In Meurthe-et-Moselle, the call to finance the repair of cracked houses, in addition to prevention

An experiment begins in October so that the State partially finances prevention work in eleven departments particularly concerned by the remoncency of clay soils.

Cracks in the houses, and an endless galley for owners victims of remoncing of clay soils. It is a growing natural risk, because of the increasingly frequent and intense droughts. In France, more than ten million individual houses are affected. The Meurthe-et-Moselle is one of the most affected departments and is one of the pilot departments in which the State could take charge of part of the work.

In Laxou, right next to Nancy, dozens of houses are affected by these cracks. Impossible to miss them on that of Mannick: There are on its terrace, its facade and even on a load -bearing wall in its entrance. “On the stairs, these are the worstdescribes Mannick. The wall moves strongly. “ And there are news that appeared, cracking the slabs on the ground.

The house moves, certainly because of clays in the basement, which react like sponges: they contract during the droughts and expand when it rains. “There, it’s okay. But during drought, we can no longer close the garage door”confirms Mannick.

For five years, Mannick has been fighting, with his business, from expertise in counter-expertise, to try to have the link with clays recognized. “The most discouraging is that we are told each time ‘you must first do such or such work. Only after, we can tell you if it is a problem of drought or not’. Now, we are considering legal expertise”. But the procedure requires incurring costs “Very important, so if we are not reimbursed, it is the disaster”. “We lose confidence in insurance, that’s the worst thing”she concludes.

In Laxou, at least a hundred houses are affected by his cracks. “It’s been four times that the town has been recognized as a natural disaster on these problems of cracks in the houses”Indicates LGarcia, the mayor of the city. He too is helpless Faced with insurance, then the elected official calls on the State to act “By legislating to facilitate, shortening compensation and expertise times, so that citizens can gain as quickly as possible”.

And precisely, the state begins to grasp the problem. He hasAS of a bill in progress to accelerate insurance times, but an experiment begins in eleven very affected pilot departments, including the Meurthe-et-Moselle. The state will finance, subject to means of the conditions, diagnoses of vulnerability of houses, then preventive work if necessary. Up to 90% of expenses could be covered and owners can request online in the coming weeks.

A good initiative, but it is not enough, regrets the mayor of Laxou. Because if it is necessary to prevent, it would be even better to help repair. “The curative mingles with the preventive. It is already very good that the public authorities take into account the fact that things will happen in terms of cracks in homes. But above all, you have to do quickly”Insists on Laurent Garcia. This remoncing withdrawal of clays, so far mainly focused on Ile-de-France, Provence and New Aquitaine has won a good part of France. Half of the territory is exposed today.