On August 28, 2023, Pierre et Vacances (PV CP CITY) was ordered by the Nanterre judicial court to pay 43,845 euros to 31 lessors (41,845 euros in unpaid rent and 2,000 euros in article 700 CPC) of the Adagio Vanves Gare tourist residence.
1°) Adagio Vanves: a decision applying the case law of the Cour de cassation (French Supreme Court)
The court once again rejected the arguments put forward by the operator of the Adagio Vanves tourist residence, in line with the June 2022 ruling of the French Supreme Court (Cour de cassation). The exception of non-performance and force majeure invoked by the operator of the Adagio Vanves residence were rejected with regard to rents for the covid periods (2020 and 2021).
Europe’s leading group of tourist residences had benefited from substantial public subsidies, including a so-called “closure” grant.
Lastly, the court rejected the operator’s request for payment deadlines in the following terms:
“In the present case, although the lessee can justify the drop in sales he suffered during the years 2020 and 2021, i.e. during the period of the health crisis, he cannot justify his current financial situation.
The court is therefore not in a position to assess whether the lessee’s financial situation, and in particular its cash flow, requires it to be granted a payment moratorium and, should such a moratorium be granted, whether it would be in a position to clear the rental arrears while continuing to pay the current rents.
It should also be borne in mind that the plaintiffs themselves have to pay off the loans taken out to acquire the leased premises.
Consequently, PV-CP CITY’s request for a payment extension should be rejected.
The lessors of the Adagio Vanves Gare tourist residence can congratulate themselves on their patience.
2°) Individual lessors forced to advance cash
In this case, the operator postponed the amicable request and the proposal for a negotiated solution, and above all benefited from a de facto deferral of the obligation to pay rent for several years from 2020.
The role of individual lessors who have saved for their retirement and continue to make monthly loan payments despite the health crisis is not to substitute banking institutions for short-term loans free of charge for the sole benefit of the PIERRE ET VACANCES group.
This situation is all the more unacceptable as GROUPE PIERRE ET VACANCES is announcing to its shareholders a cash position of 510 million euros in January 2021 and 450 million in September 2020.
(PIERRE ET VACANCES communication at the Annual General Meeting on February 1, 2021).
This means that GROUPE PIERRE ET VACANCES has built up a “cash position” at the expense of individual lessors, who have invested their savings in its residences.
The lessors have executed the stipulations of the commercial lease in good faith, and have sought the intervention of the courts to ensure that the operator is finally forced to pay the outstanding commercial rents.
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