They wanted to invest and acquire two buildings in Paris, Anne Hidalgo pulls the rug out from under them

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The summary judge of administrative court of Paris disavowed two property dealers who were eyeing two buildings in the 20th arrondissement, but who had been pre-empted by the mayor (PS), Anne Hidalgo, to turn them into social housing.

A decision to be suspended urgently

Hubert and Stanislas De la Neuville actually wanted to acquire two buildings, precisely located at 15, rue de Bagnolet and 2, cite Aubry, served by a common courtyard, through their company Opus Investissements. Their current owner had informed the City of Paris that he intended to sell these two buildings.

But, three months later, on July 22, 2024, the general director of the Société Anonyme (SA) of low-rent housing Habitat Social Français (HSF) had used his “right of pre-emption” by virtue of a “delegation” granted to him by the elected representatives of the Council of Paris four years earlier. The evicted buyers therefore urgently appealed to the judge of the Paris administrative court to obtain the “suspension” of this decision until the merits of the case are re-examined.

A project “not real enough” in the eyes of investors

They considered that this decision was “insufficiently reasoned” and, in any event, “late”: the decision should, according to them, have been “sent to the prefecture “before July 27”. HSF had also not justified a “sufficiently real project”, quite simply because there was “no project capable of justifying it”. However, any “pre-emption” by a community or public body must be justified by a “development project” prior to its decision.

But after verifying that the applicant company had indeed filed “a request for annulment”, the summary judge of the Paris administrative court noted that none of the arguments invoked by these two property dealers was “likely to give rise to serious doubt” about the legality of this preemption. A decision taken on August 27, 2024 and which has just been made public.

Opus Investissements was therefore disavowed. She can always hope to win her case on the merits, following the re-examination of the merits of the case by three magistrates assembled in a collegial formation, within a period generally between eighteen months and two years. Immediately, the company will have to pay 1,500 euros to HSF for its legal costs.

/CB (PressPepper)

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