Prior declaration (DPS)

Verified 19 October 2026 - Public Service / (Prime Minister)

You want to make small works or modifications on a building. Before you start, you must obtain authorization by filing an advance declaration (DP). It is mandatory to carry out works that are not subject to building permits. It can be the creation of a surface, an interior and/or exterior layout or even a change of destination of your good. We present you the steps of the process.

You must first inquire with the urban planning department of your town hall to know if your project is located in a protected area :

Who shall I contact

The content of the DP file, the number of copies to be provided and the processing times are different when your project is located in a protected area.

General scenario

Step-by-step approach

Works that result in the creation of floor area orright-of-way, an interior or exterior layout or the modification of the exterior appearance of your property may be affected by a prior declaration.

There are aids (MaPrimeRénov', PTZ eco, TVA at a reduced rate...) for energy renovation projects.

To find out about the conditions of obtaining, you can contact a France Rénov' advisor free of charge.

Who shall I contact

  • Before you commit, the public service informs you free of charge to prepare and secure your project. You can be accompanied in your renovation works by advisors France Rénov'.

    By phone

    0,808,800,700

    Open from Monday to Friday from 9am to 6pm. You must have your last tax notice.

    Free service + cost of a call

The application for authorization is addressed to the town hall by natural persons and moral following:

  • Owner(s) of the land or its agent
  • Acquirer of the property
  • Company authorized by the owner(s) to make the works
  • Person in undivided or its authorized representative
  • Trustee and co-owner
  • Beneficiary of a expropriation (public service, public establishment, chamber of commerce...).)

Répondez aux questions successives et les réponses s’afficheront automatiquement

Your file is complete.

The time limit for investigation is 1 month from the date of filing of the DP in town hall.

Your file is incomplete.

The town hall has 1 month to inform you that your file is incomplete. You must complete it within 3 months. If you do not provide the missing documents, your request will be considered rejected.

The investigation delay starts when your file is complete.

The receipt states that, within 1 month of the filing of the file, the town hall can notify a different time frame to start your works.

She also has 1 month to notify you if your file is incomplete.

The decision is sent to you by letter RAR: titleContent or by LRE: titleContent or an equivalent electronic process.

There are several possible cases:

  • Authorization or lack of response
  • Authorization with prescriptions
  • Refusal
  • Stay of proceedings

Warning  

Within 3 months of the date of the decision, the mayor may withdraw a decision of non-opposition if he considers that it was issued illegally.

Authorization or lack of response

In principle, when your request for works is accepted, you do not receive a response within 1 month. This is a decision unspoken of non-opposition by your works (agreement).

On simple request from you, the town hall must issue you a certificate of non-opposition. You thus have proof to assert your rights (obtaining a loan, taking out insurance).

Who shall I contact

Authorization with prescriptions

Refusal

Stay of proceedings

In certain circumstances, the mayor can postpone his decision on your DP for up to 2 years. The mayor takes a arrested stay of proceedings which indicates its duration. Your request is neither accepted nor refused. It will be considered later.

The stay of proceedings may concern any application for authorization concerning works, structures or installations in the following cases:

  • Land that is part of the perimeter of a concerted development area (Zac: titleContent)
  • Initiation of the investigation prior to the declaration of public utility (DUP: titleContent) of an operation
  • Proposed constructions that may compromise or make more expensive the execution of public works or the carrying out of a development operation
  • Planned constructions likely to compromise or make more expensive the execution of the future local urban planning plan (MORE: titleContent)
  • Project located in a space intended to be in the heart of a national park.

The reasons for the decision and the remedies and time limits for appeal are specified in the order.

Within 2 months of the expiry of the period of validity of the stay of proceedings, you must confirm your request for DP. Within 2 months of your request, you will receive the mayor's decision. If you do not receive the mayor's decision within this time, your DP is considered granted.

FYI  

The owners of the land to which a stay of proceedings has been applied may give notice to the community (or the public service which took the initiative) to purchase their land. The community has 1 year to decide.

When the mayor refuses your application for urban planning authorization or takes a arrested from stay of proceedings, you can challenge his decision in 2 ways:

  • Appeals to the mayor (and/or the prefect in a municipality without MORE: titleContent, nor municipal card)
  • Appeals to the administrative judge.

These 2 appeals can be made independently one from the other or simultaneously.

