Building permits
Verified 31 March 2023 - Legal and Administrative Information Directorate (Prime Minister)
A building permit is a city planning authorization that you must obtain before you can build a building or do certain work on an existing one.
The building permit is issued by the city hall.
We guide you through the steps of applying for a permit.
First of all, you need to check with your city hall to find out if your project is located in a protected area.
Protected sites are remarkable heritage sites, the surroundings of historical monuments, classified or pending sites, nature reserves, the heart of national parks or a future national park.
General case
Step-by-step approach
The following works and constructions may be the subject of a building permit:
The application for a building permit may be made by:
- Owner(s) of the land or their representative
- Purchaser of the property
- Company authorized by the owner(s) to carry out the work
- People in division or their representative
- Trustee and co-owner
- Beneficiary of expropriation (public service, public establishment, chamber of commerce...)
On the Internet
You should check with your city council or its website to find out if it has an online service to complete your application online.
Municipalities with more than 3,500 inhabitants have a specific online service for the seizure and deposit of city planning authorizations.
It enables you to:
- Complete the permit application
- Prepare file attachments
- File the file on the Internet
- Follow the instruction by the city planning department
If your municipality has not set it up, you can use an Internet-based support service that guides you through each step of compiling your file.
Form
Construction or work on a detached house
Application for a building permit for a detached house and/or its annexes (CMIP)
When several people file a building permit together, they attach a supplementary card in which they give the identity and contact details of each owner.
Supplementary sheet / other applicants for the same project
Please note
By completing the permit application form, you can choose to receive e-mail from the READ: titleContent or by another equivalent electronic method.
The permit application package includes the form and documents to be provided.
In the form, a " attachment deposit slip ” gives the full list of all documents that the city planning department may request from you.
For all projects, you must provide the following:
- Location map of the land you can get on the Geoportal website
- Ground plane
- Cross-sectional plane
- Notice setting out the land, its surroundings and the project (layout, access, parking, planned facilities, materials and colors of buildings, plantations)
- Plan of facades and roofs
- Graphic document (photomontage for example) to appreciate the project in relation to other nearby constructions and landscapes
- Original photograph to locate the land in its close environment
- Original photography to situate the terrain in its distant environment
Additional parts are required depending on the nature of your project.
If the floor area of your construction is greater than 150 m², you must have the plans prepared by an architect.
The recourse to the architect may also be required for an enlargement.
Warning
If you are a legal person, other than a farm or farm equipment co-operative, you must always use an architect.
Construction or extension of buildings and energy renovation work must comply with the environmental regulation 2020.
You must provide a certificate of compliance with this regulation that you can obtain on the Internet.
Certificates of acceptance of environmental regulations RE 2020 and thermal RT 2012
Construction or work on a building other than a detached house
Application for a building permit (other than for a detached house or its annexes)
When several people file a building permit together, they attach a supplementary card in which they give the identity and contact details of each owner.
Supplementary sheet / other applicants for the same project
Please note
By completing the permit application form, you can choose to receive e-mail from the READ: titleContent or by another equivalent electronic method.
The permit application package includes the form and documents to be provided.
In the form, a " attachment deposit slip ” gives the full list of all documents that the city planning department may request from you.
For all projects, you must provide the following:
- Location map of the land you can get on the Geoportal website
- Ground plane
- Cross-sectional plane
- Notice setting out the land, its surroundings and the project (layout, access, parking, planned facilities, materials and colors of buildings, plantations)
- Plan of facades and roofs
- Graphic document (photomontage for example) to appreciate the project in relation to other nearby constructions and landscapes
- Original photograph to locate the land in its close environment
- Original photography to situate the terrain in its distant environment
Additional parts are required depending on the nature of your project.
If the floor area of your construction is greater than 150 m², you must have the plans prepared by an architect.
The recourse to the architect may also be required for an enlargement.
Warning
If you are a legal person, other than a farm or farm equipment co-operative, you must always use an architect.
Construction or extension of buildings and energy renovation work must comply with the environmental regulation 2020.
You must provide a certificate of compliance with this regulation that you can obtain on the Internet.
Certificates of acceptance of environmental regulations RE 2020 and thermal RT 2012
Via the Internet
You should ask your city council or its website for information on how to send your file to it via the internet.
The communes less than 3,500 inhabitants provide you with a dedicated email address or contact form to submit your permit application.
The communes more than 3,500 inhabitants provide you with an online service with which you can complete and file the permit application on the internet.
If your municipality does not offer any online service, you can use the Internet support service.
