On June 21, 2021, in the dead of night, Emmanuelle Huchon was woken up by her neighbors.
The two buildings adjoining his are collapsing.
With her three children, she leaves her apartment, leaving all their belongings there.
Of the two collapsed buildings on Rue de Rousselle, nothing remains.
And if everyone, by some miracle, survived the night of horror, many owners like Emmanuelle and her husband Xavier, who were absent that night, will no longer be allowed to return to their homes for a year, not even to collect the bare necessities.
Two years later, the family has still not obtained authorization to return to live in their apartment and the costs have accumulated: to find new accommodation, buy basic necessities, reimburse the town hall which cleared and secure the street, diagnose their building in order to hope to carry out the work necessary for its rehabilitation...
For ten years, we have to live in parentheses?
Xavier Huchon
Their insurance refuses to advance anything.
“In two and a half years, we have received neither compassion, nor legal aid, nor financial assistance,”
says Xavier Huchon, disillusioned.
They explain to us that they are waiting for the responsibilities to be known before helping us.
But it could take ten years.
And for ten years, we have to live in parentheses?
We’re already underwater!”
A burglary and still no help
The icing on the cake was that when they returned from Christmas vacation this year, the Huchons learned that their apartment had been burglarized.
“They stole the television, some jewelry, some money and destroyed the front door
,” says the weary mother.
And once again, their confidence is not there.
“A few months after
the collapses,
we asked our advisor if we needed to change our contract and he assured us that we could keep it in its current form.
We therefore thought we were protected, but when we informed them of the burglary, they told us that our protection excluded theft incidents when they occurred during an evacuation period ordered by the authorities,
they were surprised.
We have the impression that insurance companies systematically look for gray areas!”
.
Contacted, their insurance did not wish to make comments but undertook to contact the Huchons to
“study their file again and assess their situation more precisely”
.
Find out their story in our video report.