Répondez aux questions successives et les réponses s’afficheront automatiquement

Appeals to the mayor and/or the prefect

You have 1 month to make a ex gratia before the mayor from the date of notification refusal (date of deposit or postmark). If your municipality is without MORE no municipal card, within the same period, you can also submit a hierarchical redress before the prefect, in addition to the appeal to the mayor.

To make your request, you write your appeal on free paper. You hand-drop it off or send it to the town hall and/or the prefecture by post RAR: titleContent.

Who shall I contact

In the absence of a response from the mayor and/or the prefect in the 2 months which follow the date on which your appeal was sent or lodged, your request is rejected.

Appeals to the administrative judge

You have 2 months to make a litigation before the administrative judge from the date of notification the refusal of the mayor or the date of implied rejection (date of deposit or postmark as proof). This period remains 2 months, even if you have previously appealed to the mayor and/or the prefect.

To make your application, you must refer the case to the administrative judge by letter in which you justify your appeal. You don't have to hire a lawyer.

You must apply to the administrative court on which the municipality where your project is located depends.

Who shall I contact

You can do your recourse with the help of an online service:

Citizens' telemedicine (appeal to the administrative judge)

You can also drop it off by hand or send it to RAR: titleContent.

Your DP has a period of validity of 3 years.

It is expired if you have not started the works within 3 years or if, after this period, you interrupt them more than 1 year.

Where the DP concerns a change of destination or a division of land, the decision shall lapse if these operations have not taken place within 3 years.

Please note

The period of validity of authorizations issued between 1er January 2021 and May 27, 2022 is 4 years.

The period of validity of authorizations issued between 28 May 2022 and 28 May 2024 shall be 5 years. In this case, the authorization cannot be extended.

Object of the display

You must view urban planning permission on the ground.

An extract of your authorization is posted in the town hall within 8 days of its issuance and for 2 months.

Display Time

The display of the urban planning authorization on the east field mandatory. You must make this display as soon as notification of thearrested or as soon as the processing time for your file is over (certificate of non-opposition).

It must remain in place throughout the duration of the project.

Formalism of the display

You must use a rectangular panel with dimensions greater than 80 cm. It must be visible from the outside. The information on your billboard must be legible from the public highway or open spaces.

The display displays the following information:

  • Name, company name or company name of the beneficiary
  • Date and number of authorization
  • Nature of the project, land area
  • Address of the town hall where the file can be consulted
  • Name of thearchitect author of the architectural project.

Depending on the nature of the project, it shall also indicate the following:

  • Floor area authorized and the height of the construction(s), expressed in meters in relation to the natural ground, if the project provides for construction
  • Maximum number of lots planned if the project involves a subdivision
  • Total number of sites and, if applicable, the number of sites reserved for light recreational housing if the project involves a campground or residential recreational park
  • Surface of the building(s) to be demolished if the project involves demolition.

The posting shall also inform of the possibilities of recourse by mentioning the following information:

« Right of appeal:

The time limit for litigation is two months from the first day of a continuous period of two months of display on the ground of this panel (Article R. 600-2 of the urban planning Code).

Any administrative appeal or any contentious appeal must, on pain of inadmissibility, be notified to the author of the decision and to the beneficiary of the permit or of the decision taken on the prior declaration. This notification must be sent by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt within fifteen clear days from the filing of the appeal (Article R. 600-1 of the urban planning Code). »

You can start your works as soon as the non-opposition to the prior declaration is acquired.

They may therefore start on the date of receipt of the DP non-opposition certificate or on completion of the 1-month investigation period.

The period of validity may be extended 2 times for a period of 1 year if the rules of urban planning and administrative easements have not changed.

You have to make it there request at least 2 months before the expiry of the initial period of validity of your urban planning authorization (or before the end of the period of validity of your 1re request for extension).

Example :

An authorization valid from June 5, 2025 to June 5, 2028 can be extended for 1 year if you apply before April 5, 2028.

It can be extended a 2e once if you request it 2 months before the end of the 1re extension granted.

The request must be sent on free paper, in 2 copies, by letter RAR: titleContent or dropped off at city hall.

Upon receipt of your request, the town hall has 2 months to answer you.

The extension is granted if you do not receive a response within this period.

Only the valid urban planning permissions may be extended.

If the urban planning rules and administrative easements have changed, you cannot apply for an extension of your authorization. You must file a new application for urban planning that complies with the new rules.

Warning  

Authorizations issued between 28 May 2022 and 28 May 2024 have a validity period of 5 years. In this case, they cannot be extended at the end of 5 years.

