Guide
Renovating a house or apartment in France: the contract, TVA and insurance rules
A 1970s apartment in Antibes with its original bathroom. A Cannes kitchen that has to be done between two summer lets. The paperwork follows French rules: a devis (written quote) that binds once signed, TVA (French VAT) at 10%, and an insurance you as the owner must take out before work starts.
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- How does a French renovation contract differ from a UK one?
- Which paperwork applies to a kitchen, bathroom or full renovation?
- Where to read about your kitchen, bathroom or full renovation
- How much TVA do you pay on renovation work in France?
- Décennale, biennale and dommages-ouvrage: who pays when a renovation goes wrong?
- What should a renovation devis include?
- French words on a renovation devis and permit
- Frequently asked questions about renovating on the Côte d'Azur
French rules
How does a French renovation contract differ from a UK one?
The first surprise for most British owners is the devis. In the UK a quote is an opening position. In France a signed devis is the contract: the price and the scope are fixed, and any change needs a written avenant (a signed change to the contract). That protects you from the invoice that keeps growing, but you can't renegotiate afterwards, so give the document an hour before signing.
A devis signed at your kitchen table is a contrat hors établissement, and the contractor may not take a cent for 7 days afterwards. Somebody has to sequence the trades, and if that's you, from Manchester or Munich, expect the schedule to slip.
Your kitchen fitter doesn't need RGE (the state's approved-installer label). That label unlocks CEE credits (energy-supplier grants) on energy work, and MaPrimeRénov' (the state renovation grant) too for a principal residence. The reduced TVA rates don't depend on it, except on solar panels. What matters for every trade is the garantie décennale, the 10-year liability cover the contractor must hold, plus the dommages-ouvrage policy French law expects you to hold.
Permits and approvals
Which paperwork applies to a kitchen, bathroom or full renovation?
Purely internal work in your own house needs no planning paperwork at all. The paperwork starts when you touch the outside of the building or add floor area.
A déclaration préalable (DP) covers facade changes, new windows and a roof terrace. It also covers extensions from 5 m² up to 40 m² in an urban zone of the PLU (20 m² elsewhere). The mairie (town hall) has a month to object. Beyond that you need a permis de construire, which takes two months.
There's one trap inside the DP band. If an extension over 20 m² takes the whole house above 150 m² of surface de plancher, the DP becomes a permis. And above 150 m², a private individual must have the drawings signed by an architect.
In an apartment, the copropriété rules matter most. Anything touching the common parts (a load-bearing wall, the soil stack, the facade, the shutters) needs a vote at the building's assemblée générale, which meets once a year. Miss it and you wait a year, or ask the syndic (the building's managing agent) for an extraordinary meeting at your cost. Work inside your own flat that leaves the common parts alone needs no vote.
Old-town Antibes sits in a protected historic district (site patrimonial remarquable), like parts of Nice, Menton and Grasse. There the Architecte des Bâtiments de France must approve any DP or permis, whether or not a monument can see your building. The Suquet in Cannes and many hill villages sit within 500 m of a listed monument instead. There the ABF (the state heritage architects) steps in if your building can be seen from the monument, or with it. Either way it adds a month, and the ABF can dictate the colour of your shutters, so don't order joinery until the DP is through.
Renovation sections
Where to read about your kitchen, bathroom or full renovation
The English-speaking contractors we work with quote in writing, in English, with the TVA rate shown per line.
Design and fitting, or fitting only for units bought abroad. Fitting is at 10% TVA and appliances at 20%, so expect two TVA lines.
Explore KitchensFull refits, walk-in showers and second bathrooms. In a flat, moving the soil connection can need a vote by the building.
Explore BathroomsRe-plumbing older houses, water heaters, and the limescale (calcaire) that eats taps on this coast. Even a small repair needs a written devis.
Explore PlumbingSeveral trades in one programme, where a maître d'oeuvre (project manager) earns its fee and dommages-ouvrage insurance starts to matter.
Explore Whole-house renovationTell us what you want to renovate and where, and we'll put you in touch with an English-speaking contractor who quotes in writing.
Get quotesTax
How much TVA do you pay on renovation work in France?
Ask the contractor to show the TVA rate on each line of the devis. On a home completed more than two years ago, improvement, fit-out and maintenance work is taxed at 10%. Energy renovation, such as insulation or an air-to-water heat pump, drops to 5.5%. Everything else is 20%.
The 20% band catches new build, any extension built onto the house whatever its size, a conversion inside the walls that adds more than a tenth to the floor area, and a renovation so heavy it counts as reconstruction. You certify on the devis itself that the building is residential and over two years old. If that turns out false, the tax office claims the difference from you, jointly with the contractor.
