Recent changes to French planning laws have had a knock-on effect on certificats d’urbanisme. The certificat d’urbanisme (CDU) is issued by the mairie for the commune in which the land or property concerned is situated, in response to an application made for either a CDU d’information or a CDU opérationnel.

The first of these will give information about the zoning of the property on the local development plan, any administrative restrictions by which it is affected and the local taxes to which it is subject.

The second, as well as all the above information, will also indicate whether the land can in principle be used for a building project specified in the application, and gives details of the services available to the property, eg mains water and public roads. Although the CDU is often spoken of as being equivalent to outline planning permission, it does not in fact give permission for the specific project. For this, a permis de construire is necessary.

The same form is used for both applications and the CDU is issued free of charge in either case. The application for a CDU d’information must be accompanied by a plan identifying the property and its situation within the commune.

The application for a CDU opérationnel must also include a brief description of the proposed development, the use and positioning of the new buildings and whether any existing buildings will be retained or demolished. The position of these must be shown on the plan. Sketches and photographs can also be submitted. Two copies of the application must be provided for an application for a certificat d’information and four for a certificat opérationnel.

Tacit approval

The mairie has one month in which to reply to an application for a CDU d’information and two months for an application for a certificat opérationnel. If the reply is negative, reasons must be given. If no reply is received within the deadlines referred to above, you can assume that the certificate has been tacitly approved.

This provision was introduced with the intention of speeding up the planning application process. However, its usefulness is limited. The tacit approval does not apply to projects described in the application for a certificat opérationnel, only to the information it contains, as to zoning, local taxes etc. And if you have not received any paperwork from the mairie, how do you know what this information consists of?

Both certificates are valid for eighteen months and there is a guarantee that within that period the property in question will be protected from any amendments to the local planning regulations which would adversely affect it; so if an application for a full permis de construire is made within that time, it must be considered by reference to the local planning regulations in force at the date of the CDU.

For example, if at the date of the CDU, the property is in a zone urbaine (built-up area), but by the time the permis de construire is applied for – so long as it is within the following eighteen months – a new local development plan has been approved and the property is now in a zone naturelle (green area), the application for the permis cannot be refused on those grounds.

At the end of the eighteen months, the CDU can be extended on an annual basis on application in writing at least two months before the period expires, but only if there has been no change to the local planning regulations.

Purchase contracts

The new law creates problems with purchase contracts, which previously could be made subject to a positive CDU opérationnel for work which the purchaser intended to carry out. There is no difficulty if the mairie replies favourably within the two-month period, but if it does not, and a tacit CDU is relied on, the lack of information as to zoning makes it impossible to know whether a subsequent application for a permis de construire is protected as described above. Some mairies will respond to pressure in such circumstances, and issue a written certificate; others, particularly small rural mairies with limited resources, do not reply to CDU applications as a matter of policy.

The safest thing to do in these circumstances is to make the contract conditional on a full permis de construire being obtained, but this is expensive and time-consuming and involves the consent of the seller as owner of the land in question, which he or she may be reluctant to provide.

Feedback from our notaire contacts indicates that the new law is generally considered to be bad law in this respect and does not, in practice, completely bring about the simplification of planning procedures as was intended. It is just bedding in, however, and it may well be that this – surely unintended – result will be the subject of amending legislation in the near future.