In cases involving landlords and tenants, or even squatters, it’s never a good idea for the former to take the law into their own hands. Home invasion, intimidation, moral prejudice… the courts have plenty of reasons to be heavy-handed when dealing with landlords in a position of power, according to the judges. This case, which took place in the commune of Évrecy (Manche), is no exception to the rule. It pits a couple of tenants who wanted to leave their home on the basis of a simple text message sent a few days before they were due to leave against the landlord, who took a dim view of their manners.

As reported by La Manche Librethe 60-year-old farmer, who manages a large house divided into apartments, couldn’t stand it when a couple of her tenants gave her notice at the beginning of August to move out on September 1 by simple SMS, with the intention of collecting their last belongings on August 10. This was totally illegal, given that the notice period must be given by registered letter and is 3 months in a non-tensioned area such as Évrecy. But the landlady’s reaction was just as illegal: on August 7, she threw all the remaining belongings into the skip. Even more curiously, the tenants’ car, an old Citroën Saxo, also disappeared after this intervention. On August 14, the couple lodged a complaint against the landlady.

3,000 euros compensation and 10,000 euros fine

Although the tenants probably didn’t make much of an impression on the Caen judicial court, the man of the couple was ordered to leave the court during the hearing on October 2 because he was drunk. The landlady received a heavy sentence. She will have to pay 3,000 euros in moral prejudice to the tenants, as well as 10,000 euros in the form of 1,000 day fines at 10 euros. However, the landlady had calculated the rent arrears at 6,000 euros. She is said to have decided to entrust her rental management to a commissaire de justice (the new name for bailiffs).