Rarely, in studies of contemporary Algerian politics, does the concept of law or legality figure. Instead, political scientists who do look beyond the façade of “Le Pouvoir,” work on elections or survey data around Algerian disenchantment with the regime. Yet, similar to other cases in the MENA, political science tools have proven too narrow to capture the most compelling insights about contemporary Algerian politics. Worse, the “Arab Spring lens” has diverted scholarly inquiry towards explanations of what Algeria should be, as opposed to what it is. This paper will address the ambiguity of citizen-regime relations in the context of law and ownership. This complex relationship in which Algerian citizens both dismiss and rely on the regime is not solely a result of mistrust in political institutions, but more an effect of uneven and arbitrary application of the law in terms of property ownership and housing in Algeria. By engaging with real and on-going debates about legal protection, rights and privatization, this paper’s lens is at the intersection of critical political economy, illiberal political contexts, and memory. In 2013, for instance, families evicted from an apartment complex in Oran following a Franco-Algerian privatization scheme, took to the streets invoking the memory of the Algerian revolution rather than holding the state accountable. The significance of this ambiguity within contemporary Algerian politics is great, particularly as such a perspective allows us to capture precisely why Algerians both mistrust and engage the regime. The jacqueries and demonstrations surrounding property disputes between citizens, or between citizens and the state, have become a form of rightful resistance: citizens reject the law of the Algerian regime, invoking instead the legitimacy of the Algerian revolution. Indeed, the Minster of Housing declared, in 2014, that Algerian streets were the arenas of more than 7,000 demonstrations, disturbances, or micro-riots linked to housing. This paper challenges the conceptual tools political science has made available to scrutinize some of the most paradoxical questions in the study of MENA politics. It presents a conceptual contour that captures the ambivalence of both the citizen-regime dichotomy as well as the complexity of law as a protective mechanism in semi-authoritarian and post-conflict scenarios. Through a deep ethnographic analysis of the conflict over property, its effect on citizen-regime relations, and its dismissal of official law as a protective means, this study provides a lens to real-life everyday Algerian politics beyond the orientalization of what Algeria should be.