From the beginning of the seizure, you will be informed whether your municipality is connected to this service. If so, you can upload your file.
If the municipality is not connected, you can fill in and print the permit file using this assistance and carry it or send it by mail RAR: titleContent to the town hall.
Support for your city planning authorization request
FYI
When a municipality has set up its own online service for the deposit of city planning authorizations, you cannot send your file by email.
The city hall delivers you a receipt. It consists ofelectronic acknowledgement.
The receipt contains the registration number of your file and the information allowing you to know the date from which the work can start.
He states that, within 1 month of the filing of the file, the City Hall can notify a different time frame to start your work. She also has 1 month to inform you that your file is incomplete.
Filing in town hall or by mail
Your permit application can be submitted or mailed RAR: titleContent to the town hall.
You must deposit :
- 4 complete building permit application files
- 5 additional copies of situation plans
- 5 copies of the ground plane additional
- 5 additional copies of cross-sectional drawings
The city hall delivers you a receipt. It contains the registration number of your file and information allowing you to know the date from which the work can start.
This receipt states that, within 1 month from the filing of the file, the City Hall can notify a different time frame to start your work. She also has 1 month to inform you that your file is incomplete.
Your file is complete
For a detached house, the time-limit for the investigation is 2 months from the date of submission of the complete file to the City Hall.
For other projects, the time limit is 3 months.
Your file is incomplete
Within 1 month of receipt or submission of your permit application to the City Hall, she will send you a letter RAR: titleContent or by electronic means a request for missing documents.
You have 3 months to send the requested parts. If you do not provide them, your license application will be considered rejected.
The instruction timeout starts when your folder is full.
For a detached house, it is 2 months.
For other projects, the time limit is 3 months.
The decision is addressed to you by letter RAR: titleContent or by READ: titleContent or an equivalent electronic process.
Authorization
The decision to grant you a building permit takes the form ofan order signed by the mayor.
Warning
Within 3 months of the date of the decision, the mayor may withdraw a permit if he considers that it has been issued illegally.
Lack of response
If you do not receive a reply from the City Hall at the end of the appraisal period, your project is accepted. This is a tacit building permit.
Warning
Within 3 months of the date of the decision, the mayor may withdraw a permit if he considers that it has been issued illegally.
Refusal
Refusal of building permits takes the form ofone by-law specifying the reasons for the refusal. It must indicate the means and time limits for appealing against this decision.
Stay of proceedings
In certain circumstances, the mayor can defer his decision on your license for up to 2 years. This is the case, for example, when your work request may compromise or make it more expensive to execute a future project MORE: titleContent or a development operation.
The mayor takes a stay of proceedings .
Your permit is neither accepted nor refused. It will be reviewed later.
The reasons for the decision and the remedies and time limits for appeal are specified in the order.
Within 2 months of the expiry of the stay of proceedings, you must confirm your permit application. Within 2 months of your request, you will receive the mayor's decision.
FYI
A landowner who has been granted a stay of proceedings may apply to the community (or the public service that initiated the stay) to purchase the land.
Once your building permit has been accepted, its display on the ground is mandatory.
The view must remain in place for the duration of the work and be visible from the outside. The information on your billboard must be legible on the public highway or in spaces open to the public.
For 2 months from 1er field display day, your neighbors can to challenge the authorization which has been granted to you. They then make a free appeal to the mayor who issued the authorization.
When the mayor refuses your application for a building permit or issues a stay order, you can challenge it.
In the 2 months that follow the date of notification of the decision, you can make a ex gratia appeal by letter RAR: titleContent by the town hall.
If your grace attempt fails, you have a new grace period of 2 months to make a appeal to the administrative court, by letter RAR: titleContent. You must clearly state the reasons for your right to a building permit.
You must apply to the administrative court within whose jurisdiction your municipality is located.
Who shall I contact
Period of validity of the building permit
The building permit has aperiod of validity three years old.
It expires if you have not started the work within 3 years or if, after this period, you interrupt it for more than 1 year.
Request for extension
The period of validity may be extended twice for one year if the city planning rules and administrative easements have not changed.
You have to ask for it At least 2 months before the expiry of the initial period of validity of your building permit (or before the expiration of your 1re request for extension).
This request must be made in 2 copies by letter RAR: titleContent or dropped off in town hall.
Upon receipt of your request, the City Hall has 2 months to answer you.
The extension is granted if you do not receive a reply within this time limit.
The site opening declaration is mandatory.
