Architects des Batiments de France

[Sebastian Tombs]

So, I live in a village with a castle.
You need a declaration préalable to buy a different colour of toilet paper round here.
I wanted to paint the horrible brown shutters and front door. Lady from urbansime said "ooh yes, that will be nicer. Lady from Urbanisme gave me the official list of RAL colours we were allowed. We picked closest to what we want and go and have a meeting with the man from the ABF. He goes through everything and says it's all fine. We submit the application. Man from ABF says "No."

What the fk?

We can contest, and that will be another 6 month wait for another blanket refusal for no reason.

Next place I buy a house I am going to do whatever I want to the house and I am not going to ask permission for anything. I've learned my lesson.

[smifffymoto]

You have learned the French way well young man.

Many Brits think they can just sweet talk Batiments de France,surprisingly with little effect and much bhing.

[rdjohn]

When in Rome…….

[Rushjob]

Bâtiments de France fonctionnaires make the Grade 1 conservation officers in the UK look like a total pushover.
Bonne chance!

[Patrick Magooagain]

Sebastian Tombs said:

So, I live in a village with a castle.
You need a declaration préalable to buy a different colour of toilet paper round here.
I wanted to paint the horrible brown shutters and front door. Lady from urbansime said "ooh yes, that will be nicer. Lady from Urbanisme gave me the official list of RAL colours we were allowed. We picked closest to what we want and go and have a meeting with the man from the ABF. He goes through everything and says it's all fine. We submit the application. Man from ABF says "No."

What the fk?

We can contest, and that will be another 6 month wait for another blanket refusal for no reason.

Next place I buy a house I am going to do whatever I want to the house and I am not going to ask permission for anything. I've learned my lesson.

So what can you contest if given no reason for refusal?
Have they given you alternative choices?

[Mike-tf3n0]

Have you spoken to your Mayor? If he likes your colour he may very well be able to swing it with ABF.

[S600BSB]

rdjohn said:

When in Rome…….

Quite.

[Pete54]

Our mayor's office has the usual colour chart. Unfortunately the approvals have now transferred from the mayor's office to the Prefecture.

So our replacement windows had to go through the full process and white is no longer acceptable - has to be 'pierre' a euphonism for bl**dy beige. Which of course adds a significant amount to the cost! The price of living where we do!

[zbc]

I think we'll soon be in a similar position. After a couple of years of saying they want to do it and then not actually doing anything it looks like next week we'll sign the Compromis to buy the local school for our commune to convert it into a home. It's about 130 years old and while we don't have ABF to deal with we have a CAUE report and a commune who are quite protective. Originally they told us we could have wood or aluminium windows (and of course in specific colours) and now they say it must be wood. At least internally we can do what we want and they've agreed to let us have Velux windows but let's see what actually happens when we make our formal request.