“It costs us several million euros, and we continue to pay!
On the phone, a spokesperson for AXA France does not mince words.
The tone is serious as the matter is sensitive and complex.
When the Axa France guarantee fund insured Benoît L., at the head of the property manager Belgrand Immobilier, with a sulphurous reputation, manager of more than a hundred Ile-de-France condominiums, mainly in Paris, he did not imagine that he did so. would cost so much.
For at least three years, the insurer has been regularly contacted by co-owners, with the same grievances against their ex-trustee, accused of having deceived them.
What reinforce the eternal mistrust of a profession whose functioning remains opaque for many.
Fraud, tax fraud, money laundering, aggravated breach of trust, forgery and use of forgery ... in September 2021, Benoît L. whose name appears in several other ongoing investigations, will have to answer for these accusations before the court of Paris, as A source close to the matter confirms it to us.
Two condominium managers are at the origin of the complaint.
“We had confidence in this insured, insists Axa.
For two years we have been discovering issues, such as the change of corporate name that he never communicated to us, ”deplores Axa.
"The trustee never transmitted the bank statements"
In a small Parisian condominium in Belleville (eleventh), "a civil action was launched a little over a year ago against Axa", details Sandrine Zalcman, lawyer.
Objective: “To recover the sums that the co-owners could not have at the time of Belgrand's default, ie precisely 83,675.34 euros.
Overnight, these residents found themselves without a trustee and with zero euros in their fund even though they had paid their charges.
"
Paris (XIth), in February 2021. This small condominium is part of the hundred in Ile-de-France which was managed by the property manager Belgrand Immobilier.
LP / Maïram Guissé
Putting together the file was laborious.
"The former trustee has never transmitted the bank statements so there is a lack of supporting documents", concedes Me Zalcman.
It was therefore necessary for several days to go through each line of the general ledger, this document which includes the details of the accounts of the co-ownership, and to write to the service providers.
“We realized that Belgrand Immobilier had not paid certain suppliers or was making duplicate payments for a single invoice.
This is obviously not usual, we imagine that there is eel under the rock ”, analyzes Sandrine Zalcman.
Today, the entire daily life of the inhabitants is impacted.
“They live in unacceptable conditions, deplores Eddy Rochereau, manager of Erimmo who took over the management of this condominium at the end of 2018. When you are missing nearly 100,000 euros, that is necessarily a problem.
Roof repair work is blocked.
They live with a tarp instead of a roof!
And we are unable to refinance the work.
"
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Impossible indeed to make a new call for funds.
“We would have to divide nearly 100,000 euros by 20, or about 5,000 euros per co-owner, it's huge, especially since this amount has already been paid.
Humanly, it is also very complex to manage and incomprehensible for many.
"The building is deteriorating, there is infiltration everywhere"
Behind the windows of this five-story condominium, the inhabitants are raging.
“We were stolen, Philippe enraged, the building is deteriorating, there is infiltration everywhere.
"This 47-year-old accountant bought" a commercial space and the F4 apartment above, in 1995 for around one million francs
(Editor's note: 153,000 euros)
".
The investment of a life he refuses to lose.
"I wonder how he
[Benoît L.]
can get out of it," recalls Philippe.
If he wonders so, it is because his co-ownership is far from being the only one in dispute with this former trustee, who managed around 150, in the Val-d'Oise and especially in Paris.
Jean-Marie, owns a studio in one of these residences, in the 20th century.
Supporting documents, this accountant returns to "the catastrophic management" of his co-ownership.
"We estimate the damage suffered at around 62,000 euros," he says, while presenting photocopies of two account statements from February 2018. On the first, the one submitted by Belgrand Immobilier, the balance of the co-ownership, creditor, amounts to 20,979.94 euros.
On the second document provided by the bank, the amount is much less: 2,044.73 euros.
"Our account statements were falsified and we found several double invoices and even fictitious invoices", argues the owner who, like Philippe, is supported by the activist David Frigge of the Copro Libres Saint-Denis collective.