When your project is completed, you have to send a letter to the town hall Declaration of Completion and Compliance of works (DAACT).

Depending on your municipality, the way to submit your file to the town hall is different:

  • By dematerialized means (on the internet) according to the arrangements made by the municipality (consult the website of the town hall or inquire on the spot)
  • By letter RAR: titleContent or by hand (form).

Répondez aux questions successives et les réponses s’afficheront automatiquement

On the internet

You can complete and submit your application on the Internet:

Assistance with your urban planning permission application

Form

You can complete and submit your return using a form:

Declaration of completion and compliance of works

If you carry out your project without authorization or if it does not comply with the authorization obtained, you risk the following cumulative penalties:

  • Penal fine between €1,200 and €300,000 maximum (€1 500 000 maximum for legal persons)
  • Administrative fine from €30,000 maximum
  • Interruption of works
  • Obligation to comply or demolish your project with a penalty payment of €500 maximum per day late
  • Automatic compliance or demolition at your expense
  • 6 months imprisonment in case of recidivism.

You have to pay a development tax (AT)and, in the event of an impact on the subsoil, a preventive archeology tax (PAF).

You can do a simulation of the amount:

Estimate the amount of urban planning fees (development fee and preventive archeology fee)

You must report the elements necessary to calculate the VAT, within 90 days after thecompletion of your works for tax purposes, from your secure area on the tax website in the « Manage my real estate » section.

You can also report them using a form to send to the property tax center on which you depend:

Declaration of works for the payment of urban planning fees

Your project can affect your property taxes. For more information, you can contact your departmental property tax center.

Who shall I contact

Protected area

Step-by-step approach

Works that result in the creation of floor area orright-of-way, an interior or exterior layout or the modification of the exterior appearance of your property may be affected by a prior declaration.

There are aids (MaPrimeRénov', PTZ eco, TVA at a reduced rate...) for energy renovation projects.

To find out about the conditions of obtaining, you can contact a France Rénov' advisor free of charge.

Who shall I contact

  • Before you commit, the public service informs you free of charge to prepare and secure your project. You can be accompanied in your renovation works by advisors France Rénov'.

    By phone

    0,808,800,700

    Open from Monday to Friday from 9am to 6pm. You must have your last tax notice.

    Free service + cost of a call

The application for authorization is addressed to the town hall by natural persons and moral following:

  • Owner(s) of the land or its agent
  • Acquirer of the property
  • Company authorized by the owner(s) to make the works
  • Person in undivided or its authorized representative
  • Trustee and co-owner
  • Beneficiary of a expropriation (public service, public establishment, chamber of commerce...).)

Répondez aux questions successives et les réponses s’afficheront automatiquement

Your file is complete.

Within one month of the filing of your DP, the urban planning department will notified by letter RAR: titleContent one 2-month lead time in general.

If you have agreed in your prior declaration to receive the instructor's letters to an e-mail address, the notification may be sent to you by e-mail.

Your file is incomplete

The town hall has 1 month to inform you that your file is incomplete. You must complete it within 3 months. If you do not provide the missing documents, your request will be considered rejected.

The investigation delay starts when your file is complete.

The receipt states that, within 1 month of the filing of the file, the town hall can notify a different time frame to start your works.

She also has 1 month to notify you if your file is incomplete.

The decision is sent to you by letter RAR: titleContent or by LRE: titleContent or an equivalent electronic process.

There are several possible cases:

  • Authorization or lack of response
  • Authorization with prescriptions
  • Refusal
  • Stay of proceedings

Warning  

Within 3 months of the date of the decision, the mayor may withdraw a decision of non-opposition if he considers that it was issued illegally.

Authorization or lack of response

In principle, when your request for works is accepted, you do not receive a response within 2 months. This is a decision unspoken of non-opposition by your works (agreement).

On simple request from you, the town hall must issue you a certificate of non-opposition. You thus have proof to assert your rights (obtaining a loan, taking out insurance).

Who shall I contact

Warning  

In certain specific cases, the absence of a written decision from the town hall, or the Basu: titleContent for Paris, means refusal of your request. For example, if your project is in a classified site, in the heart of a national park, if your project is refused by the government or concerns a building listed as a historic monument.

Authorization with prescriptions

Refusal

Stay of proceedings

In certain circumstances, the mayor can postpone his decision on your DP for up to 2 years. The mayor takes a arrested stay of proceedings which indicates its duration. Your request is neither accepted nor refused. It will be considered later.

