whipitup

As far as enyone over there is concerened, they (the buiders) are just our friends, who (if anyone ask's) are doing us a favour They are installing the central heating, plumbing and wiring to the current French codes. I dont think any of the neighbours would cause a problem (we get on with them all OK) but it's a bit late to stop them now as they are half way through the work !!! The loft "convertion" is adding bedrooms to a space which was already habitable. As for a visit by the police, we are out in the sticks, and havnt seen any at all (yet). It's not that we intend to break any laws, just that we didnt know about them in the first place. Keeping my fingers crossed........

Ooop........ Just bought a place in SW France (in June) and we have had some English builders over there for the last three weeks. They have been knocking down partition walls, converting the loft, re-wiring, re-plumbing etc, etc. Their plan is spend a month out there, go home for a month and then spend another month finishing off. Now, it never even occurred to me that using Brit builders would be a problem (as we are in the E.U.), our Estate Agents (who are Irish, but have lived there for 10 years) never said it would be a problem, the local Mayor said we could do what we want inside the house without permission ............ After reading the above thread, to be honest I'm crapping myself I just hope we can get the renovation work done without any trouble, as trying to get French resident builders to do the work is almost impossible.   Comments ?