Chapter 1168 The House Was Robbed
Xiao Peng was a little confused after hearing this: "What did you say?"
William repeated, "Your house in Paris was broken into! Several people broke into your house!"
"WHAT?" Xiao Peng was completely dumbfounded. "What are they doing? Stealing?"
William shook his head and said, "No, no, no, they didn't steal anything. They just occupied your house. Don't you know the laws on squatting in France?"
"Puff!" Xiao Peng sprayed out.
In many European countries, such as the United Kingdom and France, there is a rather strange law, the "Occupancy Law", and the Netherlands also has a similar law.
If someone breaks into someone else's house illegally, the police shouldn't be able to deal with them: if they're stealing, that's a crime, but what if they just want to live there?
They said, we have nowhere to live and want to find a house, there is an empty house here and we want to stay there. When the police encounter such people, they really cannot arrest them as thieves because there are contrary laws here to protect the homeless.
According to relevant laws and regulations, once a house is illegally occupied by local residents for more than 48 hours, as long as the house is not the owner's primary residence, the police have no right to evict the occupiers even if the owner calls the police. If the owner wants to drive out the occupiers, he must go through legal procedures.
If the home is the owner's primary residence, for example, if the house was occupied while the owner was away on vacation, the 48-hour deadline does not apply as long as the owner can prove that the occupier occupied the house by picking the lock, breaking the door or window, etc. However, if they cannot prove it, they still have to go through legal procedures.
It is precisely because of this bizarre law that the little hooligans like Donny that Xiao Peng met were able to occupy the beach villa: even if the police caught them, they could not drive them away, and the homeowner had to go through legal procedures.
So even if the owner of the villa discovered that Donnie and his friends were living there, if it had been more than 48 hours, the owner would generally negotiate with the squatters, essentially saying, "I'll give you X in exchange for returning the house." Otherwise, the legal process would take years and be extremely expensive. Getting the house back is incredibly difficult!
So they really had nothing to fear when they occupied the house.
Xiao Peng uncovered the murder case, and the person who should be most grateful to him is the owner of the villa, the wealthy Rotterdam tycoon. Otherwise, he didn't know how much it would cost to get the house back.
Just like Pascal, no matter where he went, La Ciotat's family had a housekeeper, nanny, and security guard to help him look after the house. Xiao Peng had even mocked him for earning money to buy a nice house just to house the nanny, but Pascal explained the law to him, which shocked Xiao Peng. There was actually such a law? So, the fact that wealthy families here have housekeepers isn't just for show, but to prevent the house from being taken away!
When you go to Europe, you'll find a lot of homeless people, and they often use this method to occupy houses. However, since wealthy families usually have nannies, housekeepers, etc., their targets are usually old, uninhabited houses. But this time, they actually broke into his own mansion? This really made Xiao Peng furious!
Pascal's people were keeping an eye on the house in La Ciotat - it was originally Pascal's house. Bellucci helped him look after houses when he first lived in Paris for a while. Later, when Bellucci came to the Netherlands, the house became vacant. Since Abby lived there, Xiao Peng did not deal with the house there - the key point was that he was embarrassed to see Abby, and he did not expect that his house would be broken into!
These are the 'only two' properties under Xiao Peng's name, and the only house that Xiao Peng bought with his own money. Xiao Peng didn't care about this at first - he didn't live there anyway, but he didn't expect such a thing to happen!
This is just like the international student who spent so much money renting an apartment to go to school. Renting is really much cheaper and less troublesome than buying a house!
Sometimes I really can't understand their train of thought.
Take the French, for example. They can't even bear to kill rats, so what about the homeless? They have to take care of them! Hence, there are such bizarre laws.
Don't assume that few people do this. In Europe, there's a dedicated "squatters' advice service" website where squatters share their experiences on how to break into homes and circumvent alarms. There are also professional locksmiths, and some squatters openly invite others to live with them.
A man in the UK bought a house and renovated it. However, on the eve of completion, it was occupied by a group of homeless people. In the UK, it is not illegal to enter an empty house without using violence. Moreover, since they are all homeless people and meet the relevant government regulations, they can also get free legal aid and sue the landlord!
What's even more amazing is that since they are homeless people and this house is their "primary residence", the group of homeless people directly posted a note on the window, claiming that anyone who enters the house without permission may face six months in prison and a fine of 5,000 pounds - but the homeowner cannot enter his own home.
With the increasing number of refugees, such bizarre incidents have become more common. They are not content to occupy only residential buildings; hospitals and kindergartens have also become their homes. Not long ago, a group of homeless people occupied a luxury villa in the suburbs of London and became neighbors with British stars such as Jude Law and George Michael.
The worst-off person was a woman in Paris.
She bought a house in the 9th arrondissement of Paris and rented a house in the 18th arrondissement for work. When she wanted to rent out the house in the 9th arrondissement, she found that it was already occupied.
With no other options, she resorted to various legal procedures and filed an application with the court requesting the court to evict the occupier. After waiting for more than a year, the court finally gave her an answer: the occupier could not be evicted because he had a child and therefore had priority housing rights!
She couldn't continue the lawsuit, and after two years, the squatters were finally evicted. Then, what did they do? They removed all the furniture and appliances from the house and vandalized it, smashing the doors, windows, and kitchenware! The woman ended up in debt from legal fees and other expenses, and was even evicted by her landlord for nonpayment of rent, leaving her nearly homeless.
Moreover, the phenomenon of house squatting in Europe has now reached the point of physical robbing!
An elderly couple in Marseilles once had their villa occupied by someone. After finally getting rid of the squatters and regaining their home, they found themselves reoccupied by a group of over 30 gypsies. Neighbors immediately called the police, who arrived, only to have the gypsies chase them away. When the police returned, the entire house, including the refrigerator and other appliances, had been thrown out and smashed. To this day, the gypsies still occupy the house—in fact, many gypsies in France rely on this method to find housing.
Xiao Peng originally thought of this as a joke and never expected that it would happen to him!
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