On a bathroom and kitchen project, 10% instead of 20% makes a clear difference to the bill. Second-home owners get the reduced rates on the same terms as residents, because the test is the building's age and use. Our guide to TVA on renovation work has the detail.
Guarantees and insurance
Décennale, biennale and dommages-ouvrage: who pays when a renovation goes wrong?
French law gives you three guarantees from the day you sign the réception des travaux, the handover document. List every visible defect on it as a réserve before you sign. The clock starts the next day whether you list them or not.
The garantie de parfait achèvement lasts one year and covers every defect you flag in writing, such as the door that catches. The garantie biennale lasts two years and covers removable equipment in new building work. Since a Cour de cassation ruling in March 2024, a tap, mixer or water heater swapped into an existing home falls outside both the biennale and the décennale. You're left with the fitter's contractual liability and the maker's warranty, so get both in writing.
The garantie décennale lasts ten years. It covers damage that threatens the structure or makes the place unfit to live in: the shower tray that leaks into the flat below, the beam cut without a calculation. Every contractor must insure it, and the insurer's name and policy number belong on the devis.
Then there's your own obligation: whoever commissions construction work must take out dommages-ouvrage insurance before the work starts. It covers construction, extensions and structural renovation. The insurer has 60 days to decide whether the policy applies and 90 days to make an offer, then recovers the money from the builder's insurer. Without it, you sue the contractor yourself and wait.
The criminal penalty for not having it doesn't apply to an individual renovating a home for themselves or their family, so few owners buy it for a bathroom. It comes back at a sale within ten years, when the notary records in the deed whether the policy exists. Its absence gives the buyer's lawyer a reason to push the price, and you stay liable to the buyer for the décennale period. For structural work, get a quote for the policy before deciding.
The quote
What should a renovation devis include?
A one-page devis that says "rénovation salle de bain" above a single total is legal and useless to you. You can't compare it with the next quote, and when the tiler swaps your porcelain for something cheaper, you have nothing to point at. Ask for a breakdown by lot, with a brand and reference for each material.
French law requires the contractor's décennale insurer, policy number and area of cover on the devis. Repair and maintenance work needs a written devis whatever the amount, so the plumber who "doesn't do paperwork for small jobs" is wrong.
French terms
French words on a renovation devis and permit
Key French terms for this service
Read next
More on French renovation permits, TVA and electrics
Questions
Frequently asked questions about renovating on the Côte d'Azur
If your question isn't here, send it with your request and we'll answer it directly.
A private individual needs one only when the project needs a permis de construire and the house will be over 150 m² of surface de plancher after the works. Below that, or on a déclaration préalable, you or the contractor can prepare the drawings. A company owner, such as an SCI, needs an architect for any permis de construire, whatever the size.
Yes. Nothing in French law stops you hiring each trade directly and running the schedule. You then carry the coordination: the plumber's pipes go in before the tiler arrives, and the electrician needs the walls open. From abroad that's hard to do by phone. An entreprise générale or a paid maître d'oeuvre takes it on, usually for a percentage of the works.
There's no legal cap. The trade habit is a deposit (acompte) at signature, often around a third, then stage payments, then the balance at handover. If the devis was signed at your home, the contractor can't take any payment, deposit included, for 7 days, and you have 14 days to withdraw. Never pay the full amount up front, whatever discount is offered.
No. Only a signed devis commits either side. A figure given on site or over the phone has no legal standing, so a contractor who said "about five thousand" and invoices seven isn't in breach of anything. Get the number on paper, with the TVA rate, before anyone picks up a tool.
Send a formal notice (mise en demeure) by recorded delivery with a deadline to resume. If nothing happens, you can have the contract ended, hire someone else and claim the extra cost from the first firm. If you took out dommages-ouvrage, it can pay for repairs once the contract is ended this way. The décennale only runs from réception, so have the work done so far formally received. Pay in stages, never ahead of the work.
Sources
Official sources for renovation devis, TVA, permit and guarantee rules
- Service-Public.fr: the devis for building and repair work (F31144) A signed devis binds the contractor, and repair or maintenance work needs one whatever the amount.
- Service-Public.fr: TVA on renovation work (F23568) The 10%, 5.5% and 20% rates, the two-year rule and the certification you sign on the devis.
- Service-Public.fr: permis de construire for a house (F1986) The two-month instruction period and the architect rule above 150 m² or for a company owner.
- Service-Public.fr: the builders' guarantees (F2034) One, two and ten years, all counted from the réception des travaux.
- Légifrance: Cour de cassation, 3e civ., 21 March 2024, no. 22-18.694 Why a tap or water heater fitted in an existing home gets neither the biennale nor the décennale.
- Service-Public.fr: dommages-ouvrage insurance (F2032) The owner's duty under the 1978 loi Spinetta, the penalty exemption for individuals, and the 60 and 90-day deadlines.
Rules checked against these sources in September 2026.