Before your work begins, you must declare the opening of the site on a form to be deposited or sent to the town hall, preferably by letterRAR: titleContent .
When you have finished your work, you must declare their completion and compliance, to the City Hall, with the following form:
The construction, reconstruction and expansion of the buildings shall give rise to the payment of development tax and possibly the Preventive Archeology Charge.
For license applications filed on or after 1er september 2022, the elements for calculating the fees shall be declared within 90 days the completion of your work in the fiscal sense.
You make this declaration from your secure space on the tax website.
You are sent collection documents following your declaration.
If it does not exceed €1,500, the development tax is payable in one installment, 90 days after the completion of the works.
When its amount exceeds €1,500, the tax is payable in 2 times, 90 days and 9 months after completion of the work.
Sectors protected
Step-by-step approach
The following works and constructions may be the subject of a building permit:
The application for a building permit may be made by:
- Owner(s) of the land or their representative
- Purchaser of the property
- Company authorized by the owner(s) to carry out the work
- People in division or their representative
- Trustee and co-owner
- Beneficiary of expropriation (public service, public establishment, chamber of commerce...)
On the Internet
You should check with your city council or its website to find out if it has an online service to complete your application online.
Municipalities with more than 3,500 inhabitants have a specific online service for the seizure and deposit of city planning authorizations.
It enables you to:
- Complete the permit application
- Prepare file attachments
- File the file on the Internet
- Follow the instruction by the city planning department
If your municipality has not set it up, you can use an Internet-based support service that guides you through each step of compiling your file. From the beginning of the seizure, you will be informed whether your municipality is connected to this service. If so, you can forward your file.
If the municipality is not connected, you can fill in and print the permit file using this assistance and carry it or send it by mail RAR: titleContent to the town hall.
Form
Construction or work on a detached house
Application for a building permit for a detached house and/or its annexes (CMIP)
When several people file a building permit together, they attach a supplementary card in which they give the identity and contact details of each owner.
Supplementary sheet / other applicants for the same project
Please note
By completing the permit application form, you can choose to receive e-mail from the READ: titleContent or by another equivalent electronic method.
The permit application package includes the form and documents to be provided.
In the form, a attachment deposit slip give the full list of all documents that the city planning department may request from you.
For all projects, you must provide the following:
- Location map of the land you can get on the Geoportal website
- Ground plane
- Cross-sectional plane
- Notice setting out the land, its surroundings and the project (layout, access, parking, planned facilities, materials and colors of buildings, plantations)
- Plan of facades and roofs
- Graphic document (photomontage for example) to appreciate the project in relation to other nearby constructions and landscapes
- Original photograph to situate the terrain in its close environment
- Original photography to locate the terrain in its distant environment
Additional parts are required depending on the nature of your project.
If the floor area of your construction is greater than 150 m², you must have the plans prepared by an architect.
The recourse to the architect may also be required for an enlargement.
Warning
If you are a legal person, other than a farm or farm equipment co-operative, you must always use an architect.
Construction or extension of buildings and energy renovation work must comply with the environmental regulation 2020.
You must provide a certificate of compliance with this regulation that you can obtain on the Internet.
Certificates of acceptance of environmental regulations RE 2020 and thermal RT 2012
Construction or work on a building other than a detached house
Application for a building permit (other than for a detached house or its annexes)
When several people file a building permit together, they attach a supplementary card in which they give the identity and contact details of each owner.
Supplementary sheet / other applicants for the same project
Please note
By completing the permit application form, you can choose to receive e-mail from the READ: titleContent or by another equivalent electronic method.
The permit application package includes the form and documents to be provided.
In the form, a attachment deposit slip give the full list of all documents that the city planning department may request from you.
For all projects, you must provide the following:
- Location map of the land you can get on the Geoportal website
- Ground plane
- Cross-sectional plane
- Notice setting out the land, its surroundings and the project (layout, access, parking, planned facilities, materials and colors of buildings, plantations)
- Plan of facades and roofs
- Graphic document (photomontage for example) to appreciate the project in relation to other nearby constructions and landscapes
- Original photograph to situate the terrain in its close environment
- Original photography to locate the terrain in its distant environment
Additional parts are required depending on the nature of your project.
If the floor area of your construction is greater than 150 m², you must have the plans prepared by an architect.
The recourse to the architect may also be required for an enlargement.
Warning
If you are a legal person, other than a farm or farm equipment co-operative, you must always use an architect.
Construction or extension of buildings and energy renovation work must comply with the environmental regulation 2020.
