Elderly Moroccan Tenant Evicted in Bordeaux Rent Dispute, Sparks Housing Debate

It all started with a standoff between Salem Rja and the real estate agency Absolute Habitat in charge of managing the property belonging to the S.A.S Organisation and construction jumelée. The octogenarian had decided to suspend the payment of his rent in order to obtain a reaction from the S.A.S. on urgent work to be carried out. After four months of unpaid rent, the real estate agency demanded that the retiree regularize his situation before April 2024. He was then summoned to a public hearing at the local court on March 1, but did not show up, reports Rue89. An absence justified by a trip to Morocco that he left in 1972 to visit his sister. The owner then requested the termination of the lease and the eviction. Termination and eviction confirmed by a letter from the prefect on August 28.

While he had repaid his debts to his landlord in April after a debt repayment plan had been validated in March, the retiree was evicted from the home he occupied on October 17 "on the grounds of several months’ rent arrears." On Facebook, Agnès claims that Salem Rja "regularized his rents in April." She who assisted in the eviction of the retiree explains that "the owner filed a legal appeal, but once Mr. Rja had paid what he owed, the owner let the appeal run without notifying him."

Currently, the disabled octogenarian resides in a CCAS (municipal social action center) center in Bordeaux. After November 1, a new two-week period will be granted "if no other solution is available to him." He expects Harmonie Lecerf Meunier, the deputy mayor of Bordeaux in charge of access to rights and solidarity, to keep her promise to "urgently process" a request for integration into one of the city’s 15 autonomous residences.