CRIMINAL PENALTIES APPLICABLE TO BUILDINGS BUILT WITHOUT PLANNING PERMISSION OR WHICH DO NOT COMPLY WITH THE PLANNING PERMISSION GRANTED

Criminal statute of limitations for unlawful construction

First instance and appeal :

Work carried out :

-without planning permission,

-or which do not comply with the authorisation issued,

constitute unlawful construction in breach of town planning regulations.

They incur the criminal liability of the offender.  

The limitation period is set at 6 years from full completion of the works, as the Cour de cassation pointed out last June. 

In this case, a legal entity and an individual were prosecuted before the Criminal Court for having built :

-without planning permission and in breach of the local urban development plan,

-. 21 new constructions or renovations, representing a floor area of 4,132 m² out of a total floor area of 650 m², whereas local planning regulations prohibited new construction in agricultural or natural zones. 

In addition, the buildings at issue were located in the red zone of the flood risk prevention plan. 

In both first and second instance, the defendants are found guilty and the demolition of the works is ordered. 

Appeal in cassation (Criminal statute of limitations on unlawful construction) :

The defendants :

-. then raised before the Cour de cassation the objection of prescription of thepublic action,

-. arguing that the buildings have undergone two series of constructions, which must be taken into account when applying the limitation period. 

However, the Cour de cassation upheld the position of the Cour d'appel insofar as it found that, although the work had been carried out in successive instalments : 

-The work is carried out by a single company,

-form an indivisible whole,

-Since the plot was acquired in 2008, there has been a succession of different owners,

and were still pending at the date of the hearing, preventing them from being time-barred.

In addition, since 2013, the illegal nature of the work has been noted, and it has continued despite the refusal in 2016 of a :

-. planning permission,

-of a planning permission,

-and a prefectoral order to stop the work, even after the matter has been referred to the criminal court.

Solution adopted by the Criminal Division of the Court of Cassation :

In this regard, the Court held that

" On the basis of these findings, which were made in its sovereign discretion, the Court of Appeal justified its decision, given that, in town planning matters, the limitation period only begins to run from the completion of a series of works carried out by a single company. ".