A former notary was sentenced in Marseille to one year in prison and a fine of 30,000 euros for having endangered the life and health of his tenants by not carrying out the prescribed work in an unsanitary building.
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Pierre-Yves Loiseau, 42, will serve his prison sentence on semi-freedom.
He is also prohibited from buying real estate for ten years, his real estate civil society (SCI) is sentenced to a fine of 100,000 euros.
The building, struck in 2012 by an insalubrity order and then in 2019 by a serious and imminent danger order, was confiscated.
Between 2008 and 2010, Pierre-Yves Loiseau had acquired numerous real estate properties in Marseille, finding himself at the head of 23 SCIs, owners of 80 homes, "
a frenzy of investments without any sufficient financial basis at the time
", has noted the court in its judgment read at the hearing.
In this heritage purchased on credit, the building at 315 rue de Lyon (15th arrondissement) consisting of eleven apartments had been the subject in 2012 of an insalubrity decree with the obligation to carry out work to remedy it.
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At the hearing on February 7, Pierre-Yves Loiseau explained that tenants and squatters had prevented him from involving companies.
"
They play ball and have barbecues inside
," he said.
The court considered that difficulties may have existed due to illegal occupations but it notes however that "
Pierre-Yves Loiseau does not show any steps to maintain or attempt to restore the property
", having provided neither invoice nor quote.
More broadly, underlined President Laure Humeau, “
the property has never been the subject of rigorous management intended to ensure the occupants a healthy, decent and maintained accommodation in return for the rents collected in large part by the payment of housing allowances on the owner's account
”.
Only two former tenants, a mother and her son who occupied the building until 2016, had instituted civil proceedings.
The court awarded them each 25,000 euros in damages for non-pecuniary damage.
The ex-notary says he is today without any income, at the head of a real estate heritage from which he does not derive any income and impossible to resell, according to him, because "
pre-empted at half price by the town hall
".
Three of his single-ownership buildings and four others in which he owns one or more lots are the subject of danger or unsanitary orders and as many investigations ordered by the Marseille public prosecutor's office for refusal to carry out the prescribed work.