Buying or keeping a home in France after Brexit creates a familiar question for British owners: if a house has just been built, rebuilt, extended or heavily renovated, can the owner avoid French taxe foncière? This is the French local property tax charged on built property. The answer is not determined by British nationality, a residence permit, or the fact that the owner lives in the United Kingdom. It turns on the legal character of the work, the date on which the property became complete, the decision taken by the local authority, and the declaration sent to the French tax administration.

A genuine new dwelling, reconstruction or qualifying addition to a building may benefit from a two-year exemption under the French General Tax Code. A substantial renovation of an existing house does not automatically have that effect. It may instead fall within a separate, locally adopted energy-renovation scheme, or it may simply increase the property’s cadastral rental value and therefore its future tax base. The distinction matters particularly to a British owner who has paid contractors in the United Kingdom, instructed a French project manager remotely, or assumed that a planning completion document was also a tax claim.

This article sets out the rules in a way that can be used before the next bill arrives. It explains the difference between a new build, a reconstruction, an extension and ordinary renovation; the 90-day filing rule; the evidence a British owner should preserve; the treatment of the waste-collection charge; and the administrative claim available when the exemption was omitted. It does not deal with the purchase process, which is a separate property transaction. The practical focus is the person who owns or occupies French property after Brexit and needs a defensible answer from the tax office.

I. Can a British owner claim a French taxe foncière exemption after building or renovating a property?

A. Which works qualify as a new build, reconstruction or extension?

The starting point is the French property, not the owner’s passport. Taxe foncière sur les propriétés bâties, commonly shortened to TFPB, is assessed because a taxable built property exists in France. A British owner, a French owner and a company may all be liable on the same basis for the same building. Moving to France, remaining resident in Britain, holding a Withdrawal Agreement residence permit, or owning a second home does not by itself create or remove the TFPB liability.

The principal statutory relief is found in Article 1383 of the French General Tax Code. For residential property, it states that Les constructions nouvelles, reconstructions et additions de construction à usage d’habitation sont exonérées. In English, the law covers new constructions, reconstructions and additions to a residential building. The exemption lasts for the two years following the year in which the work is completed, subject to the local rules and the filing requirements explained below.

That wording is narrower than the phrase “major renovation” used in ordinary conversation. French tax law does not award the two-year relief simply because the invoices are high, the work took many months, or the owner replaced nearly every visible feature of an old house. A tax officer looks at what happened to the building: was there a new taxable construction, a reconstruction that changed the building in the legally relevant way, or an addition creating new built space? A project that leaves the existing structure substantially in place may remain a renovation even when it is financially painful.

A new build is the clearest case. It may be a newly constructed house, an independent dwelling created on a previously undeveloped plot, or another residential construction that becomes a separate taxable unit. The legal completion date is important. It is not necessarily the date on the final contractor invoice, the date of the last decorative work, or the date the owner first visits from Britain. The relevant question is when the construction was sufficiently complete to be used as a dwelling. A house can still have minor finishing work outstanding without postponing completion, while a building that cannot yet be occupied may not be complete.

A reconstruction is more difficult. Demolishing and rebuilding the main structure points towards reconstruction. By contrast, stripping out a kitchen, replacing plumbing, rewiring, changing windows, repairing a roof or installing insulation usually describes renovation. The classification is fact-sensitive: plans, photographs, structural reports, planning authorisations, invoices and the property’s condition before and after the work may all matter. A British owner should therefore avoid describing a project only as “fully renovated” in correspondence. That phrase does not tell the tax office whether the building was reconstructed or whether its built volume and usable area changed.

The case law illustrates the boundary. In Conseil d’État, 25 November 2009, no. 301031, the Conseil d’État considered a taxpayer who sought the new-construction treatment after very extensive works. The decision explains that a declaration of a change does not necessarily amount to an exemption claim, and it rejected the idea that important works alone settled the issue. Its wording includes ne peut être regardée comme impliquant nécessairement une demande: a declaration cannot automatically be treated as an exemption request. The practical lesson is that the owner must identify the legal relief expressly and prove the facts supporting it.

