French pensioners find home ruined by tenants after five years of unpaid rent

A French couple in their 70s has been left horrified after reclaiming their home from tenants who had not paid rent for five years. Thérèse Lelièvre, 73, and her partner found their property, which they had rented out in 2019, in a state of utter devastation. The tenants, a family of five, had stopped paying the monthly rent of 680 euros during the pandemic. Lelièvre recounted that the tenant claimed to have heard on the radio that rent payments were suspended during the pandemic, a measure that only applied to commercial properties.

Eviction proceedings began in 2023, but the family only officially vacated the house in March 2025. Upon entering the property on July 20, the couple was met with a scene of squalor. "We found rats and cockroaches. There were 14 cases with 12 jars of expired mayonnaise each and a huge amount of chocolate mousse containers. The floor was covered with so many juice bottles you couldn't move forward," Lelièvre described to France Info.

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We found rats and cockroaches. There were 14 cases with 12 jars of expired mayonnaise each and a huge amount of chocolate mousse containers. The floor was covered with so many juice bottles you couldn't move forward.

The unpaid rent alone amounts to approximately 23,000 euros. The couple must now also bear the costs of a specialized company for cleaning and restoring the home. This distressing experience has led Lelièvre to believe that French legislation offers insufficient protection to landlords. She expressed that her trust in tenants has been betrayed.

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I heard on the radio that during the pandemic, tenants were no longer obliged to pay rent. But that measure only applied to commercial spaces.