Comment by gregpilling | Hacker News Reader

Comment by gregpilling | Hacker News Reader

this was interesting ---- "There’s now 107,000 vacant homes, representing 7.5% of all residential dwellings in the city according to France’s INSEE. Deputy Mayor Ian Brossat told Le Monde that 40,000 of those vacant homes aren’t even connected to the electrical grid."

So almost 40% don't even have the power turned on? Vacant or abandonded?

As an interesting anecdote to add, I have a close friend who purchased an industrial building in Tucson Arizona. It had been there for 40 years when he purchased it and he took ownership of it and did not turn the electric service on for 7 months while he did some landscaping and stuff outside. Turns out that was a big mistake. The code says that if the electric is off for 6 month plus a day, it has to be brought up to current year code spec. So my friend had to spend 3 years and thousands of dollars to upgrade this industrial building in order to get a permit to use it.

I wonder how many of those Paris housing units could even have their electricity turned on even if they wanted to. Would it pass code? Then do they get taxed 60% of fair market in this scenario? My friend spent well over $50,000 just on electrical upgrades, not to mention the cost of an unusable building for 3 years.

Does anyone know current Paris electric code?

I don't think Tucson believes that's a mistake. Cities would prefer that all buildings are up to code, all the time. Tucson was lenient enough to say that if your friend can afford to keep the building dark for six months, he can afford to bring it up to code. It's entirely likely that if he tried to insure the building, his insurance company would require an inspection and similar work.

Perhaps he needed better inspection before purchase.

it was my friends mistake - the city code was clear but he was not aware of it. He owns a lot of buildings, so he self insures and has done so for 20+ years. This particular building they were making into a new business headquarters, so it was disconnected just -slightly- too long.

There was nothing wrong with the electrical. He was forced to make the 40 year old building ADA compliant, with handicap bathrooms, parking, etc. and a whole other list of requirements that did not apply when the building was built.

So take it as a lesson, not a complaint about code. Also, never shut off utilities if you can help it :)

I bet people with disabilities who go there will appreciate the ADA compliance, too.

Its a sewage treatment plant. He has not had anyone come to his business in 25 years that needed ADA compliance. It is part of the current building code, so that is that. No ADA, no final approval.

Paris electric code is the same as for the rest of EU and yes, you can leave the lights off for over 6 months with no repercussions.

Your friend however bought an industrial site and the compliance rules there are likely a lot stricter than in residential.

I wonder what France's squatting laws are like. If a list of those homes were to be leaked then it could prove to be interesting.

For France, can't be evicted during winter months, need a judge to decide to evict (so can take a a really long time).

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