Injustice in Housing: Fanny’s Story and Tenants’ Rights

2023-11-19 15:41:00

Fanny is distraught. On December 15, this 42-year-old from Montoise found herself on the street overnight. The property she was renting did not comply with gas and electricity standards. A disqualification order was thus decreed by the city of Mons. But the owner never warned her of the non-compliance of the premises and since then, no rehousing solution has been offered.

”I had been renting this house since 2015. At the time, it was almost empty. I had to install a kitchen, do a lot of work, redo the garden. On December 15, I received a blow when I discovered an uninhabitable notice stuck on my window telling me that I had to leave the premises. However, the owner never warned me,” she criticizes.

An owner threatens his tenant… he is deprived of his liberty!

The decree, which we have consulted, indicates that “the housing department of the Public Service of Wallonia carried out a visit to your accommodation on January 26, 2022. During this investigation, failures to respect the minimum health criteria were noted . We have sent this report to your landlord and asked him to send us the compliant electricity, gas and boiler maintenance certificates. He provided us late with the non-compliant certificates for the gas and electricity installations,” the missive indicates. “Consequently, we inform you that an order declaring the accommodation uninhabitable is taken without delay for rehousing given the dangerous nature of the gas and electricity installations. We note that you have found a temporary rehousing solution and that your move is in progress. In fact, the building can no longer be occupied.”

Neither one nor two, Fanny contacts her owner to express her astonishment, and organizes a check-up with Ores. The Gas and Electricity Network Operator in Wallonia has not observed any gas leaks as initially indicated by the Walloon control body. “So I called my landlord to tell him that there was no reason for me to leave my accommodation but despite that, I still found myself put on the street on December 15 at minus 7 degrees because the first report is law.”

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Fanny then slept for three days at the Ibis hotel as planned by her insurance. Since then, she has been sleeping “left and right” and has contacted all the housing operators in Wallonia to find a roof over her head, to no avail. ”There is no free transit or emergency accommodation. My situation is dramatic, especially since I am PMR and I cannot accept an apartment on the first floor without an elevator.”

Fanny believes she was taken by surprise and denounces the lack of humanity in her case. “I worked as a psychiatric nurse until 2017 and then in the laboratory during the Covid period when I was on the front line. I’ve always paid my bills, and I’m treated like nothing. All they tell me is that there is a waiting list of several years for social housing, and I therefore find myself left to my own devices, removed from the population register.” she concludes, while criticizing that the owner rented his property to another person in March “while the unsanitary order was still in force.”

Contacted, the office of the mayor of Mons is well aware of Fanny Chevalier’s situation. “The lifting of the ban order was activated on June 29, 2023 after noting that the housing compliance requests had been made for re-rental. The owner then has all the leisure to rent his property to whomever he wishes, this is a private matter,” we are told. “Several housing solutions were proposed via the AIS and Toit et Moi in particular but this was not successful in particular due to a lack of compatibility in relation to his mobility problems and in relation to the fact that his file was not complete .”

Are you one of them? Thousands of tenants are unaware that they are entitled to a reduction in property tax, to be deducted from their rent!
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