I had reason to check my boundary with my neighbour recently and was directed to an official Cadastre website - the cadastre that came with my deeds was not entirely clear on exact dimension at one corner. I can go through my info for the website address If you need it.
It cost me 10 Euros (I recall) but the highly detailed (down to the nearest 25cm at boundary deviations / wiggles) cadastre survey I was able to download was very useful to me and several other neighbours to whom I gave copies of their detailed cadastres too.
If I’d received a letter on the subject (and if my Bureaucratic French was not so good) I’d first use Google Translate. I often use it check my own official correspondence in spite of my level of French.
The letter in French aside, I’d probably feel secure that my cadastre as per the deeds and the official online version is my cadastre: All I’d need to check is that my measurements on site match the cadastre measurement (more or less). I’d only be concerned to check that the neighbour was not up to something on or adjacent to his land that did not suit me.
A near neighbour of mine recently bought a house that appeared in the ad to have a driveway access. Turns out the access was only 1m wide and the adjacent neighbour promptly fenced off the boundary to define her 3m wide access so as to prevent the common use of the 4m wide strip. Odd what people do to newcomers.
this just happend near someone i know as the town hall decided to aprove a rond point or Carrefour (basically a round crossroad), the Gendarme stated it was necessary after 8 accidents last year alone, They may of notified you with a letter that you where not able to sign or see because you neded to be present., check with the town hall.
….what was a 4m wide strip between the two houses had all the appearance of being a shared driveway for off-street parking for both houses. Once the new owner moved in, the adjacent owner erected a boundary fence right up to the roadside to emphasise to the new owners that they only got 1m of that strip while they themselves got 3m That is, an adequate driveway for one but not the other.
There was previously no boundary fence or indication on the ground of the actual boundary. It would have needed a close scrutiny / canny house purchaser (or honest immobilier) to query the visual appearance against the low resolution cadastral that probably came with the title deeds.
Oddly in my village house which is semi detached, the boundary wall that I own (according to the cadastral) intersects the rear face of the two houses 2m into my neighbour’s side of our dividing wall. This was not evident on the cadastral supplied with my title deeds. It was only when I purchased the on-line copy and was able to zoom in that the dimensions emerged, to the nearest 25cm.
In my case the problem was that my neighbour constructed a massive structure in his garden (it took up the entire garden area) without planning position. It is ugly and patently unsafe and now collapsing. As payback for my asking the Mairie if he had planning approval my neighbour decided to add a terrace that extended into my property.
As per my previous post on this site, in spite of my many communications with the Marie, over 3 years now, they have merely condemned my neighbour’s illegal structure but done nothing to levy fines or demolish the work. It is incidentally next to a 15th century historic monument so a criminel act.
I have had lots of useful help form this forum in getting advice but none has been sufficient to actually get any regulatory authority to actually take action. What I have noticed is that while all of my French neighbours are equally outraged at the illegal structure, even to the extent of building their own screening to hide it from their view, none have been willing to join forces with me in attending a meeting with the Mairie. For this I was roundly condemned on this forum for making a flippant remark on the subject. Not by any French subscriber I seem to recall but only by ‘indignant’ English ones.
Honi soit qui mal y
pense (with apologies to the British Chivalric Order of the Garter).
Yes - recorded delivery - still no response after many months…
Copies of correspondence to the Depts of Buildings and Heritage? Yes no response after many months…
Threat of taking the Maire to the local Tribunal for failure to fulfill his legal mayoral obligations? - Yes: no response except to claim he had visited on the very day I had explicitly stated I would not be at home.
Really Catherine? If the cadastre isn’t the official record of who owns what parcels of land, what is? IMO the cadastre is what one would have called “the deeds” in the UK.
The cadastre isn’t the property deeds! Merely an administrative record of landownership parcels. The deeds are as in the UK a bunch of paper you get on purchase.
Big bunch of papers showing who had owned the house since the year dot, their names, dates of birth etc etc etc. Fascinating historical document… our house and garden was actually about 7 different parcels, so lots of paper!
No, but my house was only built in the seventies, so it wouldn’t be a lot. My notaire is sound as a bell so I’m sure I’ve everything necessary but I’ll have a look and see exactly what I do have. We’ve been through the transfer of ownership twice really. First time when we bought the house and then when my wife died and my daughter inherited a quarter of it. I didn’t have to provide any “deeds” or documentation I’d received first time round for that transfer. The bornage work we had done was agreed with neighbours and registered so thats legally binding but I’m not sure what I have for the house itself.
Le cadastre est l’ensemble des documents qui recensent et évaluent les propriétés foncières de chaque commune. Il sert de base pour le calcul des impôts locaux.
Do you know if there is any significance in having one’s property made up of more than one parcelle? For some reason this was just a bit gleefully noted by our notaire but nothing more was said.
I was wondering about Ma Prime Renov’. Doubt I’ll get around to looking into that this year, but wondering does this mean each parcelle could benefit
Exactly, identifies land parcels and is used as basis for tax, so no relation to the deeds which are about ownership. Anyone can get the cadastral plan for a land parcel, but doesn’t mean you own it.
