Cyril was called upon to fund around 250,000 euros to restore his squat house and in mid-May decided to pitch his tent in front of his insurance offices to encourage them to compensate him. After a period in police custody, he talks about his nightmare.
“I do not know what to do.” Cyril, 41, is in an unsolvable situation.
For him, it all started in 2012, when he bought a 4-bedroom house in Toulon, for around 200,000 euros.
A year later, he rents it out and signs a lease with a family. But the two parents end up divorcing.
The mother, placed under guardianship, no longer pays her rent and refuses to leave the premises.
Fires and damage
“I wanted the house back in 2017 because there had already been some damage and 20,000 euros in unpaid rent, he explains to us. But I couldn’t and it got worse. The house became a deal point and was squatted. There were several fires. Today it is in ruins.”
Worse, Cyril was recently given a formal notice to carry out nearly €250,000 worth of work to restore the home. Desperate, plagued by health problems and job loss, the forty-year-old finds himself unable to finance them. He addresses his insurance and for his tenant who provides the money.
Impossible to “distinguish between damage caused during the many illegal occupations and possible rent damage”, the latter argues especially with Parisian.
“I thought about shooting myself, he confides to us. If only I had done something stupid or played at the casino … but I had nothing to do with it. I still owe almost 100,000 euros to the bank on my loan, and I am when my unemployment benefits end.”
“To pressure them to compensate me”
In desperation, Cyril arrives in the Paris region in mid-May and pitches his tent in front of his insurance. “I wanted to force them to accept me, pressure them to finally compensate me as stipulated in the contract”, he reasons.
After several days spent at the entrance to the offices, Toulonnais was finally placed in police custody. “I was told that the insurance had filed a complaint against me, that it was afraid for the safety of its employees,” he explains.
“I will be summoned on November 21 by the court in Nanterre, Cyril continues. Until then I am prohibited from approaching the offices.” But no way for him to give up. The 40-year-old says he asked high-profile lawyer Mourad Battikh to help him get out of this infernal spiral.