Angèle thought she had found a good vein, an honest way to improve her retirement. On the internet, the former secretary came across an ad extolling the merits of photovoltaic panels. She contacted the company France Pac environnement. The company has been around for over ten years. The commercial arrives in stride in June 2018. “He speaks to me of a tax credit of around 8,000 euros”, recalls Angèle, 65, resident of the Orne valley.
The seller assures that the green project can bring in even more: “It guarantees me that by reselling the electricity produced by the panels, my investment is amortized in seven years”, continues Angèle. Everything is marked on the glossy brochure. The guy looks serious. The project too. The client signs the order form and agrees for 20,000 euros.
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The start of the mess
At the beginning of July, two workers rang the bell for the client. Their car is registered in Romania, they barely speak French. The twelve photovoltaic panels are installed during the day. Angèle begins to doubt. A subcontractor comes to finish the connection work a few months later. She feels trapped. She signs the check. “Anyway, I had validated the order form…”, she comments. The young retiree puts all her savings into it and borrows 6,000 euros from her bank.
In April 2019, she fell from her chair while filing her tax return. She cannot find the box dedicated to the loan she was hoping to benefit from. “I called, they told me that I had been had. The promised tax advantage on photovoltaics no longer applies since 2014.
And that’s not all: Angèle realizes that the resale of electricity produced on her roof earns her six times less than announced. “I received 392 euros in 2021”, she illustrates. At this rate, it will take well over seven years to repay its stake. Angèle turns to a consumer association and then to a lawyer. “The company did not respond to their letters. »
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Company condemned several times
The client acknowledges the blow but does not surrender. She seized the court of Thionville. The company eventually comes forward and offers modest compensation. Angela refuses. The court ruled in his favour: the civil chamber pronounced the cancellation of the contract. The judgment, rendered in September 2021, does not characterize a scam. “But he retains that nothing demonstrates that a withdrawal form has been provided to the client, as provided for in the Consumer Code”, notes Angèle’s lawyer from Thionville, Me Catherine Le Menn-Meyer. The court orders the reimbursement of the victim as well as the dismantling of the installation and the restoration of its roof. “I was at the end,” says Angèle. This decision allows him to raise his head.
“Madam won her case but she did not recover her funds,” adds her lawyer. Indeed, the condemned company was liquidated by the Commercial Court of Créteil last September. And cheated customers are not a priority on the list of creditors to be honored. “They are coming to the end of the race”, image Me Le Menn-Meyer. After the employees of the company, the State, the suppliers… “ If the client had taken out a consumer loan to finance this installation of panels, the nullity of the contract pronounced by justice would have allowed him to disengage”, specifies Me Le Menn-Meyer.
Angèle is not the only one to denounce an abusive commercial process. His lawyer brandishes several similar judgments rendered against France Pac environnement by other jurisdictions in France over the past two years.
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