Illegal services billed ... before disappearing
The ten or so condominiums that we contacted describe the same process each time.
"First, the trustee invoices illegal services, then invents false ones, and will seek the vote of important work that will not be carried out, before leaving overnight", details Emile Hagège, general manager of the ARC (Association of condominium managers).
We know Belgrand well, we have denounced their practices, have even met them.
It's a professional scandal!
"
Who is behind this trustee?
To find out, back in 2006, in the Val-d'Oise.
That year, Benoît L., “clever”, “always well dressed”, describes a co-owner, created the company 3L Partners with his wife and an employee, whose head office is in Sannois (Val-d'Oise) .
In 2017, the name of the company changed and became Belgrand Immobilier until the liquidation in October 2018. “Everything has always gone well, swears Benoît L, 48, whom we contacted by phone.
I got involved and today with my family, I am harassed, insulted on the Internet and unfairly threatened.
"
"It's a small world, when someone gets out of hand, you quickly know"
He indicates that he is “on sick leave following major health problems”, before ensuring “being unemployed” and “no longer having a company since Belgrand Immobilier”.
However, in September 2018, Benoît L. became president of the company AB Syndic et gestion whose head office is based in Sannois in the Val-d'Oise before being transferred to Epinay (Seine-Saint-Denis) in November 2020. The name then becomes All Wishes Immo.
Benoît L. is resigning from the presidency, as evidenced by the official website for legal business announcements.
In the realm of trustees, Ile-de-France has around 3,000, Belgrand Immobilier does not have a good reputation.
"It's a small world, when someone gets out of hand, it quickly becomes clear", comments a professional.
Especially since justice has already got involved on several occasions.
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This was the case for the Jardins d'Acadie.
A residence in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, surrounded by trees, near the Marshals, where elderly people live.
In January 2018, 3L Partners was condemned by the Paris tribunal de grande instance
to be paid 57,159 euros to the co-owners.
The sum corresponded to the amount of the six disputed transfers made on December 5, 2014. “After the revocation of his mandate, Belgrand transferred certain sums to his profit saying that they were invoices, which is false, explains Dominique Demeyere. the lawyer.
This money was not owed to them.
"
Information "false and misleading" according to Benoît L.
Since then, the Jardins d'Acadie have still received nothing, "not a cent".
Dominique Demeyere ensures that other "anomalies" were detected for "very large sums".
All these cases, Benoît L. refuses to mention them.
“You have to put things in their context, I have no information to give on that.
»As for accusations of embezzlement, calls for work ever made?
“All of this information is false and misleading.
In any case, there are insurance policies that guarantee us in the professional context.
"
Axa will appreciate.
The insurer describes "non-existent relations" with this client, except on the "judicial" level, and assures us that "we did not let anything happen, we were the insurer but we did not have a right to supervise the operations. carried out ”.
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How to reduce your condominium fees
This case revives the debate on the control of trustees.
To practice, you need a professional card issued by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI).
But this procedure is almost automatic.
"If your file is complete, that you respect the conditions (license in law, experience of three years in a real estate agency) and that provide all the requested documents including an extract from the clean criminal record, your request is validated", explains t -on at the Paris Ile-de-France CCI.
A new complaint in preparation against the trustee
However, there are financial guarantors.
Their role: to identify the financial anomalies of the trustees.
But the ARC is campaigning for the reports made by the guarantors to be accessible to the owners and intends to seize the Prime Minister on this subject.
Emile Hagège insists on the need to “strengthen the power of the union council to make it a real counter-power and avoid the omnipotence of the syndic”.
He pleads for "a double signature, of the trustee and the union council, to make transfers" to avoid "organizations of bankruptcy and embezzlement".
A new complaint is being studied against Benoît L, in criminal proceedings.
Philippe is putting together his dossier in this regard.
"It's a matter of weeks," confirms his lawyer.
“He must pay for what he did, repeats disillusioned Philippe.
Such stories must not happen again ”.