A man who broke into a private resort to swim has launched a legal battle against the property owner after breaking his back in a botched dive that left him paralyzed from the neck down.
The man, who was 18 at the time of the accident in 2022, was taking part in a dangerous “pool squatting” challenge involving illegally accessing a stranger’s swimming pool in Toulouse, France, when he was injured.
Now, she has taken the apartment management company to court for negligence, with the owners still responsible for ensuring the maintenance of the pool under French civil code.
“When damage occurs on their property, in this case a swimming pool, the owners must be held accountable for the damages caused to the people who are injured, even if they entered illegally,” French lawyer Fabien Gaillard told BFM TV.
The homeowners say they told the teen to leave and that a sign at the pool entrance clearly showed the depth at each end, but he chose not to listen.
“We are completely shocked,” Alexandra, one of the owners of the building, told La Dépêche. “We feel sorry for this young man who hurt himself and ruined his life at the age of 18, but he knew he shouldn’t have jumped there and he didn’t have to be there.”
File. Under French law, the man can file a lawsuit against the owners of the apartment.
The owners of the property said it was not the first time people had entered the private pool complex.
He said that since it opened six years ago, swimmers had been coming in every year and the “squats in the pool” trend was becoming increasingly popular.
Anthony, a witness, told La Dépêche that he had seen the teenager and his friends “jumping around like idiots” before the accident.
But although squatting itself is illegal, squatters still enjoy certain rights under French law.
Article 1244 of the French Civil Code, a heavily revised descendant of Napoleon’s original Code of 1804, stipulates that homeowners are liable for damage or injury that occurs in their homes as a result of negligence, even when someone trespasses.
Owners have the responsibility to prove that the pool is well maintained by keeping invoices, photographic evidence and the like.
Such claims are decided on a case-by-case basis, said real estate lawyer Romain Rossi-Landi. The Figaro.
“To avoid this obligation to compensate the squatter, the owner will have to prove that the property was in good condition before the occupation or that the squatter prevented him from fulfilling his maintenance obligation,” he explained.
Homeowners affected by the pool-squatting trend say they have faced threats and sometimes violence from brazen youths breaking into their homes.
Patricia, a resident of Toulouse, told La Dépêche that she has been suffering harassment from people occupying swimming pools for years.
“They cut the lining with a cutter two years ago,” he told the French outlet. “It cost us 14,000 euros (£12,000).”
Another person, who did not want to be identified, told the outlet: ‘A few years ago, one of the co-owners came to force them to leave and they beat him up.
“It is common for groups of eight to ten people to make threats.”
“They don’t care much about video surveillance.”
In 2022, the police were reported Receiving between 10 and 15 calls a day from people reporting that strangers are invading other people’s pools.
A Toulouse city council hotline received more than 200 calls from residents about the problem in just three months.
“We have gangs of young people coming and trying to sneak into the pool,” Patrick Lammertyn, a Toulouse resident, told The Times.
“We often have to call the police, but they don’t always come.”
File. Owners remain liable for damages if a squatter is injured in their private home
The illegal occupation of swimming pools has increased in recent years despite the obvious risks.
In a subtle twist, last month a homeowner in Repentigny, Canada, documented how she returned home to find an entire family using her private pool.
Maryse Chaussé was told that the pool had been rented through an app.
She later discovered that a former tenant of the house was still renting the pool online.
“Is this the first time he’s done this? I can’t say. We’re not always at home,” he told Noovo Info.