Apartment renovation in a Côte d'Azur copropriété
Your ceiling is someone's floor, and your bathroom wall may be a neighbour's bedroom. In a flat the building has a say in what you change, when the drills run and what goes down in the lift.
Need an English-speaking contractor to renovate a flat on the Côte d'Azur?
Get quotesOn this page9 sections
- Which changes to your flat need the other owners' vote, and which are yours to decide?
- Getting your renovation on the owners' meeting agenda when you live abroad
- A load-bearing wall needs an engineer's study before the owners will vote
- In a building permitted before July 1997, you must order the asbestos check
- What do the neighbours, the lift and the floor below add to your schedule?
- Does a skip or scaffolding on the street need the town hall's permission?
- What makes renovating a flat cost more than the same work in a house?
- French terms you'll meet when renovating a flat in a shared building
- Frequently asked questions about renovating a flat in a copropriété
Your lot or the building's
Which changes to your flat need the other owners' vote, and which are yours to decide?
Inside your lot you are free, provided you leave the structure, other owners' rights and the building's purpose alone. The line is crossed when the work touches a common part or changes how the building looks from outside. That takes a vote at the assemblée générale (AG) before anything starts.
The common parts are wider than people expect. The structure, the facade, the soil stack that carries every flat's waste, and the outer wall are all shared. So is a terrace only you use. Renovating a flat in a copropriété (the building's co-ownership) therefore often mixes both kinds of work, so sort the list into the two columns below before you brief a contractor.
The vote needs more than half of all owners' votes, and owners who stay away count against you. Neither the syndic (the building's managing agent) nor the conseil syndical can approve it for you. Our copropriété glossary entry explains who does what.
Moving a WC or shower onto the shared stack goes to the AG, which matters for any bathroom renovation that changes the layout. So does a window in a different style or colour, which we cover on the windows and shutters page. An outdoor AC unit is in the same position, and the AC approval guide walks through it. Many règlements also ask you to tell the syndic about private work, so read yours before you book the first trade.
Timing
Getting your renovation on the owners' meeting agenda when you live abroad
The AG meets at least once a year, and owners get 21 days' notice. Any owner can ask for an item to go on the agenda, but the syndic sets a deadline, and a request that arrives late waits for the next meeting. That can cost you months on a flat you were hoping to finish before summer.
So write to the syndic as soon as the plan exists. Ask for the date of the next AG and the last day for agenda requests. Send the request by registered letter, with drawings, a description from the contractor and, for a structural change, the study. The other owners must be able to see exactly what they are voting on.
From abroad you have two ways to be counted. The notice comes with a postal voting form, which must reach the syndic three clear days before the meeting. Or you can give a proxy to someone you trust who will attend. Decide which before the notice lands, because 21 days goes quickly when the post crosses a border.
Sign nothing with the contractor until the vote is through. Put the AG date into the planning, and agree in the devis that the start date follows the approval. Our guide to managing a renovation from abroad covers the wider routine of paying and checking from a distance.
Tell us about your flat and we'll put you in touch with an English-speaking contractor or maître d'oeuvre (project manager) who has worked inside copropriétés on the coast.
Get quotesStructure
A load-bearing wall needs an engineer's study before the owners will vote
A load-bearing wall holds up the floors above you, and those belong to other owners. Structure is a common part, so opening a doorway in one is an AG decision. Expect the meeting to want a study from a bureau d'études or an architect in front of it.
Budget for that study early. You pay for it before you know whether the vote will pass. Ask the syndic or a member of the conseil syndical how the owners are likely to vote before you commission it. The building's original plans, which the syndic may hold, save the engineer time.
Ask the contractor three things. How do they know the wall is or is not load-bearing? Who signs the study? Does the work follow it line by line? Structural work also brings in dommages-ouvrage insurance, which the whole-house section page explains, and each trade's own décennale (ten-year building insurance) cover. Keep the study with your papers for the sale file.
Before the first drill
In a building permitted before July 1997, you must order the asbestos check
The duty to have asbestos looked for before work falls on whoever orders it. That means whoever commissions the work, which in your flat is you, and the rule has no exemption for a private individual. If the building's permit dates from before 1 July 1997, the check comes before anything is broken open, and as the person ordering the work it is yours.
Start with paperwork that already exists. Ask the syndic for the building's DTA (dossier technique amiante), which covers the common parts. Your own flat's asbestos report, the DAPP, covers the private parts and should be in the file from your purchase. Our guide to the property diagnostic report shows what else should be in the file from your purchase.
