Fifteen people sentenced in a cabin conversion case in Nézignan-l’Évêque

Operations to combat cabinization are increasing, here in Bessan on Thursday, July 25. DR

The Béziers court sentenced fifteen people for violations of the Urban Planning Code committed between 2020 and 2023. The main accused will have to pay a fine of 50,000 euros and dismantle his illegal installations in the commune of Nézignan-l'Evêque.

This Monday, July 29, the Béziers court sentenced 15 people in a case of "cabinization" (illegal establishment of buildings or installations occupied episodically or permanently in unauthorized areas) in the municipality of Nézignan-l’Évêque.

From 2020 to 2023, the Hérault Territories and Sea Directorate (DDTM) and the municipality of Nézignan-l’Évêque discovered numerous violations of the Urban Planning Code on agricultural plots and in the red zone of the flood risk prevention plan (PPRI). Investigations carried out by the Pézenas gendarmerie have shed light on a complex cabinization operation.

Land too dangerous to settle there

The case began in 2019, when an individual acquired four agricultural plots for 1 euro per m2. He subdivided these plots into smaller units, which he fenced and equipped with water and electricity installations using boreholes and solar panels. These plots of land, wrongly called "leisure land", are then made available free of charge or sold to several people.

The new occupants install there "caravans, mobile homes, shelters, pergolas, terraces and concrete slabs, in contradiction with the legislation which prohibits such installations on agricultural land", explains the public prosecutor of Béziers, Raphaël Balland. The plots in question, located in the red zone, are particularly vulnerable to flooding and heavy rain, and “any habitation is prohibited there to protect the population”.

But this operation allows its instigator to multiply the initial value of the land up to thirty times, resold between 12 and 30  € per square meter.

A fine of 90,000 €, of which 40,000 € with suspended sentence

Following investigations carried out under the authority of the Béziers public prosecutor's office, fifteen people were prosecuted before the Béziers criminal court and convicted. The man behind the operation will have to pay a fine of 90,000 euros, including 40,000 euros suspended, for complicity in works and installations in violation of the PLU (Local Urban Planning Plan) and the PPRI, without prior declaration or building permit. He is also required to dismantle, at his own expense, all illegal installations within six months, under penalty of a penalty of 100 euros for each day of delay. The fourteen other people involved were fined between 1,200 euros and 2,500 euros. They are also required to remove all installations they have set up within six months, with a penalty of 50 euros. per day of delay.

The Béziers public prosecutor's office emphasizes: “The name “recreational land” has no legal value and does not in any case allow any residential element to be installed on agricultural land. Only the PLU and the PPRI must be respected.
"The Béziers public prosecutor's office will continue its proactive action to combat cabinization, in close collaboration with mayors and government departments, taking into account in particular the significant issues for the environment, regional planning and the protection of the population", concludes Raphaël Balland.