“It’s still December”: an owner removes doors and windows from a family in the middle of winter

The house, located in Montigny-en-Gohelle (Pas-de-Calais), appears barricaded. Now, shutters have replaced the front door, and sheet metal plates serve as windows. Inside, Sandrine Lemaire lives with her partner and her two daughters in unbearable conditions. “I feel empty“, declares the mother, in the TF1 report above, before bursting into tears.

Last week, craftsmen commissioned by its owner removed the doors and windows under the pretext of insulation work. Except that once removed, the workers left without installing new ones. The owner no longer responds. So, for six days, this mother of two children has been sealing the leaks as much as possible to prevent cold air from entering the house. “They took away this window which we insulated as best we could with cardboard […]. It's still December“, underlines the mother.

An illegal practice

Sandrine Lemaire claims to have been paying her rent for six months. According to him, the owner used this method to dislodge them. “The owner had already warned me: I have to leave, I have to relocate someone in my family“, explains the tenant. This practice is illegal, especially since the accommodation is considered indecent, even unsanitary. Contacted by TF1, the owner did not respond.

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Sandrine Lemaire turned to the town hall of this small town east of Lens, and the prefecture. “The prefect will be able to order the owner, by issuing an order, to take the essential measures to put an end to this danger immediately, within a time limit that he will set. And it can also force the owner to rehouse the tenants, or even to compensate them“, estimates Me Carolone Laverdet, lawyer at the Paris bar. Sandrine, who filed a complaint for breach of trust, is looking for social housing in order to get out of this situation.