For months, Virginie Baudry has feared the slightest gust of wind. On the house next to hers, props have been placed, but that is not enough to reassure her. Only three meters separate the two houses. She waits with great impatience for the work to be done.
Virginie Baudry owns her house at number 23 avenue Wilson, in Saint-Andre-les-Vergers, near Troyes, in Aube. Living alone with her daughter, she fears a catastrophe. She fears that the house acquired by her neighbors will collapse and take hers away. “We live in hell. Each of my windows overlooks the beams that have been put in place. We can no longer enjoy our garden.”
She says that after buying the neighboring house, the owner discovered problems. “The neighbor invited me to come and see. This house had not been heated for two years, and following a water leak“, she thinks, “the floor leaned at least 15 centimeters. Since then, it has surely gotten worse.“.
I’m afraid it will last for years, that the house will collapse.
“An expert who came to make a report asked me to leave the house. I asked for the protection of my home, and that the two houses be placed under imminent peril”. Virginie Baudry indicates that the town hall of Saint-André-les-Vergers forced the neighbor to have support beams installed, which was done during the first confinement.
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Virginie Baudry lives in anguish. “On the land adjoining the neighbour’s house, and sold to a promoter”, she says, “about fifteen trees between 15 and 20 years old were uprooted. It was hell”. She denounces the fact that this is happening near her home, but that she is not aware of anything.
It indicates that the cracks are widening and that small debris is falling. “The estimated amount to repair the neighboring house is 100,000 euros. I asked by sending a registered letter, the schedule of work and repairs”. Virginie Baudry hired a lawyer, Me Davis Scribe, to settle the problem. She wants to get money for the nuisances which she undergoes. “This is to make it move forward, but it is stagnating because there are several stakeholders. I’m afraid it will last for years, that the house will collapse“.
On November 17, 2021, the imminent danger decree was transformed into a simple danger decree by the town hall, with the obligation for the owner to carry out work within the year.
Catherine Ledouble, Mayor of Saint-André-les-Vergers.
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She also filed a complaint against her neighbor whom she accuses of stealing flower pots. But what she fears more than anything is that her house, built in the 1930s, will be affected by the collapse of the house next to hers.
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Catherine Ledouble has been mayor of Saint-André-les-Vergers since June 2020. She was not elected when the house in question was acquired in 2019, but she is now following the file. “At the request of Ms. Baudry, the town hall issued an imminent danger decree in March 2020. The Administrative Court of Châlons-en-Champagne had been seized. The designation of an expert, then the request for an order of imminent danger had been followed by the installation of buttresses“.
Believing that there was no longer any imminent danger, in September 2020, the expert closed the file, it is said at the town hall. “On November 17, 2021, the imminent danger decree was transformed into a simple danger decree by the town hall, with the obligation for the owner to carry out work within the year. But the owner is unreachable. come back”, says the mayor of the town. “Today, it’s a problem between neighbors, a problem of private law”, she concludes.
There is therefore a little less than a year to carry out work, until November 17, 2022, so that Virginie Baudry stops living in fear.
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