In Cour administrative d’appel de Bordeaux, 6 April 1995, no. 93BX00199, the court distinguished restoration works from a new construction or reconstruction. The judgment states that les travaux n’ont consisté ni en une construction nouvelle ni en une reconstruction. It nevertheless examined whether the works created an addition by increasing habitable surface. This is useful for a British owner who has rebuilt part of a farmhouse, created a new wing or converted an attached structure: the claim may need to be limited to the qualifying addition rather than presented as an exemption for the entire original property.

An extension, annex, veranda, garage or additional floor may therefore require a different analysis from a refurbishment of the existing rooms. The French tax administration confirms that an increase in surface or a change affecting the property must be declared. Its guidance on an extension explains that the works can lead to a total or partial two-year exemption where the statutory conditions are met; see the official impôts.gouv.fr answer on extensions and additional rooms. The new or altered part can also change the cadastral rental value, which is the notional annual rent used as a tax basis. The bill may therefore show both a temporary relief question and a permanent change in the calculation.

Conversion of a non-residential building can be a particularly important category. Article 1383 also addresses certain conversions of agricultural buildings where there has been a substantial transformation of the physical structure and the building’s use. A British owner converting a barn, former workshop or outbuilding should not assume that the description “conversion” is enough. The evidence must show what the building was, what structural work occurred, when it became a dwelling, and whether the local authority has limited or removed the relevant relief.

The local share is another reason not to promise a fixed saving. A commune, meaning the French local municipality, may limit the residential exemption under Article 1383 within the permitted range. An EPCI, or inter-municipal public body, may also decide how the exemption applies to its share. The official impôts.gouv.fr page on exemptions and reliefs warns that local deliberations can restrict or remove the benefit. The result may be a full exemption in one part of the bill, a partial exemption in another, or no general new-build relief in the relevant local tax area.

Before relying on the exemption, ask the mairie, the commune’s tax service or the relevant EPCI for the applicable deliberation in writing. The rule on local tax decisions is linked to Article 1639 A bis of the French General Tax Code, which includes the requirement that certain decisions be taken avant le 1er octobre to apply in the following year. The exact local decision may have been made years earlier and may be expressed as a percentage or as a limitation to a particular share of TFPB. Keep the response with the property file; a verbal assurance at the mairie is difficult to prove during a later claim.

There is also a difference between the tax on the building and charges collected with it. The household waste-collection charge, known as taxe d’enlèvement des ordures ménagères or TEOM, is generally shown on the same notice. The official Service-Public.fr guidance on property tax makes clear that TEOM is not covered by the new-construction exemption. A bill can therefore be correct in showing a remaining TEOM amount even when the TFPB line has been reduced to zero or partly relieved. The owner should read each line rather than treating the total at the bottom as the exempted tax.

Finally, Article 1517 of the French General Tax Code provides for the annual recognition of new constructions and changes in the rental value. The current Article 1517 text is relevant where an extension, conversion or improvement changes the property’s taxable description. It explains why a project can have two separate consequences: temporary relief for a qualifying new construction or addition, followed by a higher cadastral rental value once the local tax base is updated. A successful exemption claim is not a guarantee that future bills will remain at the pre-works level.

B. Does a major renovation or energy upgrade create a separate exemption?

“Major renovation” is therefore a useful commercial description but not a self-standing two-year legal category. A project can be expensive and transformative while still being an improvement to an existing building. The owner should test three separate routes: the new construction or reconstruction relief; the addition relief for new built space; and the locally adopted energy-renovation relief. They have different conditions, durations and evidence.

The first route applies where the facts truly fit Article 1383. A home rebuilt after destruction, a new residential building, or a qualifying addition may enter the two-year regime. The second route can apply to an additional part, such as a new extension, even if the original house remains taxable. The third route is not automatic and is aimed at older housing that has received qualifying energy works. Treating all three as a single “renovation exemption” is a common reason for a refused request.