You must provide a certificate of compliance with this regulation that you can obtain on the Internet.
Certificates of acceptance of environmental regulations RE 2020 and thermal RT 2012
Via the Internet
You should ask your city council or its website for information on how to send your file to it via the internet.
The communes less than 3,500 inhabitants provide you with a dedicated email address or contact form to submit your permit application.
The communes more than 3,500 inhabitants provide you with an online service with which you can complete and file the permit application on the internet.
If your municipality does not offer any online service, you can use the Internet support service.
From the beginning of the seizure, you will be informed whether your municipality is connected to this service. If so, you can upload your file.
If the municipality is not connected, you can fill in and print the permit file using this assistance and carry it or send it by mail RAR: titleContent to the town hall.
Support for your city planning authorization request
FYI
When a municipality has set up its own online service for the deposit of city planning authorizations, you cannot send your file by email.
The city hall delivers you a receipt. It consists ofelectronic acknowledgement.
The receipt contains the registration number of your file and the information allowing you to know the date from which the work can start.
He states that, within 1 month of the filing of the file, the City Hall can notify a different time frame to start your work. She also has 1 month to inform you that your file is incomplete.
Filing in town hall or by mail
Your permit application can be submitted or mailed RAR: titleContent to the town hall.
You must deposit :
- 5 complete building permit application files (6 for a natural park project)
- 5 additional copies of situation plans
- 5 copies of the ground plane additional
- 5 additional copies of cross-sectional drawings
The city hall delivers you a receipt. It contains the registration number of your file and information allowing you to know the date from which the work can start.
This receipt states that, within 1 month from the filing of the file, the City Hall can notify a different time frame to start your work. She also has 1 month to inform you that your file is incomplete.
Your file is complete
For a detached house, the time-limit for the investigation is 3 months from the date of submission of the complete file to the City Hall.
For other projects, the time limit shall in principle be 4 months.
Your file is incomplete
Within 1 month of receipt or submission of your permit application to the City Hall, she will send you a letter RAR: titleContent or by electronic means a request for missing documents.
You have 3 months to send the requested parts. If you do not provide them, your license application will be considered rejected.
The instruction timeout starts when your folder is full.
For a detached house, it is 3 months.
For other projects, the time limit shall in principle be 4 months.
The decision is addressed to you by letter RAR: titleContent or by READ: titleContent or by an equivalent electronic process.
Authorization
The decision to grant you a building permit takes the form ofan order signed by the mayor.
Warning
Within 3 months of the date of the decision, the mayor may withdraw a permit if he considers that it has been issued illegally.
Lack of response
In some cases, the lack of response from the city hall means that your request is rejected.
This is a implied decision to refuse a permit (without writing).
This is the case, for example, for the following projects:
- Subject to consultation of the architect of the Bâtiments de France (ABF) when he has issued an unfavorable opinion or a favorable opinion with prescriptions
- On a building listed as a historical monument
- In the heart of a national park
Refusal
Refusal of building permits takes the form ofone by-law specifying the reasons for the refusal. It must indicate the means and time limits for appealing against this decision.
Stay of proceedings
In certain circumstances, the mayor can defer his decision on your license for up to 2 years. This is the case, for example, when your work request may compromise or make it more expensive to execute a future project MORE: titleContent or a development operation.
The mayor takes a stay of proceedings .
Your permit is neither accepted nor refused. It will be reviewed later.
The reasons for the decision and the remedies and time limits for appeal are specified in the order.
Within 2 months of the expiry of the stay of proceedings, you must confirm your permit application. Within 2 months of your request, you will receive the mayor's decision.
FYI
A landowner who has been granted a stay of proceedings may apply to the community (or the public service that initiated the stay) to purchase the land.
Once your building permit has been accepted, its display on the ground is mandatory.
The view must remain in place for the duration of the work and be visible from the outside. The information on your billboard must be legible on the public highway or in spaces open to the public.
For 2 months from 1er field display day, your neighbors can to challenge the authorization which has been granted to you. They then make a free appeal to the mayor who issued the authorization.
When the mayor refuses your application for a building permit or issues a stay order, you can challenge it.
In the 2 months that follow the date of notification of the decision, you can make a ex gratia appeal by letter RAR: titleContent by the town hall.
If your grace attempt fails, you have a new grace period of 2 months to make a appeal to the administrative court, by letter RAR: titleContent. You must clearly state the reasons for your right to a building permit.
You must apply to the administrative court within whose jurisdiction your municipality is located.
