New house, taxe foncieres

[Hereford]

We had a new house built by a firm of house builders (i.e. did not employ individual workmen ourselves).  Moved into the house last summer (2003), final work all finished before Christmas.

We have just had Taxes Foncieres which still shows property as "non-bati" rather than a house! Please could someone tell us whether we or the building firm should have told the authorities the house was finished?  If the builders then we will write to them. Otherwise how do we go about getting this corrected. We prefer to play by the rules and not just accept an incorrect bill!

Many thanks for any info

 

Hereford

 

[BJSLIV]

In the pack of papers that came with the Permis there should have been two triplicate forms, one to declare the start of work (Ouverture) and one for the completion (Achevement).

You, as the person in charge, send these to the Mairie, and you get one back to keep. I assume that you didn't buy a house that had already been designed and built by the builder on spec.

You should then receive the dreaded form H1 from the Tax Office in which you tell them all the details of the house, size, rooms, bathrooms, heating  and they reassess the tax.

We sent ours in early this year, and it still but the Fonciere still came back Non Bati.

Fearing the worst as they seem to hammer modern houses for tax.

[Hereford]

Many thanks for such a speedy response!  The building company have all the paperwork for the permis so we will get on to them. They are a big company who build lots of houses in this area (Manche).

We know that the tax is only assessed from 1 January after it is completed so you are probably OK for this year!

Hereford

 

[Dreamers]

We too are awaiting completion of a new house and have just paid this years Tax Fonciere on the terrain, as I understand it once the house  has been completed then the tax is not payable for 2 yrs from the January following first occupation. Also can anyone qualify what is meant by new houses being clobbered for tax  ??!!!!

[Teamedup]

Long time since we had ours built, but I'm pretty sure that we didn't pay for the first couple of years, however we did have an espace verte bill to pay that was quite hefty. That may well not have changed.

In the olde days, people would take a Pret PAP (if they could) as they wouldn't pay taxe fonciere for 15 years.

[Hereford]

[quote]We too are awaiting completion of a new house and have just paid this years Tax Fonciere on the terrain, as I understand it once the house has been completed then the tax is not payable for 2 yrs fro...[/quote]

"Also can anyone qualify what is meant by new houses being clobbered for tax  ??!!!! "

 

Well you certainly pay 19.6% tva on the whole thing, including fitting kitchen, wood burner etc.

 

Thanks for other info, perhaps we were panicing for nothing if you don't pay for two years. We think now that we will just pay what we have been asked for and await events.

Hereford

[Teamedup]

The TVA, yes, we got clobbered for that, and no not at  19.6%. It was increased  a couple of months after we had signed for the house, so we copped for that too, to the 20 odd percent, or was it 21% it used to be, between the govt and then later the BNP we were well and truly done over, with extra and unexpected charges.

 

[Jo Jo]

Hi,

Just come across this forum and finding it very interesting,

going off the boil slightly, but we have just bought land in the Dordogne and intend to get a company in to build and manage the whole project.  Wondered if anyone had any good tips or tales of woe they would care to share with two very wary brits.

[Hereford]

Jo-Jo

This is what we did, and overall it has been very successful. Beware extras that creep in. e.g. 1000€ to EDF for bringing electricity underground from road (in Manche this has to be done on a new supply) plus miles of expensive cabling on electrician's bill.

Terrassement was a separate bill, as it obviously depends on the site. We also found that the "but say" estimates in the contract for tiles (floor and bathroom etc) were very mean, we needed extra wall tiles and found it hard to find any within the price estimate so paid extra.

If the contract says it will be finished within 10 months of start on site (of the builders not terrassement) then that will be the date not a minute earlier. French builders will not be hurried.

You can send a message to our in-box if you would like any further info. Good luck. You will be very satisfied once it is done.

Hereford

 

[Teamedup]

Our EDF bill was around the same 20 odd years ago. It depends on how far they have to bring the line to the house. Terrasement as mentioned and all the legal costs ofcourse. Espace verte tax. As we had a loan, our list of extras including the hypotheque were quite long.

[BJSLIV]

Our experience was much as other have mentioned. Water connection £800, Phone Connection £700, EdF £900, Planning Tax (D'equipment) £700, Insurance Cover £2000, Drain Connection £700, Misc Odds and Sods over and above basic spec (Tiles, heaters, heating controls,plumbing etc) £10000.

The important thing was that they were all planned , I think the unforeseen extras were about £150 for some additional foundations.

[Sprogster]

From my experience in Var, you also have to pay a fairly hefty water tax for new houses being connected to the water mains.

I would strongly recommend that you ensure the electricity, water and telephone connections are all arranged at the outset of construction. Otherwise like me you could end up with a finished house and no telephone line five months later.!