LIVING ON LAND

[jimboy]

As a young englishman, I am considering buying a tract of land of a few acres with cu and looking to plant, landscape and maybee build when finances are ripe one day!!

In the interim I would like to own and live off the land whilist raising finances and planning to build a small dwelling.   I would like to be mortgage free, and thus build a low impact/low cost timber frame building one day.  In the meantime I would be happy to live in a yurt/caravan or humpy.

My question is this.  'How would this be recieved by the local marie'?  Would I need a permit to reside.?  Off course I would be happy to pay Taxes foc/habitation.  And register.  My other concern is would I require a fosse septic installed as manditory straight away.  This would be additional expense in the short term. I know this is rather unconventional in some parts of France.  I do not forsee any problem with this especially as neighbours would be few and far between.  And I am not concieving any large scale environmental project either, just low impact living.

Thanks in advance

[Pads]

Im not sure if you would be allowed to live on the land and a fosse septic would more than likley need planning permission, but if you brought the land and to start off with maybe rented a room in some ones house, you would be able to find out what you needed to do first hand

I wish you luck I hope it works out for you[:)]  

[Limousin Lass]

I think I am right in saying that a CU only lasts for about 2 years and will not necessarily be automatically renewed.

I am sure someone with more knowledge will be able to expand on this for you.

[Motorhead]

Have a look at www.envisioneer.net. There's a guy there who did this sort of thing and built a house for 4 grand albeit in Galloway.

I suppose that in France it all depends upon finding a maire that is switched on to this sort of thing.

[mooky]

I don't know if they are still there, but in dept 79 Tillou:Sompt there were families living in tepees.

[Washy]

I agree a fosse could cause you some problems especially since the new regulations, all fosses have to be inspected etc. 

So what is wrong with 'Toilettes seches" (composting toilets) ?  Composting is big in some areas of France right now with compost bins being subsidised in many areas, complete with instructions.  In some areas composting toilets, even the most basic selfbuilt ones are acceptable, and safe if you follow some simple rules.  And your grey water can be recycled in various ways. I liked the book:  The Humanure Handbook, by Jenkins, very down to earth (sorry about the pun), and informative whilst very funny.    Do a search on  Toilette seche on Google.fr there are loads of links.  In some areas of course these sorts of waste disposal systems are frowned upon by people who do not understand them.  Depends where you decide to set up, around here (11) there are quite a lot of people living very low profile lives, with non-impact dwellings etc.  and no one seems to bother them.  Mind you some of the villages around here are not on mains drainage yet, and when we visited several farms to buy the houses had no waste system whatsoever, just a trap door into the animals below!!!! And that was only a few years ago.  I have written about this before on this forum maybe try and do a search on here as well.

I would do your research for a place very carefully.  There are several publications on eco building around in France, it is becoming fashionable, better late than never.

[Caussenarde]

Jimboy,

Very often new plots with CU get purchased and the new family shows up with a caravan to live in, whilst the building is started/part finished.

No problems I don't think with your Mairie for you to do the same, it is not unusual.  Yurts maybe a different proposition mind you.

Do the plans for you future building, get approval, install fosse first. Budget 1000 euros per bedroom approx for the fosse.

Thereafter, build slowly if you want but make sure you don't lose the CU which can multilply the value of you land by 30 times.

Make sure you are legal in France first though - see other threads about this.  You will need income/job/health insurance (comprehensive).

It doesn't matter whether or not you are happy to pay taxes, you will have to pay anyway. And register ? not sure for what for ??

cheers

[Maria]

I think whether the mairie has a problem with a caravan on the land may depend on whether they are aware of it and/or how unsightly it looks as well as whether anyone else complains!  I believe there are rules about this and you're not allowed to just move a caravan onto land - isn't the limit 3 months?

Having said that, we own some land and have had a caravan on it for about 9 months.  There was an old caravan on the land when we bought it which had been there for five years and which is derelict and still there and will be until we figure out where we're supposed to dispose of it!  Nobody has said anything to us about either caravan (including during the sale process) so far.....

We heard it was common for permission to instal a fosse septique to run out but looking at our purchase papers, we seem to have a never ending permission for one.  We're currently trying to figure out whether one is really necessary or if we can get away with other methods......

If you're on your own and want to live in a low impact way then might you be able to manage a building within the 20 square metre rule?  Some land can't be build upon at all but a lot of land which can't have a larger building on it can still have a building (or more than one depending on the size of the land) up to 20 square metres and 4 metres high on it without needing permission (just notification to the mairie that you're building it) but I'm not sure whether you're allowed to live in such a building full time.

[jimboy]

Thank you all for your informative replies.  Not quite sure about everything yet, but has helped with the what nots to do.  There is plenty to think about.  I hope this may help others in the future.

Hopefully france will catch up with green building needs. There is plenty of information out there!  Its the building regs I'm struggling with, a lot always seems upto the local marie.  When your wanting to  do something legite you need to know its not gonna break any dare I say red tape.

I checked the website and believe I can build a low impact house timberframe for £5,000.  Thats encouraging!

Bestest

[Panda]

Hello

I applied to have a caravan on my land whilst renovating and got the permission with the condition that if the caravan stayed it would have it's own fosse.  My neighbour has a caravan and I am confident he did not apply for it to be there and is unlikely to have a fosse at all as it's next to a derelict barn, he is renovating the barn but has no permission to do so.  He is taking a chance in a small rural area, it is so area dependant, I'm not sure what happens if you do do something without permission, you hear lots of people saying you can't do this or that but I've never yet met anyone who's been fined or told to take anything down, I can't ever see my mayor here having the interest to do something about it when no one looks on the land. 

For me, looking constantly over my shoulder to see if anyone has complained is not what I came here for so I try and keep as much as possible within the law, sure I bend the rules, I have 3 sheds and have planning for one but not so much as it keeps you awake at night!

Panda