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Compulsory registration of gite / holiday rental


Clair
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From the various texts I have been reading, there is an ongoing restructuration of the tourist boards at departmental and regional levels.

The newly-created bodies are in the process of gathering info which will eventually lead to a more uniform classification of all paying holiday accommodation,.

This includes holiday hotels as well as holiday camps.

So far the gites and CdH are classified on a voluntary basis, but my take is that all will be required to undertake some form of classification which will help in standardising the range of accommodation.

I stress this is my take.

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  • 1 month later...
Hi, I was just wondering how you would get to know about these forms if you don't look on the this forum. I haven't heard about it before I saw this posting.

Are they being sent out by some adminstration or the Mairie.

Are they being sent out to every gite owner and how do they know the people who have gites.
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Kelly, how would you get to hear of legislative changes in the UK?

The government (Fr or UK or any other) doesn't email everyone about everything, you just have to be aware of business legislation changes if you run a business. You belong to the chamber of commerce, read the papers, belong to a forum, pay an accountant or whatever suits you best. That's life.

In many fields keeping up to date is called continuing professional development/education, and it's often compulsory if one wishes to retain membership of the relevant body (eg surveyors, lawyers)

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  • 2 weeks later...

The " Declaration en Marie des Meubles de Tourism" requires a signature declaring that amongst other things the property has been inspected. Who is one supposed to contact for that do you know? I have let a farm house adjacent to our house for the first time this summer. I want to conform with all the rules but I am only letting for three months, and some of that time is to my family so they are not paying. I am resident in France and retired ,so I dont need to start a business unless I have to. I would be very grateful if someone could point me in the easiest direction of being legal. Thanks

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The form that this thread is about, ie the form that is used for the compulsory registration of gite / holiday rentals with the mairie, that Clair has warned us about in the first post at the top of this thread.
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Polly, Russethouse

under section C of the form is a box for your signature. In this box it says - a rough translation - "the undersigned declares that the gite is in conformity with articles D.324-1 onwards of the Code du Tourisme". These articles say that the form has to be accompanied by an official classification of the gite.

I'd be interested to hear if anyone has registered an unclassified gite :-)

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Roro, I think you need to read the text of the laws to which you refer a little more closely.

At present as the law stands if you let furnished self-catering holiday accommodation in France the property does not have to be inspected or classified by anybody.

A 'Gite' run as part of the Gites de France system will have been

inspected and classified. Other letting systems such as Clévacances

also have standards and ratings for the properties on their books.

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Polly

I think you may be wrong.

When you make the compulsory registration with the Mairie, you are telling them that your "meuble de tourisme" (ie gite) complies with articles D 324-1 etc of the code du tourisme.

That code then goes on to define a "meuble de tourisme" (daily, weekly or monthly rental, but not a permanent residence for the guest), and almost right at the top there's this

Art. D. 324-2 - Les meublés de tourisme sont répartis dans l'une des catégories exprimées par un nombre d'étoiles croissant suivant leur confort fixées par arrêté.

That is a definition of a "meuble de tourisme" for the purposes of this law, and it says that meubles de tourisme are classified in one or the other of a number of official categories ("categories .... fixes par arrete").  Next, it tells you what to do when you register with the Mairie if you aren't already officially classified

Art. D. 324-3 - Afin d'obtenir le classement, le loueur du meublé ou son

mandataire est tenu de déposer ou d'adresser au secrétariat de la

mairie de la commune où est situé le meublé une déclaration conforme à

un modèle fixé par arrêté, à laquelle il joint le certificat de visite

délivré par un organisme agréé et un état descriptif du meublé et de ses

conditions de location conforme à un modèle fixé par le même arrêté.

So the prefecture has a list of organisations it will recognise to do the official classification, and you are required to attach a certificate of inspection issued by one of those bodies. The recognised body might be Gites de France (or Clevacances), but the inspection is being done for the purpose of this law, not to obtain membership of their organisation.

And to help you on your way, the prefect will publish the list of bodies he has recognised for the purpose of doing the inspection:

Art. D. 324-8 - L'organisme chargé de la délivrance des certificats de visite mentionné aux articles D. 324-3 et D. 324-5 est agréé par le préfet. .......... Chaque année, le préfet publie au recueil des actes administratifs de la préfecture la liste des organismes qu'il a agréés.

(What's omitted from the quote is how the prefect should decide who to choose.)

This stuff sounds fairly clear, but whether the prefect has actually got round to publishing his list, or whether the Maire knows that you need to be classified in order to be registered, remain to be seen. And I won't hold my breath.

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Once again, I beg to disagree

Article L324-1 as currently in force states:

L'Etat détermine et met en oeuvre les procédures de classement des meublés de tourisme selon des modalités fixées par décret.

With effect from 24th July, Article L324-1 will read (my underlining) :

L'Etat détermine les procédures de classement des meublés de tourisme selon des modalités fixées par décret.

L'établissement est classé par l'autorité administrative dans une catégorie en fonction de critères fixés par un tableau de classement élaboré par l'organisme mentionné à l'article L. 141-2 et homologué par arrêté du ministre chargé du tourisme.

