You've just started building your house, but for various reasons the work isn't progressing as quickly as you'd hoped... Keep an eye on how long your planning permission is valid.
Depending on your project, the document you have obtained from the town hall will be a decision not to oppose a prior declaration, a building permit, a demolition permit or a planning permission.
These authorisations have a limited period of validity, after which they lapse and lose their legal effect, which could call your project into question.
The principle: valid for 3 YEARS
Planning permission is valid for three years from the date of notification of the decision by the Mairie.
If work has not started within this period, the planning permission will expire at the end of the three-year period. You will then have to apply for a new permit, with the risk that the planning regulations may have changed and the project can no longer go ahead.
Temperament IF Work has started within the 3-year period
The second paragraph of article R. 424-17 of the French Planning Code allows the 3-year period to be exceeded if work has begun within this period and has not been interrupted for more than one year. As long as these conditions are met, there is no maximum time limit for completing your project.
If the work is interrupted, a new period of one year starts to run from the date on which the work is carried out.
It is important to note, however, that not all work will have the effect of delaying the time limit by one year. Only "major" works are taken into account.
For example, building the foundations without installing the first rows of agglomerates is considered by case law to be insufficient to extend the time limit by one year. The same applies a fortiori to the simple fact of coming to your building site to clear the undergrowth.
Extending the validity of planning permission
If you think that your building site is likely to be significantly delayed, or that it will be impossible for you to start work on it within three years, the law gives you the option of extending your planning permission by a total of two years.
So, provided that your initial planning permission is still valid and that the planning rules have not become more unfavourable, you will be able to apply twice for a one-year extension. The validity of your planning permission can therefore be extended to 5 years.
The application for extension must be sent to the Mairie at least two months before the end of the period of validity of the permit.
As there is no law prohibiting the immediate application for both extensions, we feel that it would be possible to immediately extend the period of validity of the planning permission to 5 years, in the same way that planning permission crystallises planning rules for 5 years.
What would happen if you went ahead with building work even though your planning permission had expired?
This is tantamount to building a house without permission, with civil, administrative, contractual and criminal consequences.
For more information, please read the article "Selling or buying a property built without authorisation".
