In a good number of municipalities in Pas-de-Calais impacted by the recent floods, some residents still have their feet in the water. And while they selflessly wait to be able to return to normal life, everyone fears that such climatic events will recur in the short or medium term. In the media, many have assured of their attachment to this territory and the regional president, Xavier Bertrand, has sworn that he will do everything to ensure that residents do not flee the areas concerned.
But when fed up has overcome tenacity, will those who want a change of scenery be able to do so without losing too much weight?
Give up everything and sell the house
Selling your house to take refuge in the heights is the solution that seems the most obvious, of course, but it is not the least risky. The whole problem is how much to sell it, and to whom. “Today we have not yet had a request for sale. One thing is certain, it is that the stability or fall of prices will depend on what will be done in these sectors against flooding,” we recognize at Era Immobilier in Saint-Omer. But our interlocutor remembers a similar situation. “We had observed a decline in the real estate market in Blendecques before the latest events, because this sector had already been flooded in 2002,” assures the real estate agent.
At Dilplus Immobilier, still in Saint-Omer, the team was contacted by a resident who wanted to leave her house: “She is an elderly person whose house is no longer suited to her situation. » The agency continues: “We estimated his property at 80,000 euros as it stands, whereas the house was worth 130,000 before the floods. »
For our two real estate agents, there is no doubt that the sectors concerned will lose value, it remains to be seen in what proportion. They are also betting that the spared sectors, deemed safer by future buyers, will see their prices rise.
Running off with insurance money
There is no doubt that those affected in January, like those in November, will be able to benefit from the natural disaster compensation scheme. But can you even collect the check without rebuilding your damaged house? A real estate agent in Audomarois was contacted by a resident who wishes to pocket the insurance without doing any work and put his property up for sale “as is”. “Legally, it is partly possible,” says Jérôme Mahieu, head of the compensation department of the insurance broker Verspieren.
According to him, if the insurance contract includes a “replacement value” guarantee, the insured will be paid “immediate compensation” quickly after the loss for which no supporting documentation will be required. “This immediate compensation is a percentage of the final compensation. But under no circumstances can the final compensation be received, the balance being paid upon presentation of invoices,” adds the expert. If it is better to avoid talking about your intentions to sell as is to your insurer, even if there is nothing illegal about it, you also have to do the math. Namely: does the addition of the price of the house as is and the immediate compensation allow you to get back on your feet?
Being expropriated
We will immediately put an end to the rumor: we cannot ask to be expropriated. “I have indeed heard that there have been requests for expropriation, but expropriation only takes place at the request of the authority which has the possibility of doing so. Either to the municipality or to the intercommunality,” insists Maître Camille Robiquet, lawyer specializing in public law.
So of course, we can suggest to the mayor or the president of the intermunicipality to expropriate us, it is still necessary that the expropriation presents a public utility. This is the case, for example, for the creation of municipal subdivisions, green spaces, schools or hospitals. “The question of danger can perhaps fall within the framework of a declaration of public utility, but the initiative must come from the community,” believes Maître Robiquet.
It is indeed possible, and it is in this case that the major natural risks prevention fund (FPRNM), also called “ Barnier funds », intervenes. Created in 1995, this fund aimed to “ to finance compensation for expropriation of property exposed to a major natural risk » or compensation for the amicable acquisition of property for the same reasons.
But, here again, the FPRNM can only be requested by a community wishing to shelter people living in areas particularly exposed to “brutal, dangerous and unpredictable” hazards, such as “land movements, land subsidence , avalanches, torrential or rapidly rising floods or marine submersion”. The other conditions are that “the property concerned must be covered by insurance”, “located in an area where knowledge of the hazard indicates a serious threat to human life” and that “there are no alternative measures of protection”. less expensive backup and protection. The work undertaken after the visit to Pas-de-Calais of Prime Minister Gabriel Attal could therefore call into question the intervention of this fund.