The Administrative Court of Appeal of Nantes Orders Saint-Denis-de-l’Hotel Municipality to Pay 217,000 Euros in Compensation to Couple for Land Misrepresentation

The Administrative Court of Appeal of Nantes (Loire Atlantique) has just sentenced the municipality of Saint-Denis-de-l’Hotel (Loiret).

She’s gonna have to pour some more than 217,000 euros compensation to a couple for having it lead into error when he had purchased land which he believed ” buildable ».

Land that has become unusable

Indeed, Fabrice XXX and Véronique XXX had bought land from the division of a larger plotbut which ultimately proved unusable for their purposes.

A part is indeed located in the unbuildable band of the 75 meters that separates them from the departmental road 960 (ex-N152), a busy road.

However, the Town Planning Code provides that “buildings (…) are prohibited in a strip of (…) seventy-five meters on either side of the axis of other classified high-traffic roads”.

The applicants therefore criticized the mayor at the time, Jean-Pierre Garnier, for “not having opposed” the former owners of their land being able to sell their plot in two “constructible” lots.

“The mayor should have opposed” the creation of this small subdivision

For this they had started a long legal battle.

After winning before the Administrative Court of Orléans in October 2018they had lost everything before the same Administrative Court of Appeal of Nantes in October 2020.

But the Conseil d’Etat finally agreed with them by July 2022and at the same time forced the Nantes judges to review their copy.

“The departmental road N960, which adjoins the land (…) where it is called avenue d’Orléans, corresponds to the route of the old national road N152”, therefore begins by recalling the administrative court of appeal of Nantes in this second judgment dated May 26, 2023 which has just been made public.

However, “no act” has come to repeal the classification as a “highway” of its section “which follows the right street of the Loire, from Briare to Angers“. Consequently, “regardless of its numbering changes and its transfer” into the departmental public domain, it must therefore be “regarded as having retained this character”.

The mayor of Saint-Denis-de-l’Hôtel could not be unaware, from 2008, that the planned subdivision (…) was necessarily to lead to the establishment of the construction (…) in the unbuildable strip. Therefore, the mayor (…) should have opposed the prior declaration of subdivision [des anciens propriétaires des terrains, ndlr].

“Transfer duties” and “financial costs” included

“If the municipality (…) maintains that Mr. XXX and Mrs. XXX were able to understand from 2009 (…) that the provisions [du Code de l’urbanisme] were likely to considerably reduce the possibilities of construction (…), neither the decree (…) withdrawing the permit (…) nor the letter (…) sent by the mayor (…) in order to acquire their plots amicably (…) did not mention any reason for inconstructability”, underline the judges.

The town hall will therefore have to reimburse the couple the difference between the 110,000 euros that they spent in 2010 to buy this land and its real value of… 3,000 euros.

The “transfer duties” paid to the notary and the “financial costs related to their mortgage” – for a cost of ” 104.962,01 euros – will also have to be borne by taxpayers.

“It follows from all of the above that all damage suffered (…) amounts to the sum of 217.561,01 euros“, therefore calculates the Administrative Court of Appeal of Nantes.

Besides interest accrued since 2015the town of Saint-Denis-de-l’Hôtel will have to add 1,500 euros for the couple’s legal costs in this final episode of this long legal fight.

IG and GF (PressPepper for actu Orléans)

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