Europe 1 with AFP 3:19 p.m., December 2, 2022

A bill toughening the penalties against squatters was adopted by the National Assembly on Friday.

It also speeds up procedures in the event of unpaid rent.

Wind standing against this provision, the left is concerned to see the number of expulsions soar.

The National Assembly on Friday adopted a bill toughening penalties against squatters and speeding up procedures in the event of unpaid rent, despite opposition from the left and associations worried about seeing evictions explode.

The text, carried by the Renaissance and Horizons groups (presidential majority) and supported by the right and the RN, was voted on at first reading by 40 votes to 13, and must now be examined by the Senate.

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It triples the penalties incurred by the squatters, up to three years in prison and a fine of 45,000 euros.

Sanctions aligned with those currently targeting an "owner who changes the lock", argued Guillaume Kasbarian (Renaissance).

The bill specifies that the squat also concerns second homes and unoccupied dwellings containing furniture, for which the express eviction procedure could be used.

A crime of occupation without right or title

To legally cover all cases, and no longer just "home invasion", the bill also creates an offense of occupation without right or title, including premises for economic use.

MEPs have also increased the penalties for "sleep merchants" posing as landlords in order to rent a property.

In its section on unpaid rent, the text speeds up legal proceedings in rental disputes, in particular by systematically integrating into lease contracts a "automatic termination clause".

Activating this clause would allow a landlord to obtain the termination of the lease without having to take legal action, and thus to be able to obtain an eviction of the tenant more quickly.

The left upwind 

The left rose up against an "anti-tenant" law and the "criminalization of all the poorly housed".

Together with the associations, she criticizes the text in particular for being able to put on the street tenants weakened by inflation and rising energy bills.

"We talk a lot about squatters, but most of the people who will be impacted are people who have regularly entered a dwelling with a lease and who find themselves in eviction proceedings because of unpaid rent", lambasted MP LFI William Martinet.