Near Toulouse: a former business manager has not paid his rent for six years, the owners at the end of their tether
Two market gardeners from Saint-Jory are trying by all means to have their tenant evicted. This retired boss owes them a whopping 45,000 euros in rent!
The Argentinian brothers are in bad spirits. The lack of rain and the insane heat of the past few weeks are threatening their tomato harvest. “It’s worse than the drought of 1976!”, shouts Jean-Michel, the youngest of the siblings. Worse, the brothers are worried about their future retirement. It has now been 6 years since the tenant of the house they built with the sweat of their brow no longer pays the rent. “We did the calculations, there are 43,525 euros in rent arrears. In reality, it should be much more. We haven’t touched the amount of rent (600 euros Editor’s note) since 1996. And I’m not talking not even water and all the taxes we’ve been paying for all these years”,strangle Camille, the older brother.
Graphologists to the rescue
Since 2005, Les frères Argentin have used all legal remedies to evict this 73-year-old tenant. Camille had to offload part of her capital through the sale of agricultural land transformed into housing estates. “So far, I’ve had more than 15,000 euros in legal fees. We even had to resort to graphologists to prove that he and his ex-wife had indeed signed the lease. In 2021, we got him evicted and yet nothing is changing. I don’t know if one day I’ll get my house back and if we manage to get him to leave, in what state we’ll find her…”, worries- he.
On July 15, the protection litigation judge refused to allow the tenant to benefit from “the procedure for dealing with the situation of over-indebtedness of individuals”.
He goes to the restaurant but does not pay his rent
The judgment is unequivocal and heavily burdens the tenant. The magistrate writes: “The persistence of a behavior of total refusal to pay the rent for such a long period, thus resulting in a substantial debt (…) and the persistence of the refusal to leave the premises when the creditor is -even in a critical situation characterized by the debtor’s lack of good faith.” In particular, the bank statements of the tenant were produced during the hearing, who did not hesitate to go to the restaurant each month without deigning to pay a penny to the Argentinian Brothers. The tenant, a former business manager, was struck down by a heart attack in 2018. Since then, his financial situation has continued to deteriorate. “I had a company in advertising but my illness put me on the side and quickly collapsed. Since I retired, I only receive 1043 euros”, indicates the septuagenarian. He admits that he has not paid his rent for 6 years and justifies himself: “The house is totally unsanitary. When I use the toilets, it happens that the excrement goes up in the bathtub… I asked Mr. Argentinian to do the necessary works. Nothing was done, it is for this reason that I stopped the payer. I carried out all the steps to join a social housing.