Until now, slumlords operating in the poor suburban neighbourhoods surrounding Paris have notoriously escaped legal action through a combination of inertia on the part of local authorities, the fear and lack of alternative accommodation on the part of tenants, and the phantom-like existence of these cash-paid proprietors. But two suburban town halls, in Clichy-sous-Bois and Gennevilliers, have now undertaken a vigorous combat against slum property owners, and are succeeding in bringing them to court. Ellen Salvi reports on a case heard earlier this month, and which reveals a tale of desperate squalor and exploitation that is the daily predicament of thousands living around the capital.
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It was an unusual trial that was held in the court in Nanterre, west of Paris, on November 7th. Unusual because owners of slum property, slumlords, only very rarely appear before magistrates.
The case heard was brought against El Mafoud Driouche, owner of a crumbling, insalubrious building at number 5, rue Arsène-Houssaye in the nearby town of Gennevilliers. For several years it had been home to about 20 people, including four children.
The municipal authorities in Gennevilliers, engaged in a vigorous fight against local slumlords, were civil party to the case brought by the public prosecutor's office.
Several of the former occupants of the property appeared as witnesses. Their testimony detailing living conditions in the building was damning; stagnant water, no toilets, faulty electrical wiring, flooring and ceilings that were in danger of collapsing, rooms without daylight and plagues of cockroaches, rats and other vermin.
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"It's not from Zola, it's not from Dickens, it is indeed today's case file," said Tanguy Salün, lawyer for the town hall, addressing the court. He described the trial as that of "poor housing, misery and shame".
The case centred on 12 so-called ‘apartments', ranging in surface area from 7 m2 to 25 m2, and rented out at between 150 euros and 350 euros per month. The owner had consistently ignored multiple notices served on him, beginning in 2006, by both Gennevilliers town hall and the local prefecture ordering building work and improvements to be carried out.
Finally, in October 2009, the local prefecture declared the property insalubrious and uninhabitable. The local public prosecutor's office then launched proceeding against the owner, based on a report by the municipal hygiene department, and the building was bricked-up, awaiting demolition.
Phantom-like existence
Charged with "The provision for habitation of a property unfit for that purpose" and "the submitting of several vulnerable and dependent people, including at least one minor, to undignified conditions of accommodation", neither El Mafoud Driouche nor the now bankrupt estate agents who managed the rental of the property until 2008, SBH Agence de l'Église, were present for the trial. "In this case, everyone seems to have adopted the motto ‘Courage, run away'," commented the public prosecutor.
The lack of detailed personal information about slumlords is a recurrent problem. The court heard that Driouche, born in Morocco to where he has now fled, had no criminal record and was retired, although what activity he previously exercised was not mentioned. According to one witness, he continues to do business in Morocco. His son had been questioned in the context of the case several months ago, but insisted he had had no contact with his father for the past three years. Driouche's daughter, who sat amid the public gallery, remained silent throughout.
To counter this phantom-like existence that many slumlords use to escape justice, the Gennevilliers town hall has adopted radical methods. This includes erecting billboards outside slum properties with a loud, colourful poster declaring: ‘Here the owners behave like slumlords'.
Driouche's lawyer, Stéphane Le Buhan, said his client could not be called a slumlord, that he asked for little in rent, was unaware of legal requirements, and had tried to carry out repair work.
By joining itself as a civil party to the trial, the Gennevilliers town hall has sought to make a high-profile example with the case and is seeking a total of 22,000 euros in damages for both damaging the image of Gennevilliers and for the material cost, in manpower and equipment, of its intervention.
'We are part of a national combat'
In June this year, the local authorities in Clichy-sous-Bois, to the north of the capital, were also civil party to a similarly rare case brought against a local slum owner who was finally sentenced to four years in prison.
Gennevilliers is part of the large Hauts-de-Seine département, equivalent to a county, that stretches around the west side of Paris. Its 36 municipalities include both poor and wealthy areas. Addressing the court, Gennevilliers' Communist Party mayor, Jacques Bourgoin, denounced the fact that 14 towns situated in the département flouted a legal requirement that at least 20% of all housing be council-owned, subsidized accommodation. "This disrespect of the law, along with the housing crisis that is sweeping the country, encourages the multiplication of slumlords," he said. "By making ourselves civil parties to this case we are making a strong political stand. We are part of a national combat and what is at stake is the acceleration of [legal] procedures [against slumlords]."
The public prosecutor agreed, underlining the vulnerability of Driouche's former lodgers who he described as "minors, the elderly, mostly retired, who have small incomes and, for some among them, are over-indebted". She said Driouche, who often collected the tenants' rents himself, could not have ignored the precarious situation in which they were in, and demanded that the presiding court magistrates deliver against Driouche a suspended sentence of ten months in prison and a 40,000-euro fine. "The decision you are going to make should signify to these hoodlum landlords that the exploitation of vulnerable people is not tolerated," she concluded.
The court's verdict will be announced on December 12th.
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English version: Graham Tearse