Who shall I contact
Period of validity of the building permit
The building permit has aperiod of validity three years old.
It expires if you have not started the work within 3 years or if, after this period, you interrupt it for more than 1 year.
Request for extension
The period of validity may be extended twice for one year if the city planning rules and administrative easements have not changed.
You have to ask for it At least 2 months before the expiry of the initial period of validity of your building permit (or before the expiration of your 1re request for extension).
This request must be made in 2 copies by letter RAR: titleContent or dropped off in town hall.
Upon receipt of your request, the City Hall has 2 months to answer you.
The extension is granted if you do not receive a reply within this time limit.
The site opening declaration is mandatory.
Before your work begins, you must declare the opening of the site on a form to be deposited or sent to the town hall, preferably by letter RAR: titleContent .
When you have finished your work, you must declare their completion and compliance, to the City Hall, with the following form:
When you have finished your work, you must declare the completion and conformity of your work to the town hall with the following form:
The construction, reconstruction and expansion of the buildings shall give rise to the payment of development tax and possibly the Preventive Archeology Charge.
For license applications filed on or after 1er september 2022, the elements for calculating the fees shall be declared within 90 days the completion of your work in the fiscal sense.
You make this declaration from your secure space on the tax website.
You are sent collection documents following your declaration.
If it does not exceed €1500, the development tax is payable in one installment, 90 days after the completion of the works.
When its amount exceeds €1500, the tax is payable in 2 times, 90 days and 9 months after completion of the work.
Who can help me?
Find who can answer your questions in your region
For information on city planning regulations and administrative procedures
Telephone administrative information - Allo Public ServiceThe informants who answer you belong to the ministry in charge of housing and city planning.
Cost: free service
Attention: the service does not have access to users' personal files and therefore cannot provide information on their progress.
The service is available at the following times:
- Monday: 8.30am to 5.30pm
- Tuesday: 8:30 to 12:15
- Wednesday: 8:30 to 12:15
- Thursday: 8.30am to 5.30pm
- Friday: 1 p.m. to 4:15 p.m
For information on your local city planning plan or building permit file
Town HallFor information about city planning policies based on your industry's overall architecture
Architectural, city planning and Environmental Council (CAUE)
- City planning Code: Articles L421-1 to L421-9Work subject to building permits
- City planning Code: Articles R421-14Work on existing construction subject to building permits
- City planning code: article L111-15Identical Reconstruction
- City planning code: Articles R*423-1 and R*423-2Application for a building permit
- City planning code: Articles R*431-5 to R*431-12Building Permit Application File
- Construction and housing code: articles R162-5 to R162-7Construction of a detached house and accessibility
- City planning code: article R*431-2Derogations from the principle of compulsory recourse to an architect
- City planning code: article L424-5Withdrawal of a decision
- City planning code: Articles R*424-17 to R*424-20Period of validity of the building permit
- Construction and housing code: articles R122-22 to R122-35Attestations
- Order of 11 October 2011 on certificates Thermal Regulation 2012Model for attestation of the taking into account of the thermal regulations
- Order of 9 December 2021 on certificates of recognition of environmental regulations-RE 2020
- Application for a building permit for a detached house and/or its annexes (CMIP)
Form
- Application for a building permit (other than for a detached house or its annexes)
Form
- Support for your city planning authorization request
Online service
- Method of calculating the floor area
Simulator
- Certificates of acceptance of environmental regulations RE 2020 and thermal RT 2012
Online service
FAQ
- Building permits, prior declaration... Who can apply?
- Floor area of a construction: what are the calculation rules?
- When should an architect be used?
- Renovation: in which cases should thermal insulation work be undertaken?
- Infringement of city planning rules: what are the limitation periods?
- Do you need a city planning permit to settle a garden shed?
- Can you go to your neighbor's house to do some work at home (ladder tower)?
- Transfer of a building or development permitService-Public.fr
- Permit to amend a building or development permitService-Public.fr
- Viewing city planning Permission in the FieldService-Public.fr
- Challenge of a city planning authorizationService-Public.fr
- Declaration of the opening of the construction siteService-Public.fr
- Declaration of Completion and Conformity of Work (ACCED)Service-Public.fr
- Advance Work Declaration (PNR)Service-Public.fr
- Planning PermitService-Public.fr
- Development tax (TA)Service-Public.fr
- Complying with the 2020 SOS to build your homeEcological Transition Agency (Ademe)
- Order of ArchitectsOrder of Architects
- Definition and calculation of the floor areaNational Institute of Consumer Affairs (INC)