Article 1383-0 B creates the energy-renovation mechanism. The current Article 1383-0 B text refers to dépenses de prestations de rénovation énergétique et d’équipements associés. In plain English, a commune or EPCI can adopt a three-year exemption, generally between 50% and 100% of its share, for qualifying homes that are more than ten years old and meet the expenditure thresholds. The thresholds are normally more than €10,000 in the year before the first exemption year or more than €15,000 over the three years before that year. The local authority must have adopted the scheme; the statute does not impose it on every municipality.

The age condition is tested at the relevant date, and the expenditure must be tied to qualifying energy performance work or associated equipment. A general renovation bundle may contain eligible and ineligible invoices. For example, insulation, a heat pump or certain energy systems may be relevant, while a new kitchen, bathroom, garden wall and decorative paint may not be. The tax office can ask for invoices that identify the equipment, the supplier, the property and the date. A British owner should ask French contractors for detailed invoices rather than a single line saying “renovation works”.

The energy route can be attractive where the house is old but has not been reconstructed. It is also more fragile because it depends on the local deliberation. Before work begins, obtain the commune’s rule and check whether the EPCI has adopted a separate decision. Ask whether the exemption is 50%, 75% or 100%, whether it covers the commune and inter-municipal shares, which dates govern the application, and which technical evidence is expected. The answer should be stored with the invoices, not left in a contractor’s email account.

A new high-energy-performance home may be covered by another optional local regime, but that regime should be checked separately from the ordinary two-year relief. The fact that a building has a favourable energy rating does not itself create an exemption. The relevant planning and energy documents should be compared with the wording of the local decision. A British owner who is relying on a new-build classification should make that the primary legal argument and treat the energy route as an alternative only if the statutory conditions are independently met.

The age and work tests are not satisfied by changing the ownership or moving into the property. Brexit has no effect on the definition of an energy renovation. Nor does the UK location of a bank account or contractor. What matters is the French building, the qualifying work, the dates, the local decision and the proof. The UK-France double-tax convention is also not a substitute for the local property-tax rules. The UK government’s official summary of the France–UK double-taxation convention concerns income and capital taxes covered by the convention; it does not turn French TFPB into a UK income-tax issue or remove a French local tax on a French building.

This distinction is important when a British owner is preparing a tax-residence file. Residence may affect income from the property, pension reporting or capital gains questions, but it does not decide whether the local municipality has granted the TFPB exemption. The owner should keep the TFPB application in the property file and handle income-tax treaty questions in the relevant return. Combining the two can produce an incomplete application to the wrong service.

Vacancy relief is a different possible argument. Article 1389 concerns a reduction for a property that remains vacant under a strict set of conditions, including involuntary vacancy, a minimum duration and a level of duration depending on the property. It is not a substitute for the new-build or renovation exemption. The official Article 1389 provisions should be read separately. A British owner whose renovated rental property cannot be let may need to analyse vacancy relief, but should not describe an ordinary renovation as a new construction merely because the house was empty.

There is a similar danger with a property that is uninhabitable. A serious defect may support a vacancy or assessment challenge, but it does not automatically transform repair works into reconstruction. The existing French property-tax record, its cadastral description, the building’s physical state and the reason for the vacancy all matter. The related guide to French taxe foncière relief for an uninhabitable rental property deals with that separate route. It can be used as an internal reference, but it should not replace the new-build analysis in this article.

For a British family renovating a long-held home, the safest approach is to make a classification table before filing:

1. New building: identify the separate residential construction, its completion date and the Article 1383 claim.
2. Reconstruction: describe the structural state before and after, including demolition, retained elements, volume and habitable surface.
3. Addition: isolate the new floor, wing, garage, veranda or annex and calculate its additional surface.
4. Energy renovation: test the age, qualifying invoices, expenditure threshold and local deliberation under Article 1383-0 B.
5. Ordinary renovation: record the work for valuation purposes but do not claim a new-build exemption unless the facts justify it.

