Buy a home located too close to Nantes-Atlantique airport to allow a family to find another property. This is what the French State has just done in Bouguenais (Loire-Atlantique). A household found itself too inconvenienced on a daily basis by noise pollution from airplanes. The family in question is the first to assert its right of abandonment, since the house is located 300 meters from the airport runways.
Planes are very noisy, even when you are in the house, and even more so when you open the windows, especially in summer. If we have an open window and we are discussing, we have to stop talking in order to be able to get along. And in the garden, it’s even worse “- the local couple having asserted their right of abandonment in Bouguenais.
With their right of abandonment, the owners of the property were therefore able to find new accommodation in another sector, still on the outskirts of Nantes. “We have to be honest, without this right, not sure that we would have sold our house so quickly and at a price that suits us“, admits the couple. The daily noise nuisance of planes, which pass just above the property, risked seriously reducing the selling price of their property.
14 files under review
Since April 2021 and the publication of a government decree, in Bouguenais and Saint-Aignan-Grandlieu, around fifty housing units located in the nuisance zone of Nantes-Atlantique airport are affected by this right of abandonment. And according to the Loire-Atlantique prefecture, 14 of them have already filed a case to assert their rights. A unique situation in France today.
A soundproofing device
Didier Martin, the prefect of Loire-Atlantique assures him, “Prime Minister Jean Castex had added six million euros for all aid devices“addressed to owners most affected by noise pollution at the airport. A hundred homes, in Bouguenais, Saint-Aignan-Grandlieu and Rezé can moreover claim aid for soundproof their home.
As for housing repurchased by the State, several solutions arise once the former owners have left. Buildings can be repurchased in turn by individuals or companies for economic purposes, or by the municipalities for other public utility projects. Sandra Impériale, the mayor of Bouguenais, however wants to be very clear, the municipality will not have the means to buy back all these goods. In this case, if no serious buyer appears, the State services may also order the destruction of the habitat.