It is one of the most popular seaside resorts on the Atlantic coast for summer visitors. One of the most expensive also when it comes to real estate, with prices exceeding 7,000 euros per square meter for apartments. In Capbreton, each plot of land is worth gold.
What’s more when it is located in the immediate vicinity of the ocean. When the municipality of Landes wanted to recover, in 2016, a two-hectare plot to make it a public car park with 350 paying spaces in the summer, the 200 co-owners of the Les Terrasses de Notre-Dame residence, located on the edge of the beach, didn’t hear it that way. That is to say, they themselves had been using this land as their parking lot since the mid-1980s, ensuring that it belonged to them. A legal battle between the two parties then began, and has lasted for eight years.
“A very rare case”
This experienced a twist on November 21, since the administrative court of appeal of Pau (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) ruled in favor of the co-owners, condemning the city to return the land to them, and to pay to the union of co-owners of the residence the sum of 5,000 euros, “for irrecoverable costs incurred at first instance and on appeal. »
“This is a very rare case in terms of defense of property” assures 20 minutes Xavier Martin, director of Martin Gestion, the union council of Terrasses de Notre-Dame, which supports the co-owners in this matter. He does not hide “the immense pride” he has in “sharing this decision which shakes the thesis of the municipality”. “The court of appeal simply highlighted the property titles, which are in favor of the co-owners, and the fact that no transfer of ownership had been accomplished in favor of the town hall,” he maintains.
Contacted by 20 minutes, the municipality warns that the matter may not end there. “The courts do not agree among themselves, since the administrative court ruled in our favor at first instance,” the mayor’s office points out. We are examining the file with our counsel to possibly appeal to the Court of Cassation in this matter, with a single objective, that of defending the interests of the municipality. »
Eight years of parking tickets to repay?
In the meantime, “the judgment is enforceable” assures Xavier Martin, “and the parking lot has therefore been completely restored since November as being the property of the union of co-owners”. But everything is not yet settled. “A barrier and furniture are still installed, and we are sending a formal notice to the municipality to please remove all the public installations it has made. » The co-owners have also “all kept their parking tickets for eight years, we will see if they request reimbursement, which they would be entitled to do” assures Xavier Martin.
Martin Gestion had recovered the trustee of this co-ownership in 2017. “With the union council, we immediately decided to take this matter to court,” explains Xavier Martin. “The town hall considered that under a regulation of the ZAC [zone d’aménagement concertée] on this perimeter, this parking lot had to be returned to him. But this retrocession never actually took place, but one fine day, she automatically decided to install a barrier and a parking meter to make it chargeable during the summer period. This is how the co-owners of the residence also found themselves having to pay, in the summer, to return home, and what’s more on land that belonged to them. »
“The city considers that ownership of this parking lot should return to it”
“The city considers that the ownership of this parking lot must return to it, insists the Capbreton town hall, in particular because it is mentioned in an old development concession which dates back forty years, between the promoter of the time and the intercommunal union which had ownership of the land, at the time of the creation of the port basins. »
Dismissed at first instance in 2018 before the Dax administrative court, the co-owners brought the case before the Pau Court of Appeal. It remains to be seen whether the affair has just reached its epilogue, or whether it will continue.