Everybody who owns a house or a plot of land in France knows how complicated it has always been to ask for the relevant form should they want to build, refurbish, renovate or extend a house.

All that has changed, however.

An ordinance of 8th December 2005 which came into force on 1 October 2007 has made formalities for builders, individuals and professional far simpler - and the system safer. This is welcome news in what can be a very administrative country.

This change of law clarifies the planning rules and spells out just when planning consent is necessary and when it is not or whether all that is required is simply a ‘declaration’ on the part of the applicant – this is the equivalent of a statement.

Until now there were eleven different types of authorisations and five sorts of ‘declaration’ in the urbanism or planning code.

The new reform reduces these numerous authorisations to three planning permissions and one unique statement or ‘declaration’. We end up having the following options:

- planning permission: permis de construire

- authorisation to develop: permis d’aménager

- authorisation to demolish: permis de démolir

- pre-condition statement: déclaration préalable

Until now the urbanism code has not given a detailed list of circumstances in which planning permission is required – and this has often led to serious court battles.

What sort of authorisation is required?

From the 1 October 2007 the rules provide an exhaustive list of works which either require planning permission or simply need a statement/declaration. This allows the applicant to know exactly what his or her obligations are.

One principle is that any new construction will require planning permission. The exceptions to this principle - i.e. those constructions needing only a statement and not full planning consent - are listed clearly in the regulations.

Another principle is that work done on an existing building does not need any planning application. But the new rules list precisely what type of building work will still require planning permission or at least a pre-condition statement.

It will be down to the applicant to check whether or not his project is on the list.

An authorisation to develop is required each time there is a plan to divide a plot of land and build on it at a later stage, where there are to be several different constructions whose details are not specified when the application is made.

However a simple pre-condition statement is all that is required if the land is divided into just two plots or if there is a lotissement with several plots but which needs no creation of a road or public spaces. In protected area planning permission will always be necessary.

If several constructions are involved a single application is admissible, for example if the intention is to demolish and build, the planning consent can authorise both of them.

The time for the administration to process the file:

An improvement in the procedure is the new time limit placed on the planning authority for dealing with the matter.

The time that the applicant has to wait for an answer will be indicated to him when he is lodging his application form - and the deadline is guaranteed. It is one month for a declaration, two months for planning permission and demolition consent, and three months for other constructions and developing authorisations.

If more time is required by the administration to deal with the request the applicant has to be notified within a month of the application being made. This is compulsory for the administration and represents a major change in the procedure. The aim is to avoid applicants having to wait for months not knowing where they stand. A month after the initial application, the applicant will now know for sure when the decision will be made.

If the planning authority requires consultation from other bodies, they will be bound to give their opinion within a fixed time limit - otherwise they will be deemed to have given a positive answer. Once the consultation is over, the authority in charge of the file has another month to give their opinion.

What documents are required?

The list of documents required by the administration is made clearer in the new rules. Even if some documents are missing this will not affect the binding time limit put upon the administration.

Who is responsible for checking the accuracy of the information given?

Until now, once an application was lodged the authority had to check whether or not the applicant had good title, if several owners were involved they had to be sure they all agreed to the project and they also had to ensure all the technical requirements were met. This was not always easy to do in practice - leading to applications being turned down.

With the new law it will be the applicant’s responsibility to disclose such information and be responsible for its accuracy (ownership, safety of the project, conformity of the plans etc…)

Once the construction is finished, the builder and its architect will be responsible for confirming that the work has been done according to the authorisation. The mayor can order his team to check the truth of this declaration - this check will be compulsory in protected area.

If one year after the work is completed, the conformity of the work is not challenged; third parties will not be able to cancel the planning permission.

Conclusion:

In summary the reform’s purpose is to make the planning code easier to read, to unify the types of applications and proceeding, to apply the same rules to all the applications, to improve the system and give a better quality to the taxpayer - and most of all guarantee the time limits in which the files are processed. To find out more detail people can visit the useful website of the Direction Générale de l’Urbanisme de l’Habitat et de la Construction.

Laurence Daurignac

International Law Partnership

www.lawoverseas.com

London +44 (0)20 7061 6700

Leeds +44 (0)20 7061 6748