hi all, i have a question please.
a friend has juso bought a bungalow built in 2011, it is constructed of the red blocks but has never been rendered nor does it have any guttering.. the house has been lived in continuously since construction.. but my friend has been told there will not be tax hab nor fonciere to pay as the house is unfinished and not declared as finished, presumably the from H1 has not been completed once construction stopped..
any ideas if the taxes will be liable or exhonerated, i understand there is a 2 year exhoneration once the H1 is declared.. so my question is; does no rendering nor guttering qualify as "unfinished" and tax free?
it's a tax for habiting a building (not for completing a building)! Also taxe fonciere is for the land (however small) independent of the house/building lived in or not. Also, there is a tax for the installed TV aerial (whether French TV is watched or not). Also, in some places, there is a tax for refuge collection (however minimal) whether you use that service or not (as may be the case if you habit a house for a week or two at a time and cannot keep up with the refuge collection days/nights/ routine (as happens) -- and cart take your rubbish to the local decheterie before you leave your holiday home. I have on occasion brought some rubbish all the way to London!! On the other hand, if the notaire has said that no tax is to be paid, I would say restez tranqul!! Let the sleeping dog lie. HTH.
If you have submitted a Demande de Permis de Construire, you have to send the mairie a completed Achèvement de Travaux form when it is habitable (and you then get the H1 form to fill in which calculates the taxes). If you are doing a total conversion and only half (for example) of the house is habitable at a certain stage, you can declare that part of the work is complete and not all (Achèvement partiel - Tranche 1 etc). You then repeat the process when stage 2 is habitable. This keeps the tax levied to actual habitable parts.
We have just completed a new build. You have 90 days after completion to fill in the form. According to our local mairie as long as we left some, even external, work to be completed it would not be complete. According to our local tax office and various government websites, if the place is liveable i.e. utilities connected then taxes would be applicable after 2 years. We have basically played by the rules as we moved in in June, completed the form in July and have only just finished the last shower room. The utilities have been connected for some months. The external construction was finished before the internal work commenced so according to some we should have completed the form about two years ago - but we could not have lived in it.
Just like immatriculation of vehicles some abide by the rules, some take a little leeway and some ignore the law altogether. Be prepared to pay.
When our house was being built we were told that taxes would be due once the house was habitable.The Mairie is supposed to check and we were badgered throughout the build by the tax office wanting to know the completion date. That said we were also told that taxes would not be payable for two years and so it transpired. We moved in during the month of January so were not liable for taxes that year anyway.
As our renovation progressed we were told that taxes would be payable from when the house was habitable regardless of being finished completely. This meant that it would be weatherproof, have access to electricity, water and drains (although the last occupant 30 years earlier had none of these and spent her whole life there). We would have paid full taxes from the day we moved in to our provisional apartment on the first floor, but didn't confirm it was "finished" until the gaping hole in the downstairs wall was filled with the new front door months after we moved in. Once all openings were sealed and power was connected, we confirmed completion and taxation started. This seemed fair, as we enjoyed snow clearance, rubbish collection, street lighting etc. from our village authorities while the work was being done without paying for these services. We have lived here for 8 years now, and still haven't finished the rendering. The "unfinished" argument would not win in our village. If the house is occupied why on earth shouldn't taxes be paid?
the date of the acte authentique is very rarely a fixed date, just a rough idea which is then fixed nearer the date according to the speed of the dossier and availability of the different parties. As for the exonération - talk direct with the hôtel des impôts ;-)
sadly, the notaires office has been incompetent since/during the day of the compris de vente, the secretary noticed there were documents missing as she opened the dossier on his desk!!.. causing a 2 week delay, and has been useless since..
the notaires office only informed my friend of the move date.. [after months and weeks of badgering and false information] on the 18th august, that the acte de vente would be the 24th.. fortunately, this date had been mooted at or near the date the compris was finally signed.. who can you trust?
and i think you're right, let the tax office sort it out. and therein lies another tale of incompetence.. for another time......
It sounds as though it’s got to come from the ‘horse’s mouth’, he might as well start off by getting it right rather than risk getting into arrears. When houses change hands it seems to be the time to bring the paperwork up to date so it’s surprising that the Notaire isn’t more helpful.
nice one John.. there's a lot of people telling my friend different stories of taxes, but no one seems to know the truth.. and even the notaire at the signing of the acte de vente seems to be saying the build is not complete and there's exhonoration.. Doh!!!.. maybe a trip to the hotel de impot's can clear it up?..
My house is over 400 years old and has never had gutters or been rendered. Do you think I could apply for some refunds? 