Glossary
Déclaration préalable de travaux: the French planning declaration explained
What is a déclaration préalable de travaux?
A déclaration préalable de travaux (DP) is a planning notification you file with the mairie before work that changes a building's outside appearance or adds a small amount of floor space. It covers a wide range of home projects: a facade repaint, new windows or shutters, a pool between 10 and 100 m², an extension up to 20 m² (40 m² in some zoned urban areas), or an AC, heat pump, or solar installation visible from the street. The mairie has one month to respond. No reply within that window counts as tacit approval.
Which works need a déclaration préalable and which need a permis de construire?
The trigger for a DP is a visible change to the exterior of a building, or a modest increase in floor space. Go past the relevant threshold and the project needs a full permis de construire instead. The main categories:
- Facade and roof: repainting a facade a different colour, replacing roof tiles with a different material, or any change visible from a public road needs a DP. This covers most renovation work that touches the building's exterior.
- Windows, shutters and doors: changing a window style, shutter colour, or the appearance of an opening needs a DP if it can be seen from outside the property.
- Pools: a pool of 10 to 100 m² with no cover, or a cover under 1.80 m high, needs a DP. Below 10 m², no formality is required. Above 100 m², you need a full permis de construire. The same rule applies whether the pool stands alone or is part of a wider outdoor renovation.
- Extensions: an extension of 5 to 20 m² of floor space needs a DP. If your commune has a Plan Local d'Urbanisme (PLU, the local zoning plan) that classes your plot as an urban zone (zone U), that threshold rises to 40 m². Go past the applicable limit, and you need a permis de construire. An extension of 20 to 40 m² also becomes a permis if it takes the house's total floor area past 150 m², and at that size a private individual needs an architect. External wall insulation that changes a facade's thickness or finish falls under the same rule, which is why insulation upgrades on older houses often need a DP even when nothing structural changes.
- AC and heat pump outdoor units: any unit fixed to a wall or roof changes the building's external appearance and needs a DP. One standing on the ground in a rear garden usually doesn't.
- Solar panels: panels fixed to a roof need a DP whichever slope they sit on; what changes with a street-visible slope is how closely the mairie, and any ABF, looks at them.
When in doubt, check with your mairie before work starts. Asking costs nothing; installing without a required DP and being asked to remove the work costs considerably more.
What changes inside an Architecte des Bâtiments de France perimeter?
Much of the Cote d'Azur falls within or near a heritage protection perimeter. Your property may be affected if it sits:
- Within 500 metres of a listed building (monument historique), or
- Inside a designated heritage protection zone (site patrimonial remarquable, formerly ZPPAUP or AVAP)
In either case, the ABF must approve any external change before the mairie can grant the DP. That review extends the response period from one month to two, and often longer in practice. The ABF can impose conditions, such as screening an outdoor unit or requiring a specific tile colour. The ABF can refuse street-visible solar outright.
Your installer or contractor should know whether your property sits inside a protected perimeter. If they're not certain, check the local PLU or ask the mairie directly, ideally before you settle on a specific design.
How do you file a DP and how long does the mairie have to answer?
You submit the application to the mairie of the commune where the property is located, either online through your commune's planning counter (most communes now have one; service-public.fr's AD'AU tool helps you fill in the form), or on paper at the mairie.
The current form is CERFA 16702, which replaced the older 13703 in January 2025. You'll need a site plan, a plan showing where the works sit on the building, and photographs of the existing facade. Pools and extensions need a plan en coupe (cross-section drawing) and a landscape insertion sketch; solar installations need a document showing panel layout and dimensions. Many installers handle the DP filing as part of their service. Confirm this at devis stage, because a contractor who builds without the required DP leaves the legal exposure with you as the property owner.
The standard response period is one month from receipt of a complete application, or two months inside an ABF perimeter. The mairie has one month to ask for missing documents; the response period then runs from the day you supply them. No response within the deadline counts as tacit approval (non-opposition); keep a record of your submission date so you can prove the period elapsed without objection.
Once granted, the DP is valid for 3 years, renewable twice for one year each if the works haven't started. You must display the approval on site (affichage obligatoire, a panel at least 80 cm on its shortest side, visible from the road) for the entire build. That display starts a 2-month window during which a neighbour or third party can challenge the approval (recours des tiers).
What happens if you build without a DP?
Building without a required DP is an infraction of the French planning code. The consequences can include:
- A requirement to remove the work at your own cost
- Fines, including an astreinte, a daily penalty the mairie can impose until the situation is regularised
- Complications when you sell the property, since a notaire will ask for planning compliance documents
- Problems with home insurance if a claim arises from work that was never properly authorised
Enforcement on minor visible changes varies a lot between communes. But the risk is real, and on the Cote d'Azur, where many properties sit in or near heritage zones and neighbours are often present year-round, objections do get raised.