Permission needed to alter your flat

IF YOU live in a copropriété (shared-ownership building with communal areas), such as a block of flats, you are not able to make alterations to the external appearance of your property without seeking permission.

This must come from the assemblée générale des copropriétaires (co-owners’ AGM, a meeting of owners that must be held at least once a year).

This applies, for example, to repainting your home in a different colour from the rest of the building, putting protective film on your windows that changes the colour or makes them reflective or putting bars on ground floor windows.

Any work that takes place without this permission is illegal, whether in your home, or in the communal areas of the building.

This even includes work carried out to conform to other laws eg. a boulangerie that fits an extractor vent to comply with health and safety rules must still get permission from the assemble générale.

Permission from the building’s syndic or, in the case of tenants, the property owner, is not considered adequate.

If the assembly gives permission but sets conditions these must be respected.

If changes are made without permission the law may require you to restore the building to how it was before (although judges do have discretion to grant permission for works that were refused by the assemblée générale des copropriétaires).

You can take the matter to a judge if you feel permission was unfairly refused.

They can allow it and fix conditions, however you must have already sought permission from the assembly first.

Legal action must take place within 10 years.