In accordance with an eviction decision dating from 2014, the city of Casablanca has just asked the tenant of the Sqala, by bailiff, to vacate the premises.
This is a file that has been going on for ten years now between the city of Casablanca and the Restopro company, which operates a restaurant in La Sqala, an emblematic place in the economic capital, and whose contract ended in 2011.
Last April, justice finally ruled in favor of the municipality, following the appeal of the tenant and the office of the current council now wishes to execute this decision, indicated Hossine Nasrallah, vice-president of the municipal council of Casablanca, reports our colleagues of Media24present at the second session of the February ordinary session of the municipal council.
“I think that the first decision that I signed was that of instructing the bailiff to report the council’s decision to terminate the contract of the person concerned. In case of refusal, we will resort to the bailiff a second time, and if he refuses again, we will ask the governor to have the premises released by public force, as provided for by law 113.14,” said Hossine. Nasrallah, Istiqlalian vice-president of the municipal council, following the postponement of item no. 19 on the agenda for this meeting.
Indeed, it was expected that the council would vote on the amount of rent that would appear in the next specifications in preparation, continues the media, which specifies that this postponement has raised questions from the municipal councillors. This reveals in particular insinuations of conflict of interest on the part of Mustapha Lhaya (PJD), the tenant of the Sqala being the Restopro company in which Aziz Chabine, Istiqlalian municipal councilor and also vice-president of the district is a partner. of Sidi Belyout.
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For his part, Hossine Nasrallah explained that this postponement had been imposed because the text had not been submitted to the governor on time. A postponement itself caused according to him by the postponement of a municipal commission which was to be held to propose, among other things, an amount of rent.
He also specified that an evaluation had been carried out by the municipality in 2015, estimating the rent at 52,500 DH per month, but that this amount had to be reassessed, the legal period of five years having been exceeded.
As a reminder, the amount of the rent established since 2001 to allow Restopro to operate this communal place was only 750 DH. The company, which brings together several themed restaurants in Casablanca, had justified maintaining this amount because of the considerable investment mobilized to renovate the historic place, ie some 8 million DH.
The Sqala is not the only communal property that the city of Casablanca is trying to recover. According to a recent study, they would be at least 200, including villas and houses, restaurants, sheds, buildings, party rooms or even swimming pools, operated for decades against derisory amounts. And the legal proceedings to regularize these situations often last several years.