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PROPERTY

From taxes to toilets: All you need to know about renovating a house in France

Doing any renovation is a complicated and lengthy project - but doing it in a foreign country adds a whole new level of challenge. Here is our A-Z guide to renovating a house in France.

Published: 18 January 2020 10:00 CET
From taxes to toilets: All you need to know about renovating a house in France
Get the DIY lingo. Photo londondeposit/Depositphotos

A is for Agent d’immobilier – when you’re buying you will almost certainly need an estate agent. Here are five tips for dealing with estate agents in France.

B is for Bricolage – DIY. The stores M Bricolage, Brico Depot, and Brico Pro will become your second home while you do the restoration and you will probably spend more time talking to their staff than you do talking to your own family.

READ ALSO

C is for Chene – oak. Most wooden items – doors, window frames, shutters etc will come in either pine – the cheap option – and oak – the mid price option. Surprisingly, it is no more expensive than PVC for windows.

D is for Declaration préalable – planning permission. The planning regulation system in France has two levels, a permit de construire or a declaration préalable. Which one you need depends on the size of the property and what you're planning to do with it.

E is for Electricité – Electrics are not a subject for amateurs anyway (risk of death and all that) but even if you are a qualified electrician you will need to take advice as the building code concerning electrics is significantly different to the UK. Your work will need to be signed off by a qualified local electrician and you may need to do it all over again if you haven’t adhered to French standards.

F is for Fosse septique – Before you purchase a house, check whether or not it is connected to the sewage system. Many houses in rural areas are not and with prices varying from €1,000 to €3,000 for a septic tank (plus labour costs for installation) it represents a substantial extra cost in your budget.

G is for grenier – your house may or may not have un grenier (attic) but you will see the word everywhere in ‘vide grenier’ the French equivalent of car boot sales or yard sales. Generally cheaper than the brocante (vintage market) they can be a great place for picking up odds and ends.

H is for haie – whether your house has une haie (hedge) or un mur (wall) before you start anything it is crucial to check where the boundaries of your property actually lie, so that you’re not accidentally encroaching on your neighbour’s land. The pack of documents you get from the notaire at purchase time should have a map showing the exact boundaries.

I is for Internet – the quality of the internet connections in rural France are patchy, to say the least, so if you’re buying a place with the intention of running your own business from home, definitely check what sort of internet connections are available in that area.


Check out your local brocante or vide grenier for bargains. Photo: AFP

J is for Jardin – once you’ve got the house sorted you might want to start gardening. In general the French climate, especially if you’re further south, is great for growing fruit and veg and most village dwellers have a vegetable patch.

L is for Loi Montagne – in mountainous areas there are extra rules about the construction of the roof and the foundations. Earthquake zones also have extra building regulations. Find out before you start what the rules are in your area and don’t assume that local builders will point them out to you.

M is for Mairie – Your local mayor has more power than you realise and most works will have to be signed off in advance by the mayor. If in doubt, check before you start – the mayor has the power to halt unauthorised works and issue fines. Get on the right side of the maire and his or her staff, however, and they are a goldmine of crucial renovation information.

N is for Notaire – a position unique to France, the notaire is a legal expert who can offer advice, but acts on behalf of the French state. Some functions in France, such as buying and selling property, cannot be done without a notaire.

O is for Offre d'achat – a formal offer to buy a house. Once you make this offer, either verbally or in writing, it becomes legally binding. However, it is illegal to hand over money at this stage, you need to wait until the seller makes a promesse de vente (promise to sell).

P is for Plombier – again, there are some important differences between French and English plumbing standards and if you import things like shower heads and toilets from the UK make sure the connections to the pipes fit – not everything will be the same size.

R is for Realism – when we asked successful home renovators what the most common mistakes were the number one answer was that people under estimate both the cost of the works and the time it will take. Be realistic and don’t expect to get everything done quickly and cheaply.

READ ALSO: How to convert a rustic barn into your dream home

S is for Siret – a crucial number that allows you to check that any tradesman you hire is qualified and insured.

T is for Taxe d’habitation – the local tax (equivalent of council tax in the UK) is in the process of being phased out, except for second homes. It varies substantially from region to region, so check before you buy exactly how much your bill will be. You will also need to pay Taxe foncière, which is the property owner's tax, plus a local charge for rubbish collection whether you live there full time or not.

U is for Urbanisme – this will be familiar to anyone going through the French planning permission process. A plan locale d'urbanisme is a local planning policy document that can dictate, for example, which areas of green land in and around villages can be built on. Not all areas have them, but it is vital to check that your plans comply with a local plan.

V is for Volets – shutters will be a new experience for most Brits but they are worth every penny – helping to keep your place cool in summer and cosy in winter.

