Not in small places with small numbers of foreign nationals. They don’t have the budget. Places with a sizeable immigrant community, usually inner city then yes.
We went to our mayor’s last year to ask if we can put up a small carport / lawn machinery building, I saw the secretary she phoned up the mayor I’m said yes just to it keep it under 20 m square ideally no more than 15 M2 & just go ahead,height of building was 2m.
No paperwork.
We do live in rural farming community and we do have 3 hectares of land. No neighbours, not sure if this makes any difference.
It shouldn’t but it can vary from place to place… depending on so many things…
Sometimes things are done “by word of mouth”… but this can backfire. (and should be done less and less nowadays with the tightening-up of procedures)
One local Maire gave the go-ahead verbally many, many years ago… when things were very relaxed. It was not deemed necessary to do “the piece of paper”… since it would be the Maire who would sign it…
so why go to all that faffle…
Another thought in those days was that putting something on paper might bring it to the attention of the Property Tax folk… or whoever…
We don’t need to risk involving them… let’s keep it simple…
The Géomètre, doing his rounds in 2019… found several anomalies…
Which have been sorted with paperwork now submitted and thankfully “all present and correct”… Some did attract increased taxes, but most just needed to be noted… sighs of relief all round.
However… there was one incident about 5 years ago… where a small building (for a tractor/lawnmower) was discovered (completely by chance) on unsuitable land … and … the building had to be demolished. (the owner was not at all pleased “It’s my land, I can do what I like”… )
Frankly it’s a very grey area… what one can and can’t do… what one should do, but doesn’t… when it involves a property miles from anywhere and “no-one will notice it, anyway…”… one can be tempted to not waste time on paperwork.
Generally speaking it is best to do the “Declaration for small works”. It isn’t onerous and once you have that bit of paper tucked safely away, you can relax…
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Many thanks, worth knowing. we thought that we were doing the correct thing by going to the Marie to ask permission.
Do you know which form i would need to make the declaration?
Regards, Anita
Hello Anita as long as your project is under 20 sq mtrs you need the “Déclaration préalable” - relatively easy to understand but remember to have lots of copies of the attachments demanded - best have 3 of each - cadastral plan of area / cadastral close up of your own site / usual drawings of facade & toitures / if an alteration, a plan before & after / a short summary of materials and colour schemes to be used / a copy photograph of the site before and a copy superimposed with a sketch of the finished idea - then let them choose which pieces they require
You did the correct thing…
as I have said, not every Mairie does things in the same way… and, in their opinion, there might be a good reason why the DP paperwork does NOT apply to you.
Our last-but-one local Bulletin highlighted Planning, and went on and on… (possibly due to the ruckus with the géomètre) and, at the bottom of the page, in large letters…just one sentence was written in English …so that Non-French folk could not miss it…
“Please contact the Mairie BEFORE you begin any Project.”
Our job was to put a set of french doors from the attached breezeblock workshop of the barn which is also attached to the main house. This would bring more light in and would create a space for more garden machinery. It is definitely not to be lived in! After applying to the Mairie in January we were told that there was a problem with something historic meaning that there’s an old chateau down the in the valley which has been renovated! It’s no where near our property and we are not overlooked or have any other close neighbours that would object to this! We are still awaiting a decision! Do I chase them up?
If you submitted a declaration préalable, then its up to the Mairie to let you know if there’s any problems. If you dont hear anything within 2 months (IIRC) then you can go ahead.
Yes we did Mark so will wait another 2 weeks before going ahead and ordering the french doors. Thank you.