It is a series that continues. In December, in Reims, a building collapsed, fortunately without causing any casualties. A month earlier, in Lille, a 45-year-old doctor was killed in the collapse of two adjoining buildings in a shopping street in the city center. A few days later, another apartment building in Chaponost, near Lyon, collapsed. The city had also experienced the same phenomenon in February. Two women were slightly injured in the accident. Recently, the collapse of buildings that shook Marseille on the night of Saturday April 8 to Sunday April 9 seems to be the result of a gas-related explosion. But this destruction has revived memories of the multiplication of recent collapses. Far from being simple tragic coincidences, these events are the result of many factors, linked to global warming, the increasingly short duration of construction… as well as the lack of controls which, for lack of a legal obligation, are often non-existent.
The first people to be able to realize the risks that a dwelling represents are its occupants. Some warning signs exist, such as cracks in ceilings or walls. These are particularly to be monitored if they are greater than five millimeters. It is better to warn the owner or the syndicate of his building. “The occupant has the responsibility to watch how his building evolves. When he sees a sign of fragility, he must speak to his owner”, explains Louis du Merle, legal director of the National Agency for information on housing. (ANIL). The owners are responsible for the maintenance and renovation of the building. Work that can be expensive, which partly explains why some renovations are slow to take place. “They are financially engaging, admits Louis du Merle. It happens that people have had their accommodation audited by a private company, that they have identified the problem but that the co-ownership does not manage to agree to vote on works, for example”.
The power of the mayor
In the event that the latter does not react, the tenants can continue their procedures. “If you are a tenant and you feel that your accommodation is not dignified and secure, it is possible to make a report”, notes Maître Camille Mogan, lawyer at the Bordeaux bar. When the state of disrepair of a residential building is more advanced, anyone aware of the threat of the collapse of a balcony, a roof – or even loose stair steps – must warn the mayor of the municipality concerned.
He can then set in motion two procedures. In the first case, a security order (formerly called “peril order”), which allows the owner to make observations to determine the solidity of the building. In the second case, an emergency procedure, in the event of imminent danger, authorizes the city councilor to ask a judge in chambers of the competent administrative court to appoint an expert. Within 24 hours, he must examine the building in question and the neighboring buildings. “If the danger seems immediate and serious, the accommodation will be subject to an emergency security order, continues Camille Mogan. Its inhabitants are obligatorily relocated during the works, and, in the case of tenants, their rent is suspended. “. The owner(s) are then given formal notice to carry out the work within a time limit set by the mayor. Penalties that may get up up to 1000 euros per day of delay are foreseen.
No control needed
The mayor therefore has a prerogative: that of policing buildings threatening ruin. “The city councilor has very wide latitudes: he can carry out observation studies to produce a decree which will either force the evacuation of a building, the implementation of works, or its demolition, details Juliette Mel , a lawyer associated with M2J and a doctor of law. He can also self-seize if he notices that there is a threat to a building”. These powers of the aedile also sometimes create controversy. In Perpignan, the town hall (RN) for example decided several years ago to demolish several houses risking an “imminent collapse” in the gypsy district of Saint-Jacques. This decision has long been postponed, while activists for the preservation of Roussillon’s heritage pointed to the historic loss constituted by these demolitions in one of the oldest districts in Europe. If the construction site has started, the destruction of certain buildings in this district always debated.
But for such a procedure to be challenged, the mayor, owners and/or tenants must already be aware of the possible risk that a building may present. However, this is not always the case. “Unlike boilers or air conditioning, which must be checked every three years, no inspection obligation exists for buildings”, explains Juliette Mel. The absence of a mandatory audit results in a general lack of knowledge of the state of our real estate portfolio. “This is as valid for private constructions as for public ones! exclaims the lawyer. When you build a bridge or a work of art, there is not always a long-term verification of its viability, so strange as it may seem”.
In 2019, following the collapse a few months earlier of a viaduct in Genoa, Italy, parliamentarians produced a report on the state of bridges in France. They had drawn a bitter conclusion. “It is not possible today to know the exact number of bridges in France, in the absence of an exhaustive census of the bridges managed by the local authorities, lamented the senators. This observation is surprising and itself reveals the shortcomings in bridge monitoring and maintenance policy”. The question arose particularly for small towns, where “the relative share of bridges in poor condition in 2008 – 16%, the date of the latest data available on the subject – was more than double that of State bridges at the same epoch – 7%”. A number of which the senators were alarmed, while everything indicated “that the situation of the municipal bridges had deteriorated since 2008”, in the absence of “generalized policy of surveillance and maintenance of the works of art”.
The Spanish case
The risks are obviously increased tenfold in the case of residential buildings, which are much more numerous than engineering structures in France. “The situation is all the more worrying since at present, no plan synthesizes what is on the surface, and what is below, points out Juliette Mel. is alarming at a time when, with climate change, we are increasingly confronted with phenomena of soil swelling or shrinkage”.
In Marseille, the collapsed buildings on rue d’Aubagne on November 5, 2018 could have been weakened by a waterlogged basement. A situation known for more than ten years, which had led to the issuing of several danger orders, some of which date back to… 2005. Several indictments have also been pronounced in this case, including one from Marseille Habitat, the social landlord of the town hall of Marseille, for “involuntary homicides by deliberate violation of a security obligation”. “We would prefer that the town halls are no longer the only ones to intervene in these cases, says Kevin Vacher, an activist from Marseille against the poor housing of the November 5 collective. A general housing inspectorate should be able to intervene and check the buildings on a regular basis. “.
A titanic task, which nevertheless already takes place abroad. In Spain, for example, the technical inspection of buildings (ITE) makes it possible to know whether a building complies with the standards of habitability, safety or town planning. Carried out by an architect, it is mandatory for condominiums and individual houses over 50 years old – 45 in Catalonia. A way of coping with the aging and risks of buildings, with which France will be increasingly confronted. “Our buildings are aging, and over-urbanization is intensifying, observes Juliette Mel. Without global support, collapses risk multiplying. They are already on the increase”.