It is an omnipresent situation faced by two neighbors, chemin Jean-Casimir-Perier. Two weeks ago, a wall more than two meters high was erected in front of their gate. Since then it has been impossible to access their home from this stretch of road. To meet Jean-Noël Vigne, we had to scale this wall using a ladder and then jump into his courtyard. “I feel like I’m in Domenjod”, complains the father of the family.
The architects of this wall of discord are the owners of the front. Chemin Jean-Casimir-Perier is a private road where several residents own a portion of the roadway. Until now this had never been a problem and several residents even asked to make it a municipal road. About twenty years ago, Jean-Noël, like Delphine, a neighbor of him, built a small entrance and a gate giving access to this path. Last year they received a letter in their mailbox, which they discovered with amazement.
Formal notice
This is a warning sent by the lawyer for the neighboring landlords. “My clients tell me (…) that you have created an opening on their land without any permission. Worse, it seems that your constructions are encroaching on their property, indicate the courier. I am compelled to warn you to remove any construction on their land and condemn all its openings.”
“I am overwhelmed by this situation.Delphine complains. I don’t understand how you can go that far for a two-metre portion across the street. I had a building permit twenty years ago for this development. I’ve never had contact with his neighbors. I am aware that I am not the owner right in front of my house but I have offered several times to buy this portion, in vain”.
Determined, the owners of this wasteland, who live in mainland France, have legally started the construction of the wall which is almost 50 centimeters from the fence of the two neighbors. They had a building permit from the city, issued last April. “One morning the workers asked me to pull the car out of the garage otherwise it would have stalled”, explains Jean-Noël. Since then, he has had to go through his parents’ box to access the outside, from rue Claude-Million, which is the address in his land registry.
“It is a private matter and the Municipality cannot impose anything”
The situation is similar with Delphine. “I had to remove the fence, the trampoline and break part of my ladder to create an exit. I had an architect come in and he told me I was landlocked. There’s not three meters wide for a truck to pass firefighters in an emergency.”
Municipal police officers came to make remarks as did the mayor of Le Tampon, André Thien-Ah Koon. “The owners rightly built this wall on their property, indicate. This is a private matter and the municipality cannot impose anything.”
Benoît Donnadieu
