Seized by owners and real estate agencies, the administrative court of Pau suspended, Friday, the compensation measures voted by the community of agglomeration of the Basque Country. Associations call to demonstrate on Wednesday.
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In the Basque Country, elected officials are disappointed and angry inhabitants since the announcement, by the administrative court of Pau, Friday, June 3, of its decision to suspend the measures voted locally to regulate the tourist rentals. The community of agglomeration of the Basque Country (CAPB), which brings together 158 municipalities, had indeed adopted, on March 5, a deliberation inspired by those adopted in Paris or Bordeaux. The system forces the proprietary companies which rent short-term housing in the 24 municipalities in a tense zone, including Bayonne and Biarritz (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), to compensate for the square meters thus lost for the housing of residents a year by as much of commercial square meters converted into apartments, in the same district, and rented in long term.
This measure, ratified on March 5 by the CAPB, with 95 % of the votes, including those of the representatives of the seaside cities like the mayor (Les Républicains) of Biarritz, Maider Arosteguy, should have come into force on 1 ER June. It should have completed a regulation already applied since September 2019 and which only targeted the owners of natural persons, subject to limited temporary authorizations, depending on the municipalities, to one or two goods.
Roland Hirigoyen, vice-president of the CAPB in charge of housing, qualifies the decision of the administrative court as “catastrophe”. “The interest of a few has today won the general interest carried by the community assembly and on the right to lodge in the Basque Country,” he is lamented.
“Disproportionate compensation”
In reaction to the deliberation of elected officials, 65 owner companies, real estate and concierge agencies had, on May 3, seized the administrative court to have it canceled, and eight of them requested in summary proceedings, therefore in urgency, its suspension, because it carries, from their point of view, “seriously affected” to their commercial and professional activity.
“In addition to the emergency, we argue that the request for compensation is disproportionate to its purpose, which is to preserve the accommodation, details Victor Steinberg, lawyer for the applicants. Admittedly, the Court of Justice of the European Union has recognized that states can restrict this activity and, in some cases, require compensation, but the national courts must examine this city measure by city. “
“What was validated in Paris or Bordeaux is not automatically here. The magistrates of Pau have, on this point, issued a serious doubt, since the elected officials of the CAPB had not demonstrated that the shortage housing was linked to the development of tourist rentals, and the judges referred to a procedure on the merits, already initiated, “he said.
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