The mail fell last Tuesday in the mailboxes, and the first receipts have since arrived, all reassessed. “My rent goes from 590 to 710 euros, an increase of 120 euros”, blows Stéphanie, 39, resident of an HLM residence in the 10th arrondissement of Marseille. And for good reason: the social landlord, Habitat Marseille Provence, provides for 2023 new monthly charges for collective heating. “I deleted subscriptions for my children, lowered the telephone packages, and we are going to switch to Chinese pasta, I have no choice”, confides this mother, technical agent for the city of Marseille.
Rachid, a 63-year-old job seeker, lives in the 13th arrondissement. For his accommodation, the increase in monthly charges is 135 euros. “We save on everything, food, leisure, and car travel,” he lists. Henri is retired, and by his own admission “he has nothing to complain about”: the additional 68.56 euros a month that the social landlord asks him for collective heating, he will be able to assume. But he made the trip this Friday morning to the social center of Frais Vallon, in the northern districts, where several tenant associations are ringing the hour of mobilization.
“We will not pay the increase in heating costs imposed by Habitat Marseille Provence”, proclaims the collective of associations, which intends to reassure the tenants and promises to hold legal offices in the district to support them. “Since the additional charges were not justified, the law authorizes us not to pay immediately”, explains Guy Lucchesi, coordinator in the northern districts of the confederation of housing and living environment. “It’s legal, abounds Thierry Del Baldo, president of the general confederation of housing 13. Today, we have no supporting documents from the social landlord, we just have an overall increase in the price of gas. »
“The government doesn’t care! »
In other words, according to the associations, it is possible to wait for the regularization of the charges at the end of the year. This leaves time to wage the battle: “We have a year to fight with the metropolis, the prefect, and to make the government hear that the ceiling of the tariff shield and the purchase price of gas must be lowered. “says Thierry Del Baldo. “Of the fourteen social landlords in the department, Habitat Marseille Provence is the one who decided unilaterally and without consultation to apply this increase in collective heating”, he continues, knowing that the others will follow. Contacted, the social landlord says he will react early next week. According to figures from the collective, the prices of the contract which binds it to its gas supplier have gone from 21 euros in 2022 to 121 euros in 2023.
In the room, this Friday, the exchanges are intense: “If we don’t pay, we risk having the bailiff! “. “Anyway, at the end of the year, you’ll have to pay! “It’s not pessimism but realism, in the end, my plan for clearing the charges, it will be based on my income. “We are here, we want to do something, but at some point we have to remain lucid, the government doesn’t care! The representatives of the associations listen, opposing each time the legal framework and the commitment of the collective. They hope to achieve, at the very least, a lower increase in charges, and better social support for tenants.
“I’m going to stop my direct debit, and not pay the part of the increase in charges”, assures Rachid, convinced. “I’m not going to pay,” Henri follows in his footsteps. “We will have to go around the other tenants,” says Stéphanie. “We are in a battle to take control of our own destiny, agrees Thierry Del Baldo. It’s a real bet, indeed, and it starts from Marseille. »