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FRANCE’S CONSTITUTIONAL COUNCIL HAS APPROVED HARSHER PENALTIES FOR SQUATTERS IN MAIN AND SECOND HOMES France’s highest constitutional authority, _le Conseil Constitutionnel_, has approved

legislation that cracks down harder on squatters, including in second homes. The law triples the penalties for squatters, including up to three years in prison and a fine of €45,000. These

sanctions also apply to anyone who falsely poses as a property owner in a bid to rent a property that does not belong to them. The new rules will apply to both main and second homes in

France. The law now states that any residential premises containing movable property can be considered a ‘home’. However, the _Conseil Constitutionnel_ said that this point would remain open

to interpretation and that it would be “up to the judge to assess whether the presence of these furnishings makes it possible to consider” the property to be a ‘home’. The decision

validated all proposed clauses, except for article 7, which would have released the property owner from their responsibility to maintain a squatted property and would exonerate them in case

of any damage resulting from their lack of maintenance. The council also allowed the creation of a new offence, punishable by a fine of up to €3,750, of any advertising or facilitating of

squatting or squatting possibilities. The decision also allowed the speeding up of legal proceedings and rental disputes against tenants who have not paid rent, with a “termination clause by

operation of law” now applicable as standard in all lease contracts. MPs from the left-wing political alliance _les Nupes_, who wanted to stop the law, had requested the involvement of

France’s constitutional council. The law had been proposed by Renaissance MP Guillaume Kasbarian and was passed in parliament on June 14. READ MORE: FRENCH MPS VOTE FOR TOUGHER

ANTI-SQUATTING RULES TO PROTECT HOMEOWNERS READ MORE: FRANCE’S DRAFT ANTI-SQUATTER LAW: IF PASSED, WHAT WOULD IT CHANGE? _Les Nupes _argued the law was too “severe”, that its punishments

were disproportionate and that it went against the constitutional objective of the "right to decent housing". In April, the United Nations said the then-proposed law would increase

the housing insecurity of already “vulnerable” people. Noria Derdek, director of studies at the homeless charity la _Fondation Abbé Pierre_, told HuffPost in June the law would “have

dramatic social and human consequences and force people to choose between homelessness and prison”. READ ALSO FRENCH COUPLE’S CLEVER WAY TO GET SQUATTERS OUT IN JUST TWO DAYS I HAVE A SECOND

HOME IN FRANCE, WHAT SHOULD I DO IF SQUATTERS GET IN? WAIT TO BUY WARNING, SQUATTING CRACKDOWN: 5 FRENCH PROPERTY UPDATES