The six cats in the house seem to be living their best lives. But for their masters, on the other hand, it's hell on earth. “There are cracks appearing everywhere, the house creaks at night and we sometimes have to rush out, lest it collapse.” For many months, Reynald Gouguet and his wife Sandrine have lived in constant fear. Tenants of a house in Roquefort-les-Pins for 3 years, at Chemin du Plateau Fleury, they are constantly on their guard.
And for good reason: after having experienced numerous unpleasant surprises, including being electrified, the house, whose owner is none other than the town hall, now seems to literally slide and the walls fall. “When we moved in, we sent a letter to the town hall with all the work to be donesays the tenant. She remained dead. And for a little over a year, everything seems to have gotten worse.”
Hospitalized and paralyzed
Thus, in September 2023, Reynald Gouguet was first electrified after drawing water. “The house was not connected to the earth, he laments. I was hospitalized, paralyzed for a time and I have neurological after-effects since the doctors recently told me that it would not get better.” If the connection work has been done, this is still not the case for the many others to be carried out. “Look, the tiles on the stairs are lifting, just like those in the bedroom, shows us Reynald Gouguet. And there, a new crack in the ceiling, it wasn’t there this morning!” Downstairs, in the living room, there is a large patch of mold that serves as wallpaper. “It’s a disaster, all our furniture gets damp. As soon as it rains, the water rises by capillary action.” The front door does not insulate the house at all since it lets the air in one day. Just like the windows. “In winter, it’s sometimes colder inside than outside!”
“The stone staircase collapsed”
But the straw that broke the camel's back was the collapse, at the beginning of October, of a small staircase on the terrace, on which Reynald was. “Like every morning, I emptied a basin of water into the plants, he says. There, suddenly, the stone staircase collapsed as well as the guardrail with which I tried to hold on.” Result, a heavy fall on the head and a new hospitalization. “It was a telecoms technician who was passing by who found me lying on the ground. When I heard that he was close, I threw small stones to attract his attention.”
For Reynald and Sandrine Gouguet, this is the point of no return. “I was finishing training to become a child foster parent, confides the latter. I had 2 days of training left, and we were going to welcome a first child who needed a home. But everything stopped, and since no one is doing anything even though we still pay 1,550 euros in rent, we made the decision to leave at the end of the month. We are looking for another house. For the moment, we will certainly go to our son in Montpellier.”
Upon departure, the Gouguet family hopes to alert people to the dangerous nature of the home. “If we can warn the next tenants…”
Requested several times, the town hall of Roquefort-les-Pins did not respond to our requests.
