Eight years of hell for a British couple after squatters moved into their French holiday home
A British grandmother has told of her family’s eight-year-old nightmare that cost them £150,000 in lost rent and legal fees against squatters who turned her French holiday home into a ‘den of iniquity’.
Alison Monnier, 58, and her husband Jean-Paul, 65, say they have received no help from French authorities – in a country where squatters are protected by French law 48 hours after entering.
The couple finally reclaimed one of the smallholdings in Brittany last year and were faced with a horrendous mess after the property was looted.
Fittings, doors and windows were broken and the kitchen was stolen along with expensive stoves.
The entire property was littered with drug paraphernalia and hundreds of condoms that Ms Monnier suspects were used to smuggle drugs.
The couple finally reclaimed one of the small farms (pictured) in Brittany last year and faced a horrendous mess after the property was looted
Alison Monnier, 58 (pictured), says she received no help from the French authorities
Speaking of her ordeal to MailOnline, she said: “They’ve turned it into a den of iniquity, with weekend parties and a succession of dark visitors coming and going all the time.”
She and her French husband owned the two houses on a large rural plot for 30 years and have renovated them both.
They lived in one for several years and rented out the other, but left France to move to Mrs. Monnier’s original home on the Isle of Man.
Mrs Monnier adds: ‘We had one tenant in one of the houses, but he left after a few months. He was very aggressive and we couldn’t get him out.
‘Squatters are well protected under French law, but you can’t even insure the building if there are squatters inside.’
According to Mrs. Monnier, the houses were empty. In 2015, the now squatter, who had been in prison for GBH and theft, broke into one of the homes and settled there as a squatter.
Fittings, doors and windows were broken and the kitchen was stolen along with expensive stoves
The entire property was littered with drug paraphernalia and hundreds of condoms that Ms Monnier suspects were used to smuggle drugs
Pictured: Piles of rubbish left behind by squatters in Mrs Monnier’s garden in Brittany, France
In 2015, the now squatter, who had been in prison for GBH and theft, broke into one of the homes and settled there as a squatter
A few months later, the brother of the original squatter moved into another empty house in a hamlet near the town of Carhaix, and the Monniers’ problems doubled overnight.
Ms Monnier added: ‘I didn’t really have much money to go through the expensive legal process at the time.
“We kept coming back and trying to reason with them, but it was no use. They would just be insulting and call me “Rosbif”.
“In France, if a squatter has been in your house for 48 hours, you have to go through the legal process, so that’s quite tough.
‘In 2018 my mum died and left me some money and we hired a lawyer but he wasn’t a good one and we wasted another €3,000 (£2580) getting nowhere.
“Then we hired a really good lawyer and bailiff last year and we finally got into one of the houses last November, and we’re waiting for a final court ruling on the second next month.”
Pictured: A smashed door at Mrs Monnier’s farm in Brittany, France
Pictured: Mrs Monnier’s ransacked kitchen at her farmhouse in Brittany, France
Mrs. Monnier and her retired master slater husband and two adult daughters spent two weeks clearing the reclaimed property before the builders could even begin repairing the extensive damage.
She said, ‘It was a really disgusting state, just like the yard and everything. I was in tears for much of that time. They smashed doors, windows and Veluxes.
“We were staying nearby with our daughter and one night, about two weeks later, quite late at night, I had a strange feeling that we should go see the property.
‘By pure chance we caught them in the act trying to break into the house and we called the gendarmes.
“Everything was locked and chained, but they’d smashed the door. If we hadn’t arrived, they would have been gone again.’
The two brothers, who are from French Martinique, even have flats of their own nearby, according to Alison, and she intends to sue them for the damage they have caused.
In 2013, both men, now in their 30s, were sentenced to between one year and 21 months in prison for brutally robbing a young man and his brother in the nearby city of Lorient for €60, according to local press reports. The two victims together suffered no fewer than 30 cuts and bruises.
Ms Monnier added: ‘These guys are anything but homeless – we looked around the property and found paperwork suggesting claims of up to €500 (£329) a month in government housing benefit with my husband’s signature forged on documents.
“At the moment, I and my husband, two daughters and two young grandsons live in one of the properties and will hopefully be waiting for the other next month.
“It’s been a horrible journey and I wouldn’t want anyone else to go through it. We estimate it cost us around €160,000 (£137,581) in unpaid rent, another €10,000 (£8598) in legal fees, not to mention all the construction costs.”