The joys of being a landlord

If far enough over toward their neighbours in the Black Forest, the lovely expression Saupreiß might just be thrown in for good measure ;-)

In the UK it is possible for bailiffs to turn up with a court order and put people and their belongings on the street, then to then have the police arrive a little later to demand that people and belongings are instantly removed. That is more likely to happen in the private than public sector but the actually evictions actually do happen seven days a week with only exceptions like 25 and 26 December that the bailiffs have off.

There are exceptions as Tracy points out below. When there are school aged children or disabled dependants, but strangely not if the the tenancy holder is disabled! Even the elderly can be thrown out sadly. Here, tenants can'not be evicted until after 31 March. If there are children the social services tend not to get involved, unlike the UK where they ride in like the cavalry. The law is protective, thus those without sufficient means of finding other accommodation, are elderly, disabled or have children will not be evicted.

However, despite what is normally in the UK, if a court rules that the children must be taken into care, social services go in with the police, take every 'child' under 16 and then that is promptly followed through by the 'nice' bailiff with the court order that he reads out then the gorillas who do that by force if necessary. Irrespective of the 'protection' of school age young people, the 16 to 18s are out on their ear as well.

Although the huissiers do the equivalent job, it is more likely they will take 'goods' to the closest value to a debt and evictions, when they do happen, are when a finance house (bank or other) repossess an owned house when the mortgage or loan is clearly irretrievable. However, that is owners and not renters. There are plenty of examples of people who buy property for themselves with sitting tenants who they cannot get out because of habitude and/or servitude. I believe a SFN member pointed out a case of around 30 years a couple of years ago. Here tenancy is protected, in the UK almost not. It is in the hands of the court who order eviction or demand the place is vacated, try getting a court to take an application and turn it round in 10 days here, probably more like 10 years if they take it in at all.

There is a campaign in the UK against the almost indiscriminate practice of separating families and placing children in care because private landlords have the means of getting dealt with very quickly. As a children's rights professional I used to support an organisation that was trying to stop several thousand separations, but not the evictions, annually. In principle I prefer the way it is here, but the way property can change hands without buyers realising the tenants are protected needs to change, but without making it as brutal as the UK system.

I wonder how you can brush off the disastrous invasion of Russia which cost tens of thousands of French lives as not being realistic. It was plainly suicidal and solely because he was a megalomaniac.

Hahaha! My stepfather was born in Königsberg (which means at home in the Black Forest there are rousing choruses of "Pruss' muss raus" at the Stammtisch from time to time...)

Not many people are partially British and partially Prussian Vero but I must admit to being such a "bas*ard"! I thought you might enjoy the attached?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZqRMZIxwd4

Good egg ganged up on by nasty English & Prussians etc. Nap is marvellous & can do No Wrong (OK, Duc d'Enghien business, terrible siblings, not good at being realistic about Russia, a couple of cock-ups here & there but hey, every paragon needs a few flaws).

I have two miniatures on my wall of, respectively, Napoleon and Josephine. They were left to me by my British parents. When a good French friend (Monsieur B de la B de B ) he reprimanded me asking why on earth should I have them displayed? I pointed out that I also have Wellington, Nelson and Churchill represented in my collection (along with others). Not sure about the good egg Vero- did he not bankrupt France and virtually end their significant overseas ambitions?

I DO hope that when you say 'murderous maniacal dictator' you aren't referring to lovely & wonderful Napoleon, national hero, great man, brilliant mind and all-round good egg? (Also v good-looking when young, my daughters have posters of him all over the place).

To answer my own question...

http://www.sudouest.fr/2015/03/06/le-teich-le-locataire-affirme-qu-il-va-partir-1850516-2733.php

So basically the avocat for the tenants has said that the tenants had made a request for social housing but this wasn't accorded before the rental period ended.

"My client is an honest man, he knows he has to leave the premises. He has found another property and will be moving in a few days even though the law allows him the right for him and his family to remain at the property until the end of march"

So it turns out that the property owners refused an offer of temporary accommodation from the Mairie and that they refused this option. Bloody mindedness or pride ? Also, according to the avocat for the tenants his clients aren't dishonest nor are they down and outs and have been trying to find a solution.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Marie_Perrot

see also https://historyofscrignac.wordpress.com/ written by me! (No detailed French language history of the commune exists other than in Wkipaedia and no locals were at all interested in mine (they couldn't understand how anybody could be interested!)- maybe they thought I was cheeky even researching it!

Any chance of a link David ?

Looking at how some of these people 'live' in their rented accommodation I think I would rather live in the street !

Quite agree with you and David Donna but we know reality doesn't work like that. The rules allow lazy gits to stay at home and sponge off the rest of us but that exists just about everywhere. Radical changes are needed to force the lazy out there to contribute to society but which government will be strong enough to face up to the challenge ? Present rules provides subsistence allowances in most western countries to avoid real poverty and hardship and im sure most governments would love to find the magic solution, if it indeed exists !

Fact is we live within a framework of rules & laws, warts 'n all and one of those laws states no person or family who are tenants will be thrown on to the streets through the winter months. We all have to accept and live with these kinds of laws whether we like it or not.

It seems from the latest account in Sud Ouest that the locataires are tenants of six years standing. Their lawyer states that they have found alternative accommodation and will be moving before the end of the winter tréve.

Hah! I was wondering if anyone else ever found it funny that all these humane laws are associated with a murderous maniacal dictator who turfed more than a few families out of their homes during his rule.

But imagine if the young and fit people on benefits were told they had to work that day in order to continue to receive benefits? Why, that would be slavery of course. The fact that most of us are 'enslaved' by the need to work in order to feed and house ourselves doesn't seem to really bother most of us. We just do it because that's how a society functions.

Our priest was called Abbe Perrot- google him. The commies thought he collaborated with the Germans (as he was a Breton independentist and there were plenty of those who did collaborate as the Germans had implied that they would give Brittany some sort of independence). However there are lots of different theories. Until recently our mayor and council was communist and near the end of the war and immediately after the communists were after all bidding to control France and were serious contenders to do so. De Gaulle had other ideas.

The humane part was what led me to think it was Napoleonic law

for example...

I have started but it may take rather a long time and two volumes may be required! Oh and yes in the war our village priest was "assassinated" by the communists- way head of Don Camillo! A French sociologist (known to Brian Milne and me) wrote an academic piece about our village in the 80's but was finally "outed" and had to flee at short notice. I invited him back to give a talk to a local group of historians but the whole thing had to be done in some secrecy (worse than 'Allo! 'Allo! where the actor who played Rene was in fact a client of mine in London).