This classification also improves the conversation with the notaire, architect, builder and French tax office. Each professional may use “completion”, “renovation” or “conversion” differently. The tax filing should use facts that can be proved rather than the most favourable label.

II. How should a British owner declare the works and challenge a wrong bill?

A. What must be filed within 90 days and how is the saving calculated?

The most important operational deadline is 90 days. Article 1406 of the French General Tax Code requires new constructions and changes in the consistency or use of built property to be reported dans les quatre-vingt-dix jours de leur réalisation définitive. The French tax administration repeats the rule in its official guidance on a newly built home. The count begins from the definitive completion of the relevant construction or addition, not from the date on which the owner finally receives the first tax notice.

For most individual residential owners, the filing is made online in the French tax account, under the property declaration service in the espace Finances publiques, meaning the secure online tax area. Depending on the property and the change, the administration may direct the owner to a paper form such as H1 for a house, H2 for an apartment, or a form relating to a change in consistency or use. The form is not a casual administrative detail: it supplies the information used to update the cadastral rental value and to process the exemption.

The impôts.gouv.fr guidance explains that the completion point is connected to the property being usable as intended. An owner should therefore preserve a short chronology: planning authorisation, start of work, date the dwelling became habitable, date of the declaration, and date of the first notice. If a house was divided into two units, each unit may require its own analysis. If only an extension was completed while the original house was occupied, the date for the addition may differ from the date for an unrelated later refurbishment.

Consider an example. A new house becomes usable on 10 February 2026. The 90-day period will expire in May 2026, calculated according to the applicable procedural counting rules. If the owner files within time and the local authority has not removed the relief, the general two-year exemption normally concerns the two tax years after the completion year, here illustrated as 2027 and 2028. The owner still receives notices and should check the lines rather than assume the tax office will send a separate certificate.

If the declaration is made late, the result can be severe. Article 1406 links the benefit of temporary exemptions to the declaration of the change and provides that a late declaration leaves the exemption only for the period remaining after 31 December of the following year. A filing in late 2026 for a completion in early 2026 may therefore lose the first exemption year; a much later filing can lose the benefit altogether. This is why a British owner who is waiting for a French bank account, a trip to France or a paper document from a builder should use the online route or obtain reliable evidence of a timely postal filing.

The amount saved cannot be calculated from the purchase price or the renovation budget. TFPB is based on the cadastral rental value, a tax value representing the theoretical annual rent of the property, multiplied by local rates and adjusted by the applicable rules. Article 1517 is relevant when new construction or changes alter that value. Local rates can differ sharply between communes. The same €200,000 renovation budget can produce very different tax consequences in two French towns, and a two-year exemption may apply to only one share or one qualifying part.

Read the notice in sections. Separate the TFPB lines from TEOM and from any other charge. A new-build exemption can reduce the tax on the building while leaving TEOM payable. An energy-renovation decision may cover only the local share and may be expressed as a percentage. A bill that still contains an amount is not necessarily a refusal; a bill that contains no exemption line is not necessarily final. Compare the notice with the local decision and with the declaration receipt.

For a British owner, a practical filing pack should contain:

• the French cadastral reference and full address, including the commune;
• the planning permission, prior declaration or conversion authorisation;
• the declaration of completion and conformity where relevant, while recognising that it is not itself the tax declaration;
• plans showing the original and new areas, including any annex, garage, veranda or independent unit;
• contractor invoices, payment records and a schedule separating structural, surface-creating and energy works;
• photographs and reports showing the condition before and after the works;
• the date the property became usable and any evidence of occupation or letting readiness;
• the online acknowledgement, delivery receipt or other reliable proof that the declaration was sent within 90 days; and
• the commune or EPCI deliberation governing the relevant exemption.

Documents issued in Britain should be kept with the originals and, where the French service requests it, a French translation. A translated invoice should preserve the supplier, address, date, property reference, nature of work and amount. Do not send a bundle of unexplained UK abbreviations and expect the tax office to infer that a heat pump, structural wall or additional floor meets the French category. A concise English cover note may help the owner understand the file, but the administrative submission should be in the form and language accepted by the French service.

