Who to employ re planning?

[pknuts]

We own a piece of land within a town which has a house either side surrounded by gardens. We wish to persue planning permission for a small single storey house for mother to eventually live in. Does anyone know who may be the best professional to employ to reach the best outcome. The piece of land is on the border of a conservation area of a medieval town and may be considered sensitive. The other houses have been there, perhaps 20 years or so. Do specialist planning advisers exist in France? Any help or advice appreciated.

[Clair]

If the land/property is on the edge of a conservation area, your application is likely to be forwarded for approval/amendment to an architect from the Bâtiments de France.

See their site for details: http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/sites-sdaps/sdap25/abf/particulier.htm

You might also find they have representation in your department. Try a search for "batiments de france" + your dept in google.fr.

[Quillan]

The first thing we had to do was get a Certificate of Urbanisation on the land which involved having a land survey done which cost about 600 Euros. We did not have to say exactly what type of house/building we were going to construct like with a plan etc just said it was a 4 roomed single level dwelling sort of thing. We didn't have to say the exact position either, just a rough position, as all this will be done at the next stage when we applied for the Construction Permit.

If your property is to be under a certain m2 you don't need an architect to make the drawings, I forget the actual number, I think it is somewhere around 160 m2 but I am sure others will know or ask your local DDE office.

You can get all the forms from your mayors office and if memory serves you make four copies. We used a local bi-lingual French person to help fill in the forms.

As Clair said if you are within 1km of some sort of protected monument (in our case its a painting inside a church would you believe) your application has to be submitted to the Bâtiments de France who will normally still approve it but put conditions on the build like roof tiles, colour of exterior, window frame material and colour and of course your shutters. I have heard people say it can take up to a year but in my case it took about 4 months. This was done automatically after the DDE had looked at the application for Urbanisation and thats when we discovered what their requirements were and if what we intended was acceptable.

So in answer to your actual question no not really and anyway its down to the DDE and Bâtiments de France at the end of the day and the paperwork is not that difficult to complete. If you use an architect then they should know if the plot comes under Bâtiments de France if not, you, or they, can ask the Mayor or the DDE. If you allow the architect to submit the plans for approval on your behalf then ensure you get a Quote before you start and I always ensure that on the bottom I write that any changes/extras will only be paid for if accompanied by a Quote signed by both parties i.e. myself and the architect/builder. This is quite important as this is the area where most disputes centre when the final bills start arriving.

Hope that helps.