The stay of proceedings may concern any application for authorization concerning works, structures or installations in the following cases:

  • Land that is part of the perimeter of a concerted development area (Zac: titleContent)
  • Initiation of the investigation prior to the declaration of public utility (DUP: titleContent) of an operation
  • Proposed constructions that may compromise or make more expensive the execution of public works or the carrying out of a development operation
  • Planned constructions likely to compromise or make more expensive the execution of the future local urban planning plan (MORE: titleContent)
  • Project located in a space intended to be in the heart of a national park.

The reasons for the decision and the remedies and time limits for appeal are specified in the order.

Within 2 months of the expiry of the period of validity of the stay of proceedings, you must confirm your request for DP. Within 2 months of your request, you will receive the mayor's decision. If you do not receive the mayor's decision within this time, your DP is considered granted.

FYI  

The owners of the land to which a stay of proceedings has been applied may give notice to the community (or the public service which took the initiative) to purchase their land. The community has 1 year to decide.

When the mayor refuses your application for urban planning authorization or takes a arrested from stay of proceedings, you can challenge his decision in 2 ways:

  • Appeals to the mayor (and/or the prefect in a municipality without MORE: titleContent, nor municipal card)
  • Appeals to the administrative judge.

These 2 appeals can be made independently one from the other or simultaneously.

Warning  

If you are in a remarkable heritage site or to approaches to a historic monument and if the refusal of authorization is motivated by an unfavorable opinion of theABF: titleContent, you have to make a mandatory prior administrative appeal (Rapo). It must be made to the regional prefect before your appeal before the administrative judge.

Répondez aux questions successives et les réponses s’afficheront automatiquement

Appeals to the mayor and/or the prefect

You have 1 month to make a ex gratia before the mayor from the date of notification refusal (date of deposit or postmark). If your municipality is without MORE no municipal card, within the same period, you can also submit a hierarchical redress before the prefect, in addition to the appeal to the mayor.

To make your request, you write your appeal on free paper. You hand-drop it off or send it to the town hall and/or the prefecture by post RAR: titleContent.

Who shall I contact

In the absence of a response from the mayor and/or the prefect in the 2 months which follow the date on which your appeal was sent or lodged, your request is rejected.

Appeals to the administrative judge

You have 2 months to make a litigation before the administrative judge from the date of notification the refusal of the mayor or the date of implied rejection (date of deposit or postmark as proof). This period remains 2 months, even if you have previously appealed to the mayor and/or the prefect.

To make your application, you must refer the case to the administrative judge by letter in which you justify your appeal. You don't have to hire a lawyer.

You must apply to the administrative court on which the municipality where your project is located depends.

Who shall I contact

You can do your recourse with the help of an online service:

Citizens' telemedicine (appeal to the administrative judge)

You can also drop it off by hand or send it to RAR: titleContent.

Your DP has a period of validity of 3 years.

It is expired if you have not started the works within 3 years or if, after this period, you interrupt them more than 1 year.

Where the DP concerns a change of destination or a division of land, the decision shall lapse if these operations have not taken place within 3 years.

Please note

The period of validity of authorizations issued between 1er January 2021 and May 27, 2022 is 4 years.

The period of validity of authorizations issued between 28 May 2022 and 28 May 2024 shall be 5 years. In this case, the authorization cannot be extended.

Object of the display

You must view urban planning permission on the ground.

An extract of your authorization is posted in the town hall within 8 days of its issuance and for 2 months.

Display Time

The display of the urban planning authorization on the east field mandatory. You must make this display as soon as notification of thearrested or as soon as the processing time for your file is over (certificate of non-opposition).

It must remain in place throughout the duration of the project.

Formalism of the display

You must use a rectangular panel with dimensions greater than 80 cm. It must be visible from the outside. The information on your billboard must be legible from the public highway or open spaces.

The display displays the following information:

  • Name, company name or company name of the beneficiary
  • Date and number of authorization
  • Nature of the project, land area
  • Address of the town hall where the file can be consulted
  • Name of thearchitect author of the architectural project.

Depending on the nature of the project, it shall also indicate the following:

  • Floor area authorized and the height of the construction(s), expressed in meters in relation to the natural ground, if the project provides for construction
  • Maximum number of lots planned if the project involves a subdivision
  • Total number of pitches and, if applicable, the number of pitches reserved for light recreational housing if the project involves a campground or residential recreational park
  • Surface of the building(s) to be demolished if the project involves demolition.

