Wooden floors - Urgent query

[Peter Josh]

Can anyone help? A builder (French) informed me that a wooden 'under'floor, on which tiles are then placed, imply that the property is, under French law, not a habitable space, but a barn. Is this his personal interpretation, or is there any reg to support this view?

A bit on the urgent side, so any help would be fantastic.

Kind regards

Peter

[Gyn_Paul]

Not heard that one before... Sounds a bit odd...

Logic would dictate that if I ripped up my existing floors and relaid them as described I could then avoid taxe d' habitation as it woudn't then be a habitable area.

Surely, if you plan to live in a building, it becomes - de facto - a habitable area ?

Or is your problem that of change of use/ need for a c. d'urbanisme? *

A word with the Marie is in order.

Also, what is the building described as on your deeds?

Are you currently paying Taxe d'habitation ? 

* if a barn is attached to a house, and is sited on the same parcel of land as the house then it already is a habitable area if you so choose to develope it (if you're not in a conservation area, that is).

paul 

[Anton Redman]

Paul have you got 'chapter and verse' / any French legal reference for the quote below as it not my reading of the law. If it is I would be very pleased in deed.

" if a barn is attached to a house, and is sited on the same parcel of land as the house then it already is a habitable area if you so choose to develope it (if you're not in a conservation area, that is)."

paul 

[Gyn_Paul]

[quote]Paul have you got 'chapter and verse' / any French legal reference for the quote below as it not my reading of the law. If it is I would be very pleased in deed. " if a barn is attached to a house, a...[/quote]

Anton,

We are buying a house with attached barns (viewed from the road from left to right it goes barn-house-barn/(then)/barn house barn (of neighbours). When we were in the agent's office writing out the compromis de vente I asked this very question and the agent said she thought it was the case (as outlined in the quote). I queried this  (as in 'thinking' is not good enough) as I felt getting a CdU needed to be a condition of the sale, and so she phoned the Notaire there and then who gave us the thumbs up.

This is how she explained it to us as detailed by the Notaire.-

If you buy land comprising various parcels of land with assorted buildings on it, you definitely need a CdU if the barn (for the purposes of this argument, let's call all agricultural, non-inhabited buildings 'barns' OK?) is free-standing, and on a parcel of land which does NOT contain a house.

If it is free-standing yet sharing a parcel with a house, it's iffy. It will depend on your local regulations It may be up to the Marie, it may be up to the people who control the area's Urbanism plan (the same people, I think, who control the zoning of land as habitable or agricole- sorry I can't remember the name, VAL2 is bound to know instantly).

If you have a house with attached buildings and the whole lot sit on the same parcel on the plan cadastral, then the certificat d' urbanisme makes no distinction and refers to all the contiguous buildings on the plot at once - regardless of what they are currently used for.

Of course you still need a permis de construire if you alter the facade etc.

You're not talking about a listed building in a national park, 250m  from a XIVeme chateau are you, by any chance?

hope this helps

 

regards

 

paul

[Anton Redman]

Thanks very much for the above Paul. That does help and fits with my local experience. Still run the risk of needing full Permis de Construire rather than Limited Works but does remove one of my worries.

[Gyn_Paul]

Same for us too, we're bigger than the 170 sqm so need Architect's plans to go with the PdC application, so we are currently pouring over the hand-drawn room plans (40-odd tatty pieces of block-ruled paper), trying to make up an order of work and compile a list of jobs that either a) need no permission, or b) need only a DdT.

Fun  this house renovation lark eh?

paul