen a cent from him.
Nicole and Pascal are currently seeking an emergency relocation solution, but with modest monthly finance of just €530, the task appears daunting. Meanwhile, they maintain to stay in a residence without a front door or windows.
