Planning permission and prior declaration: submitting your application online

Replacing windows, refacing a façade, building an extension: many works require planning permission. The good news is that the application can now be submitted online, without going to the town hall.

Prior declaration or building permit?

• Prior declaration: works that change the external appearance (windows, façade, roof, shutter colour), a small extension, a fence in some municipalities, a garden shed depending on its size.
• Building permit: a new build, an extension above certain floor-area thresholds, a change of use involving a change to the façade.

The thresholds depend on the floor area created and on the zone of the local urban plan. Above 150 m² of total floor area after the works, an architect is compulsory for a building permit.

Submitting online

Since 1^st January 2022, every municipality must be able to receive planning applications electronically. The French public service offers an online assistant that helps you choose the right form, put the application together and then send it to the municipality. You can then follow the progress of the review without travelling.

Once it has been sent, you receive an electronic acknowledgement of registration, followed by a receipt showing the application number and the date from which the processing period is calculated. Requests for documents and the decision then arrive by the same route.

The documents in the application

For a detached house, the prior declaration uses cerfa form no. 13703 and the building permit cerfa form no. 13406. The application generally includes:

• a location plan, showing where the plot lies within the municipality;
• a site plan, showing the position of the project on the plot;
• elevation and roof plans, before and after the works;
• photographs of the plot in its immediate and wider surroundings;
• for a building permit, a statement describing the project and a landscape integration document.

With a digital application, each document is a file: legible plans, drawn to scale and clearly named, avoid a great deal of back and forth.

The timescales to allow for

As a general rule, a prior declaration is processed in one month and a building permit for a detached house in two months. These periods are extended in a protected area, when the opinion of the Architecte des Bâtiments de France (the state heritage architect) is required. They only run from the date the application is complete: a missing document restarts the clock.

If the application is incomplete, the town hall has one month to request the missing documents, and the applicant has three months to provide them. If the town hall has not replied by the end of the processing period, permission is in principle granted tacitly, with some exceptions (notably in protected areas). Once obtained, it is valid for three years and can be extended twice by one year, on a request made at least two months before it expires.

An example timetable

After approval

1. Display the permission on the site, visible from the street, for the whole duration of the works.
2. Respect the third-party appeal period (two months from the display) before starting any major works.
3. Declare the start of works for a building permit, then their completion and compliance.

After the declaration of completion, the town hall in principle has three months to challenge the compliance of the works, or five months in some cases (notably in protected areas). The development tax, if the project creates floor area, must be declared within 90 days of completion.

Mistakes to avoid

• Starting the works before approval: works carried out without permission expose you to penalties and complicate a future sale.
• Forgetting the display: without a sign visible from the street, the third-party appeal period does not start.
• Ignoring the rules of the local urban plan: non-compliant colours, materials or heights lead to a refusal.
• Letting the permission expire: after three years with no start of works and no extension, everything has to be done again.
• Forgetting the declaration of completion, which the notary often asks for at the time of a sale.

How we help

On our renovation and extension projects, we prepare the plans, photographs and statements for the application with you, and we schedule the works around the processing periods.

Sources : Code de l’urbanisme, article L. 423-3 (dépôt des demandes par voie électronique depuis le 1er janvier 2022) · Code de l’urbanisme, articles R. 423-23 (délais d’instruction) et R. 600-2 (délai de recours des tiers) · Code de l’urbanisme, articles R. 423-38 et R. 423-39 (pièces manquantes : un mois pour les réclamer, trois mois pour les fournir) · Code de l’urbanisme, articles R. 424-17 et R. 424-21 (validité de trois ans et prorogation) · Code de l’urbanisme, article R. 462-6 (délai de contestation de la conformité des travaux) · Code de l’urbanisme, article R. 431-2 (recours à un architecte) · service-public.gouv.fr, permis de construire · service-public.fr