Renewal of Cd'U & Permis de Construire query

[Mamou]

When we bought our plot of land at Xmas 2006 with Certificat d'urbanisme, the interpreter advised that we need to get Permis de Construire in before 3rd November 2007.   We were wondering what the implications would be if we did not get the P de C - as we are not sure if we are going to build just yet.  We understand the C d'U would expire, and we would have to reapply with a risk of it being refused if the land is rezoned.  If we get the P de C for a potential house, what happens if we don't start the work.  Does this expire if work not started within 2 years?  Could we build the 'shell' of the house - watertight, but leave the internals basically not done, to be finished years later? Would the latter also help to reduce/avoid tax d'habitation etc, as it really would not be habitable at that stage.  The reason for all of this, is we are rethinking our finances and plans, and may not be able to complete the build initially, or postpone the build altogether until full finances in place. Any comments?

[Will]

You are right that a P de C is not normally not refused in outline (though there may be details to be sorted out) while a CU is current. And that there is no guarantee of getting a new P de C when the CU has expired.

The P de C is not normally renewable - once lapsed you have to reapply. But as long as you start work before it expires you are OK. Of course, just what counts as 'starting work' is open to considerable interpretation. You see a lot of places in very unfinished state that have been the same for years. But this is a sure way of not endearing yourselves to the maire and the commune.

[Albert the InfoGipsy]

Technically the rule is that once you have PC you must start within 2 years and not stop for longer than 12 months. So if you have just had your foundations laid at the end of June you need to do some more work the following June (e.g. putting in a fosse). However, if you keep spinning things out like this then the mairie may start chasing you because they want to get you paying your taxes ASAP. Could be other issues as well.

[cooperlola]

Albert is right but I've had some positive stuff too.  Because our builders were a year later starting our work than we expected, and the windows took 6 months to arrive after that, we have not even begun our internal works on our loft conversion.  The tax man rang me up (the thing Albert refers to) and I explained the situation to him.  I said, I was quite happy if they wished to come and look, and was not averse to paying extra taxes if they were due (the space has quite clearly increased although it's not usable for anything more than storage at present).  He was very sympathetic to the fact that we are running way behind schedule and said, no need to pay extra, I'll call you in 6 months and see how you're getting along.  So just keeping your local authorities up to date re any delays etc may very well keep them happy if you are up-front and honest.