Give both reports to a certified diagnostician, who decides what a pre-work survey (repérage amiante avant travaux) must add before any demolition, tile stripping or heavy drilling. The result goes to every firm quoting. It's a separate job from the asbestos report done at sale.
Living with the building
What do the neighbours, the lift and the floor below add to your schedule?
Noisy building work in the Alpes-Maritimes stops from 20:00 to 7:00 and all day on Sundays and public holidays, except in an emergency. A mayor can set stricter hours and the règlement de copropriété often does. Ask the syndic for the building's hours and the contractor for the hours set by the mairie (town hall), then write them into the contract so the firm cannot claim it did not know.
The floor is where disputes start. Swapping carpet for tiles or wood sends footsteps straight into the flat below. No general statute settles it. The règlement decides, and it often demands an acoustic underlay or an AG vote. Read it before you choose the floor, and ask the fitter to name the underlay in the devis.
Lifts and stairwells take knocks on most renovations. Ask the syndic how to book the lift and how large a delivery may be. Agree in writing that the contractor protects the lift, the stairs and the landing, and cleans up daily.
The street outside
Does a skip or scaffolding on the street need the town hall's permission?
Yes. A skip, scaffolding or site fencing on the public road needs the permission of the mairie (town hall), a permis de stationnement, usually with a fee. The contractor normally applies. Ask for the devis to say who applies and who pays.
Scaffolding on the facade raises a second question. The facade is a common part, so work that needs scaffolding on it needs the AG's vote before anyone hires it. Facade work is usually the building's own project, so ask the syndic whether one is already planned.
Budget
What makes renovating a flat cost more than the same work in a house?
The building around your rooms adds work a house doesn't have. Materials go up in the lift at booked times, or by hand up the stairs if they don't fit, and rubble comes down the same way. A skip or scaffolding on the street needs the mairie's permit. Shorter working hours stretch the schedule, and more days on site cost more.
Then come the checks the building demands. Opening a load-bearing wall needs the engineer's study before the vote. A building permitted before July 1997 needs the asbestos survey before anything is broken open. Covering the lift, stairs and landing, and cleaning them daily, takes time and materials too.
Get at least two written quotes on the same brief, with each of these as its own line, and ask every firm to state its TVA (French VAT) rate. Anything left off comes back later as an avenant (a signed change to the quote), so agree before you sign what's included.
French terms
French terms you'll meet when renovating a flat in a shared building
Key French terms for this service
Questions
Frequently asked questions about renovating a flat in a copropriété
If your question isn't here, send it with your request and we'll answer it directly.
Not always the end. A proposal that wins at least a third of all owners' votes goes straight to a second vote in the same meeting, decided by a majority of the votes cast. Owners who stayed away no longer count against you on that second round, so a well-prepared dossier can still pass.
They are separate. Changing how the outside looks (windows, shutters, closing in a balcony) can also need a déclaration préalable, answered within one month, or two in a protected area. The AG's consent does not replace it, and the mairie's does not replace the AG's.
The law leaves your lot to you, but many règlements de copropriété ask owners to tell the syndic in advance, and some set rules for floors. Read yours, and send a short email anyway. It protects you if a neighbour complains and helps when you book the lift.
The building can ask a court to order the work removed. The syndic cannot give the permission, and neither can the conseil syndical, so a friendly word from either won't protect you.
Anyone you trust, such as a neighbour or a friend who owns in the building. The syndic and its staff can't. One person can usually carry no more than three proxies, so ask early whether yours already holds others. Write your instructions on each agenda item into the proxy.
Sources
Official sources for AG votes, asbestos checks and works in a flat
- Service-Public.fr: works in a flat in a copropriété (F31513) Work inside your lot is free; common parts and the building's outside look need the AG, which the syndic cannot replace. Unauthorised work can be ordered removed.
- Service-Public.fr: how AG votes are counted (F2137) The majority of all owners, and the immediate second vote once a third of the votes is reached.
- ANIL: calling the copropriété general assembly One AG a year at least, 21 days' notice, and an owner's request for an agenda item that comes too late waits for the next meeting.
- Légifrance: postal voting form at the AG The postal vote form must reach the syndic three clear days before the AG.
- Code du travail numérique: asbestos search before work The duty to have asbestos looked for before work falls on whoever orders it, including the owner.
- Service-Public.fr: déclaration préalable de travaux (F17578) The mairie's one-month reply time, two months in a protected area.
Rules checked against these sources in October 2026.