Z is for Zone tendue – An area where a tax on empty buildings is enforced. Targeted at second homes and holiday homes, the areas where this applies include Ajaccio, Annecy, Arles, Bastia, Bayonne, Beauvais, Bordeaux, Draguignan, Fréjus, Genève–Annemasse, Grenoble, La Rochelle, La Teste-de-Buch–Arcachon, Lille, Lyon, Marseille–Aix-en-Provence, Meaux, Menton–Monaco, Montpellier, Nantes, Nice, Paris, Saint-Nazaire, Sète, Strasbourg, Thonon-les-Bains, Toulon, and Toulouse.

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PROPERTY

French property: What is buying ‘en tontine’?

If you're buying property in France, you might be thinking about buying 'en tontine' - this has advantages especially when it comes to France's strict inheritance laws, but can also have tax implications.

Published: 25 March 2024 11:17 CET
French property: What is buying 'en tontine'?

What is it?

The ‘clause de tontine’ sometimes also known as a ‘clause d’accroissement’ is a clause that is inserted into the property deeds when you are buying a house or apartment.

It can only be inserted during the purchase, and cannot be added later.

It’s basically a ‘group purchase’. It’s most commonly used by unmarried couples who are buying together but it can be used by larger groups too – for example a group of friends buying a holiday home together.

You will have to ask a notaire to draw up the tontine clause during the property purchase and it can only be used if 

  • the parties are equally involved in the financing of the purchase
  • the parties involved have a roughly equal life expectancy (for this reason tontine clauses may be rejected if there is a significant difference in age between the purchasers)

What’s the point of it?

The main reason that people use it is to sidestep France’s strict inheritance laws, which assign that a certain portion of every estate must go to children, at the expense of a partner. 

READ ALSO How France’s strict inheritance laws work

For this reason it is particularly used by couples who have children from previous relationships.

On a property with a tontine clause in effect, when one owner dies their share of the property passes in its entirely to the other member/members of the tontine.

This cuts out children from inheritance, but means that a surviving partner is not evicted from their home in favour of the children of the deceased. 

It also has the advantage of making the intentions of the deceased clear, to avoid arguments among heirs after their death.

It should be noted, however, that the tontine clause only takes in the property that it covers – other assets may be subject to French inheritance law so it’s therefore probably wise to arrange a will, to ensure your wishes for your estate are met.

The surviving party can ask a notaire to update the property deeds to show that they are the sole owner, if they want. Be aware there will be a fee, which could reach four figures for the privilege – and it doesn’t actually involve any change to the property title.

Drawbacks

The advantages of the system are clear, especially for blended families, but there are some potential drawbacks too, which mean that anyone considering buying in this way would be well advised to take proper legal advice before they start.

Inheritance tax – while a tontine will help you to avoid restrictions on inheritance, it does not exempt you from inheritance tax. French inheritance tax is structured according to your relationship to the deceased, and people who are neither married nor related to the deceased pay an eye-watering inheritance tax rate of 60 percent.

The only exception to this top rate of inheritance tax is if the property is your main residence and it is valued at under €76,000 – in that case, tax is paid at a rate of 5.8 percent.

Married couples and family members pay a much lower rate or not tax, but if you’re not married to your tontine co-purchaser, be careful that you’re not lining yourself up for a massive tax bill in future years.

Wealth tax – depending on the value of the property, it could tip you over into the ‘wealth tax’ category when you inherit. France’s wealth tax is a real estate based tax and is levied on anyone who has real estate assets (property and land) worth €1.3 million or more.

The calculation includes property held en tontine.

Tax savings – you might hear tontines being advised as a way to limit your French tax liability.

While this used to be true, changes to tax laws means there are no no significant tax advantages to buying this way – the same is true for buying a property via an SCI, which used to represent a tax saving until the law was tightened up.

Disinheriting family members – One side effect of the tontine clause on mixed families is to effectively disinherit any children of the first person to die.

Because the property passed to the survivor, under French law, only their direct descendants – rather than any family by marriage – are entitled to automatic inheritance.

That means that the children of the surviving partner will be entitled to the statutory share of the entire asset (between 25 and 30 percent depending on the number of children), but the children of the first person to die will be entitled to nothing. Obviously you can choose to leave them something in your will, but you can only leave them some or all of the estate which is not automatically given to the children on the survivor.

Divorce/dispute – if the members of the tontine split up or (in the case of friends) fall out, then they can either sell the whole property or agree to buy each other out.

However, if one party refuses to sell, then you have very limited legal options – unlike a standard property purchase a tontine is not regarded as joint ownership, so one partner cannot be forced to sell as part of a divorce procedings, for example.

Basically the tontine can only be ended or changed with the agreement of all parties – so if you can’t agree between yourselves then you may be stuck with it.

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