Permission for change of use (Barn) in Mayenne

[Rascalb]

We have just returned from our house in Mayenne Department, a friend informed us that planning rules have changed and that you can now only convert barns that have chimneys in them. Has anyone else heard this? We have a barn we wish to incoroprate into our house and would obviously pose a problem. Plus it may be important for future buyers to know if this has changed.

[Val_2]

Can't say I have heard this one before. As in all cases of conversion, do check with the local maire as they will have the ultimate decision to make when you put in your permis de construire. Incorporating agricultural buildings into habitations have been made stricter to do,but as regards chimneys,that is a new one. Don't forget too, that your drainage situation may also come into question if you have an old or "illegal" installation.

[Idealfrance]

I can say in all certainty that having a chimney or not will make absolutely no difference to whether you get permission to convert your barn. The most important factor will be whether the POS (plan d'occupation des sols) of your commune (if there is one) allows for development in your area.

The best thing to do is make a planning application as soon as possible as we are seeing a lot of areas becoming "non-constructible" because of new efforts to limit urban sprawl. At the very least make an application for an individual wastewater treatment system (demande d'assainissement) and get electricity and water brought to your site as soon as possible.

Ben Symons
http://www.idealfrance.com

 

[Will]

We have been helping people with minor alterations to a house in the Mayenne departement, and have to say that the authorities are getting quite particular about planning permission; however if you do everything by the book you should not have a problem. Do speak to your Mairie and get the relevant forms etc before you begin to do anything.

I don't think having a chimney is relevant - it is a common fallacy that if a building has been used as a residence in the past it won't require permission for change of use. A chimney is not proof that it has been used as a residence, neither is an electricity or water supply (though if electricity and water are not present it can make permission more difficult to obtain). Even if you know it was a house, if it hasn't been lived in for a long time, and has become primarily a barn, you will still need to obtain permission.

More relevant is whether the building is within 100m of any other barn used for housing livestock. If it is, permission to use it as a residence could be very hard to obtain. It is, as mentioned above, also a requirement in many areas that a survey of the drainage arrangements be carried out as part of any planning application, and if they do not meet latest standards they will have to be improved before you can make any alterations to the building.

[Punch]

[quote]We have just returned from our house in Mayenne Department, a friend informed us that planning rules have changed and that you can now only convert barns that have chimneys in them. Has anyone else he...[/quote]

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[Moorejw]

When we applied for planning permission for our 3 barns we were told at the Mairie that if they had not already been supplied with water and electricity then we would probably have failed! The barns had only ever been lived in by animals, but had 3-phase electricity and a water supply for the animals. Our commune does not have a POS so we relied on information from the Mairie regarding the possibility of gaining planning permission and included a clause suspensive in our Compromis de Vente.

 

[Jirac18]

[quote]When we applied for planning permission for our 3 barns we were told at the Mairie that if they had not already been supplied with water and electricity then we would probably have failed! The barns h...[/quote]

I have a friend wanting to renovate an old barn with no electric or water connected. "Easy" I said, just apply for the certificat d'urbanism and include that in the compromis as a clause suspensive. The Mairie said no to cert d'urb because there were no services. The service providers said no to installing because there was no cert d'urb. Catch 22 in Morbihan but it seems to vary all over. Ask the Mairie as they rule the roost.