S'il souhaite obtenir le classement, l'exploitant doit produire un certificat de visite délivré par un organisme évaluateur. Dans des conditions fixées par arrêté du ministre chargé du tourisme, les organismes évaluateurs sont accrédités dans les domaines correspondant à leurs missions par l'instance nationale d'accréditation mentionnée à l'article 137 de la loi n° 2008-776 du 4 août 2008 précitée, ou tout organisme européen équivalent signataire de l'accord multilatéral pris dans le cadre de la coordination européenne des organismes d'accréditation.

L'autorité administrative transmet sa décision de classement à l'organisme mentionné à l'article L. 141-2.

NOTA:

Loi n° 2009-888 art. 12 VI. - Le présent article entre en vigueur à une date fixée par décret et au plus tard un an après la publication de la présente loi.

source: www.legifrance.gouv.fr

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Polly

you may be right, but ...

you are referring to the law that backs up the code du tourisme. When you sign the (apparently obligatory) form asking to be registered, you state that you are in conformity with the code. And the code seems to say that you need to get a classification. The law then tells you what to do if you wish to obtain the classification (as does the code, for that matter).

Now there are perhaps two possibilities:

(1) The law says "if you wish to get classified", because getting classified really is a matter for your choice. That is, these words (if I understand the reason for your disagreement) imply that classification isn't compulsory. But if that's the case, one wonders why the registration form says what it does about conforming to the code.

(2) Alternatively it means "if you wish to get classified", because you have decided you want to go on renting out your gite. If you prefer not to get a classification, you can stop running gites.

I really know far too little about French law to be able to choose between the two.

I'd be really interested in hearing from someone who has registered without getting a classification. If you are speaking from practical experience Polly it would be a weight off my mind to hear it.

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Well it is all getting more and more complicated isn't it.

First of all I must stress that "I know nussing", however common sense tells me that they would not make it compulsory to receive a favourable tax treament. It is up to us gite owners to decide if the effort of complying with the regulations is worth the 71% abatement or whether life is too short and just pay the 50% . On the other hand it does still seem to me that in order to sign the registration with the Mairie, without lying through your teeth, one has to get classified by the prefecture.

Has anyone done it?

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I submitted registration forms on behalf of clients to two Mairies only this week, neither of the properties concerned is classified in any way.

For those of you still wandering around in the mire, another useful reference source is the government website http://www.tourisme.equipement.gouv.fr, where at

http://www.tourisme.equipement.gouv.fr/fr/z2/prof_touristique/sect_activ/heberg/meubles/definition.jsp you can find a definition of a 'meublé de tourisme'.

On the next page, under the heading 'Conditions de classement' the text says

"Pour exploiter un meublé de tourisme, il convient de :

faire effectuer une visite du meublé par un organisme agréé ( la liste des organismes agréés est disponible auprès de la préfecture du département où se situe le meublé)....."

The key words here are 'il convient de". From the verb 'convenir', and meaning in this situation 'it is advisable to'; there is no statement of obligation to obtain a classification of a 'meublé de tourisme' whatsover.

IF you want to get your property classified you go to the Préfecture, or to your Comité Départemental de Tourisme. To see the advantages you might get from being classified read for example the 'Guide du Louer' http://www.tourisme-lotetgaronne.com/UserFiles/File/guide-du-loueur-lot-et-garonne.pdf

Now, if you really want to get confused and you are just attacking your French income tax returns you should go to the laymyhat forum at

http://www.laymyhat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12046. (I don't ever get involved in debates about other people's tax returns, on line or anywhere else!)

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Polly

well, all I can say is that it does all seem a bit tricky. Do please let us know if there is any kind of comeback from the Mairie or the Prefecture about your clients' registration.

Having looked at those other websites now, I find myself wondering whether the "voluntary" nature of the classification system (if indeed it is voluntary) is underpinned by a doubling of the tax on your rental income if you fail to get classified. Or in your case, your clients' tax.

Thanks to you and to everyone else for some thought-provoking comments.

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Our local Commune Bulletin has just come out telling all gite etc owners that they have to register at the Mairie by 1st July.  Will be in teresting to see which of the 11 who poreviously didn't register for tax professionale actually follow the regs this time but I think they all know that the Consiel is looking at this seriously now.
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I've been following this thread with interest as I put a couple of friends onto it as they were unaware of the new legislation.  They asked me (quite reasonably I guess) how they would have known if I had not kept an eye on this forum?  When you talk about a Commune Bulletin, Tony, is this something which is just posted on the notice board in your village, or is it delivered to homes? 

I tend to read the local paper and the internet to keep up to date but I'd like to bet that there are plenty of immigrants/expats who rarely have a clue about legislation which affects them.

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It's delivered to every home in the Commune tho whether it ever gets through the Aussie couple who have a number of gites this way and never appear in the Commune or the US woman who comes every three of four years but has never paid tax on her earnings here when her gite is booked throughout the season remains to be seen!

But they are delivered and I made sure as a member of the Conseil that all the Anglophones know that they have to comply.

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Araucaria, I have just had the formal receipt from my own Mairie for one of the forms.

Tony, see my earlier reply to Kelly re keeping oneself informed,

whether one is in the UK or in France (or anywhere else, for that

matter). 

Governments are not duty bound to notify each and every citizen of every law that is passed!

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