The posting shall also inform of the possibilities of recourse by mentioning the following information:

« Right of appeal:

The time limit for litigation is two months from the first day of a continuous period of two months of display on the ground of this panel (Article R. 600-2 of the urban planning Code).

Any administrative appeal or any contentious appeal must, on pain of inadmissibility, be notified to the author of the decision and to the beneficiary of the permit or of the decision taken on the prior declaration. This notification must be sent by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt within fifteen clear days from the filing of the appeal (Article R. 600-1 of the urban planning Code). »

You can start your works as soon as the non-opposition to the prior declaration of works is acquired. They can therefore start on the date of receipt of the DP non-opposition certificate or on completion of the 2-month investigation period.

The period of validity may be extended 2 times for a period of 1 year if the rules of urban planning and administrative easements have not changed.

You have to make it there request at least 2 months before the expiry of the initial period of validity of your urban planning authorization (or before the end of the period of validity of your 1re request for extension).

Example :

An authorization valid from June 5, 2025 to June 5, 2028 can be extended for 1 year if you apply before April 5, 2028.

It can be extended a 2e once if you request it 2 months before the end of the 1re extension granted.

The request must be sent on free paper, in 2 copies, by letter RAR: titleContent or dropped off at city hall.

Upon receipt of your request, the town hall has 2 months to answer you.

The extension is granted if you do not receive a response within this period.

Only the valid urban planning permissions may be extended.

If the urban planning rules and administrative easements have changed, you cannot apply for an extension of your authorization. You must file a new application for urban planning that complies with the new rules.

Warning  

Authorizations issued between 28 May 2022 and 28 May 2024 have a validity period of 5 years. In this case, they cannot be extended at the end of 5 years.

When your project is completed, you have to send a letter to the town hall Declaration of Completion and Compliance of works (DAACT).

Depending on your municipality, the way to submit your file to the town hall is different:

  • By dematerialized means (on the internet) according to the arrangements made by the municipality (consult the website of the town hall or inquire on the spot)
  • By letter RAR: titleContent or by hand (form).

Répondez aux questions successives et les réponses s’afficheront automatiquement

On the internet

You can complete and submit your application on the Internet:

Assistance with your urban planning permission application

Form

You can complete and submit your return using a form:

Declaration of completion and compliance of works

If you carry out your project without authorization or if it does not comply with the authorization obtained, you risk the following cumulative penalties:

  • Penal fine between €1,200 and €300,000 maximum (€1 500 000 maximum for legal persons)
  • Administrative fine from €30,000 maximum
  • Interruption of works
  • Obligation to comply or demolish your project with a penalty payment of €500 maximum per day late
  • Automatic compliance or demolition at your expense
  • 6 months imprisonment in case of recidivism.

You have to pay a development tax (AT)and, in the event of an impact on the subsoil, a preventive archeology tax (PAF).

You can do a simulation of the amount:

Estimate the amount of urban planning fees (development fee and preventive archeology fee)

You must report the elements necessary to calculate the VAT, within 90 days after thecompletion of your works for tax purposes, from your secure area on the tax website in the « Manage my real estate » section.

You can also report them using a form to send to the property tax center on which you depend:

Declaration of works for the payment of urban planning fees

Your project can affect your property taxes. For more information, you can contact your departmental property tax center.

Who shall I contact

Assistance with your urban planning permission application

Who can help me?

Find who can answer your questions in your region

  • For information on urban planning regulation and administrative procedures

    • accès

      For more information on this subject, you can contact Allô Service Public.

      Please note: the service does not have access to users' personal files and therefore cannot provide information on their progress.

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      The informants who answer you belong to the ministry in charge of housing and urban planning.

  • For information on the local urban planning plan or your pre-filing file

    Town hall

  • For information about the local urban planning plan or your Paris pre-declaration file

    Paris: Reception and user service office (Basu)

  • For information on property taxes, development tax or preventive archeology tax

    Departmental Center for Property Taxes (CDIF)

  • For information on financial support for energy retrofit works

    Before you commit, the public service informs you free of charge to prepare and secure your project. You can be accompanied in your renovation works by advisors France Rénov'.

    By phone

    0,808,800,700

    Open from Monday to Friday from 9am to 6pm. You must have your last tax notice.

    Free service + cost of a call

FAQ