What should you check in a housing estate’s regulations and cahier des charges?
A housing estate (lotissement) may have two documents: the regulations, which add planning rules to the PLU, and the cahier des charges, which sets the rights and duties of the plot owners between themselves. Under a PLU, the regulations generally cease to apply 10 years after the estate permission (art. L442-9 of the Urban Planning Code); the cahier des charges, being contractual, in principle continues to bind the owners. Read both, with the statutes of the owners' association, before the compromis.
The estate regulations
The regulations supplement the PLU for buildings on the estate: use of buildings, siting, height, materials, colours, fences. They are drawn up with the estate permission, a development permit or a works declaration, and can be consulted at the mairie’s planning department. While they apply, a project must comply with both the PLU and the regulations.
Where the commune is covered by a PLU or an equivalent document, the planning rules in the regulations generally lapse 10 years after the estate permission (art. L442-9 of the Urban Planning Code). Only the PLU rules then apply to permits. So check the date of the permission and whether there is a PLU: the mairie or the notary will confirm what applies to the lot.
A house’s land is also understood through finding a cadastral parcel and what the cadastre does not prove. For one address, the free ScanAdresse preview shows the parcel and what the registers say, for free.
The cahier des charges
The cahier des charges, where there is one, governs relations between plot owners: shared charges, private easements, upkeep of façades and fences, planting, sometimes a ban on dividing a lot or running a business there. Its contractual clauses do not disappear with the regulations' 10 years: they in principle continue to bind the owners between themselves, and a neighbour can ask for them to be observed. Which clauses still apply, and what a given clause is worth, is for the notary or a lawyer to say.
The documents to ask for
- The estate permission (development permit or works declaration) and its date.
- The estate regulations, if any, and any amendments.
- The cahier des charges and any amendments.
- The statutes of the owners' association (ASL, association syndicale libre), the budget, the charges and the latest meeting minutes.
- The lot’s boundary report and, for a building plot, the soil study in a clay area.
For a plot sold by the developer, these papers are annexed to the promesse. For a house resold on an older estate, ask the seller or the notary for them; the mairie keeps the regulations.
What a buyer looks at
Read the documents with your plans in mind: a pool, a shed, a fence, an extension, a business premises, holiday letting, dividing the lot. A clause in the cahier des charges can forbid what the PLU allows. Look at the shared areas too: their upkeep is paid for by the plot owners, and road works may already have been voted.
Questions to ask before the compromis
Around the estate
A recent estate often borders land that is still vacant. What gets built there depends on the commune’s PLU, not on the neighbouring estate’s regulations. Look at the zoning of the surrounding land and the permits applied for.
ScanAdresse shows for one address the parcel, the PLU zone and regulations with their articles, the public easements and the permits in the cadastral section; an estate’s regulations and cahier des charges are obtained from the mairie or the notary; €29 including VAT, free preview.
Frequently asked questions
Do the estate regulations still apply after 10 years?
Under a PLU, its planning rules generally lapse 10 years after the estate permission. The mairie will confirm what applies to your lot.
Can the cahier des charges be changed?
Yes, under majority rules among plot owners and procedures laid down in the Urban Planning Code. The notary or a lawyer will tell you how.
Who enforces the cahier des charges?
The plot owners themselves, and the owners' association where there is one. The mairie, for its part, applies the planning rules when it processes a permit.
Do you have to join the owners' association?
If the statutes provide for it, every lot owner is a member and pays their share of the charges. Ask for the amount before signing.
Sources
- Service-public: precautions before buying on an estate
- Service-public: the seller’s duties on an estate
- Service-public: sale promise on an estate
- Urban Planning Code, art. L442-1 and L442-9
ScanAdresse is a private service by SRI Group BV (VAT BE1037052239), not connected to any public authority: it brings together public data, with the source and date of every item.
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