A French homeowner who seized the opportunity to take back her property from squatters who hadn’t paid rent in several months risks going to prison for seven years and a €100,000 ($116,000).
Getting your property back from squatters isn’t the easiest thing in the world, as Maria, the owner of a house in Carcassonne, France, recently realized. She has been involved in a lengthy and exhausting legal battle after the squatters who had been living in her house without paying her rent sued her for unlawful eviction and burglary. The bizarre story dates back to the summer of 2022, when Maria seized the opportunity to reclaim her property when the people living in it without paying her rent went on vacation. She had tried reasoning with them to get them to pay rent or leave the house, but they refused, and the authorities refused to get involved, so she took matters into her own hands. She changed the locks on the doors and sold some of the squatters’ belongings at a garage sale to get back some of the money they owed her. That proved to be a big mistake!
Photo: Jaye Haych/Unsplash
Maria claims that when she decided to evict the squatters herself, she thought about the debts that had already piled up over several months, including the mortgage payments, and the Court decision that risked dragging on for more than a year. It was more than she could afford to pay, so she felt like she had no choice.
“I thought about the winter break, I thought about what was going to happen afterward, especially about the money I was going to lose,” Maria said. “Because it had already been 5 months since I had been paying off the credit, and they hadn’t paid me. I said to myself, I’m going to find myself with more than 20,000 euros in debt. I wasn’t ready to lose that money.”
🇫🇷 En 2022 Maria expulse les squatteurs de son logement, elle risque aujourd’hui une peine de 7 ans de prison et une amende de 100 000€.
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After changing the locks to prevent the squatters from getting back in, Maria emptied the house of their possessions and even sold some of them at a yard sale to get back some of the money they owed her in unpaid rent and utility bills. She would later learn that her actions were more serious than she had ever imagined.
“I emptied the house, completely, and when they came back from vacation, they called the police. They made a bailiff’s report, I was summoned, and we are in the middle of court proceedings,” Maria said, adding that she now stands accused of burglary and unlawful eviction. If found guilty, she risks spending up to 7 years in prison and paying a fine of €100,000 ($116,000).
