VIDEO: Landlord gets revenge on nightmare tenants
Thomas Ravaux decided to return heaps of abandoned junk in style
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
A French landlord took extreme action to get his own back on irresponsible tenants who left his property filthy and piled high with junk - by dumping it all outside their new home.
Thomas Ravaux, from Rozoy-sur-Serre in the north-eastern Aisne region, shamed the nightmare tenants in a Facebook post last week which has attracted more than 2,500 shares.
He told L’Union that the family had left the property without any notice a year ago, without returning his keys or giving him a chance to perform a final inventory.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Photos and videos taken when he was finally able to access the flat last week show filthy rooms crammed with abandoned furniture, toys, clutter and rubbish. The walls and floors are dirty and damaged, and there is even cat excrement on the floors.
“This is how this flat was returned to me,” he wrote. “Living like that with three kids, bravo.”
“Shame on you,” he said. “Good luck to your new landlord!”
A few days later, after clearing out the property, he came up with a novel way to return the heaps of abandoned junk to their rightful owner.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
On Tuesday, he uploaded a video of a truck pulling up outside what he says is the tenants’ new address.
“Return to sender,” Ravaux quips as the truck, piled high with furniture, appliances and other belongings, dumps its load outside the property.
The clip has gone viral in France, where generous legal protections for renters can make dealing with problem tenants a long and costly process for landlords.
-
The environmental cost of GLP-1sThe explainer Producing the drugs is a dirty process
-
Greenland’s capital becomes ground zero for the country’s diplomatic straitsIN THE SPOTLIGHT A flurry of new consular activity in Nuuk shows how important Greenland has become to Europeans’ anxiety about American imperialism
-
‘This is something that happens all too often’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Epstein files topple law CEO, roil UK governmentSpeed Read Peter Mandelson, Britain’s former ambassador to the US, is caught up in the scandal
-
Iran and US prepare to meet after skirmishesSpeed Read The incident comes amid heightened tensions in the Middle East
-
Israel retrieves final hostage’s body from GazaSpeed Read The 24-year-old police officer was killed during the initial Hamas attack
-
China’s Xi targets top general in growing purgeSpeed Read Zhang Youxia is being investigated over ‘grave violations’ of the law
-
Panama and Canada are negotiating over a crucial copper mineIn the Spotlight Panama is set to make a final decision on the mine this summer
-
Why Greenland’s natural resources are nearly impossible to mineThe Explainer The country’s natural landscape makes the task extremely difficult
-
Iran cuts internet as protests escalateSpeed Reada Government buildings across the country have been set on fire
-
US nabs ‘shadow’ tanker claimed by RussiaSpeed Read The ship was one of two vessels seized by the US military