Article 1406 also provides a useful warning about the relationship between declaration and relief: reporting the change is necessary, but it does not remove the need to state the exemption being claimed. In the online field or covering letter, identify the statutory basis, the relevant completion date, the nature of the works and the local decision. If the claim is for a partial addition, say which part is new. If the claim is for energy renovation, state the expenditure period and attach the qualifying invoices.

Where the property is owned jointly, the filing should identify all owners and the person authorised to correspond. Where one spouse lives in Britain and another deals with the French account, agree who will monitor the receipt and the first tax notice. A missed email can be as damaging as a missed letter. The secure account should be checked after submission and again when the first notice is released.

B. What evidence and appeal route can recover the exemption?

A refusal or an omitted exemption is not the end of the analysis. The owner should first identify which point failed: late filing, wrong form, insufficient proof of completion, incorrect classification of works, absence of a local decision, or simple failure by the tax office to apply a timely claim. The appeal should answer that point with a chronological file and a narrow request. A general complaint that the renovation was expensive is weaker than a documented request for the statutory exemption on a defined extension completed on a defined date.

The case law gives British owners useful guidance on proof. In Conseil d’État, 15 October 2014, no. 368927, the taxpayer had sent a declaration from abroad. The Conseil d’État accepted des modes de preuve présentant une garantie équivalente, meaning evidence offering an equivalent guarantee, and accepted postal evidence showing timely dispatch. A British owner who posts from the United Kingdom should therefore keep the tracked receipt, the complete copy of the form, the address used, the date, and any delivery confirmation. An online submission should be saved as a PDF and, where possible, backed by the account’s timestamp or acknowledgement.

A wrong form does not always destroy a good claim. In Conseil d’État, 5 June 2019, no. 412473, the decision found that the taxpayer had filed within 90 days and met the substantive conditions even though she s’était seulement trompée d’imprimé, meaning she had simply used the wrong form. That does not give an owner permission to ignore the prescribed form. It does show that the administration and the court may examine the timely substance of the declaration rather than treat a correctable form error as automatically fatal. Send the correct form promptly and explain the original filing date.

There is a limit to that argument. The 2009 decision referred to above shows that a declaration of a change may not be an express request for exemption. In a claim, write both: “I declare the change” and “I claim the Article 1383 exemption” or the applicable energy-renovation relief. If the first declaration did not mention the exemption, explain why the documents nevertheless established the relevant facts and ask for the relief to be applied. Do not rely on a box that the service could interpret in several ways.

The physical evidence is often decisive. For a reconstruction, include the demolition and rebuilding documents, structural plans, photographs, building-control reports and evidence of changes to volume or habitable surface. For an addition, identify the additional square metres and the connection between the planning document and the tax declaration. For energy renovation, provide itemised invoices, technical specifications and evidence that the property was more than ten years old at the relevant date. For a conventional renovation, consider whether the correct request is an assessment correction, vacancy relief or no exemption at all.

The courts have repeatedly refused to equate important work with reconstruction. In Cour administrative d’appel de Marseille, 18 November 1997, no. 96MA10706, the court held that, pour importants qu’ils aient été ces travaux n’ont pas eu pour effet d’entraîner la reconstruction. The retained structure and the absence of the relevant increase in volume or surface mattered. This is a warning against presenting a full internal refurbishment as a reconstruction without a structural analysis.

Earlier authority also illustrates the risk of late filing. In Conseil d’État, 7 December 1983, no. 32283, the court considered the effect of a late declaration and rejected reliance on ignorance of the filing rule. The decision records that the owner’s lack of knowledge did not excuse the delay. A British owner should not wait for a first notice to discover the 90-day rule, particularly where the property is managed remotely.

The first formal step is a written réclamation, meaning a tax claim or objection, addressed to the territorial tax service responsible for the property. Article R*190-1 of the Book of Tax Procedures says that the taxpayer doit d’abord adresser une réclamation au service territorial. In English, the complaint must first go to the competent local tax service. Use the address on the notice or the secure online messaging function, and keep proof of submission.

The claim should state the property address and cadastral references, the tax notice year and number, the work category, the completion date, the filing date, the statutory basis, the exact relief requested and the amount disputed. Attach the declaration receipt, local decision, plans, invoices, photographs and a calculation showing which tax lines should be relieved. Ask the service to issue a corrected notice or formal decision. If the owner is challenging only the TFPB and not TEOM, say so expressly.

The general time limit for a claim against a direct local tax is set out in Article R*196-2 of the Book of Tax Procedures. It refers to a claim made au plus tard le 31 décembre de l’année suivant celle of the relevant assessment, notice or event, depending on the applicable limb of the rule. In practical terms, do not postpone the application: for a notice issued in 2026, the ordinary deadline will usually be 31 December 2027, but the precise legal basis should be checked against the notice and the event relied upon. Earlier filing avoids an argument about the wrong starting point.

Article L190 of the Book of Tax Procedures provides the framework for claims seeking correction of errors in the tax base or calculation, or the benefit of a right resulting from the law. An omitted new-build exemption is normally framed as a statutory-right claim supported by the timely declaration and qualifying facts. If the service says that the claim is late, address the date issue separately from the classification issue. If it says that the work is not a reconstruction, respond with the structural evidence rather than repeating the word “major”.

A well-organised claim should include a one-page chronology:

1. the original cadastral description and ownership date;
2. the planning permission or prior declaration;
3. the start and material stages of the works;
4. the date on which the new unit, reconstruction or addition became usable;
5. the date and method of the Article 1406 declaration;
6. the local deliberation relied upon;
7. the first notice showing the missing or partial exemption; and
8. the date of the réclamation and the relief requested.

The owner should also separate evidence of completion from evidence of legal classification. A builder’s certificate may prove that the project ended on a certain date, but it may not prove that the work was a reconstruction. A planning authority’s completion and conformity document may prove compliance with planning law, but it is not a decision by the tax service. In the same way, a tax declaration may establish that a change was reported, but the claim should still identify the exemption.

If the tax service rejects the claim, ask for the reasons in writing and check whether the decision concerns the commune share, the EPCI share, or the whole assessment. A partial local decision can explain why only part of the TFPB was relieved. If the dispute remains, the next route is generally before the competent administrative court, subject to the procedural position and deadlines stated in the tax decision. A lawyer can help prepare the court file where the classification of reconstruction, the calculation of the cadastral value or the effect of a local deliberation is contested.

Payment and collection should be handled carefully during a dispute. A claim does not automatically erase the notice or stop every collection measure. If the disputed amount is significant, ask the tax service about the appropriate request for a payment suspension or other protective measure and comply with any conditions. Keep the undisputed TEOM or other amounts separate in the accounting record. A British owner should not assume that cancelling a direct debit will preserve rights; it may instead create a separate payment problem.

For a remote owner, the evidence chain is part of the legal strategy. Store the original French notices, scanned forms, delivery receipts, secure-message export, local-authority correspondence, plans, invoices and photographs in a dated folder. If documents are stored in the United Kingdom, retain the French address and cadastral reference in each filename or index. Where a document is translated, keep the source and translation together. The point is not administrative perfection for its own sake: a dated chain can answer the exact questions that usually decide the exemption.

A final practical point concerns later sale, inheritance or a change of ownership. The exemption belongs to the qualifying property and tax period, not to a British owner’s personal immigration status. A sale or succession can make the file important to a buyer, executor or heir who needs to understand why a notice was reduced or why a future bill changed. Keep the local decision and the tax correspondence with the property records. A future owner should not be forced to reconstruct the classification from a low tax bill alone.

Conclusion

A British owner can claim French taxe foncière relief after Brexit, but “major renovation” is not enough by itself. The strongest two-year claim normally concerns a new residential construction, a legally qualifying reconstruction or an addition that creates new built space. An older home that has been expensively refurbished may instead require the separate energy-renovation scheme, a vacancy analysis, or an ordinary assessment challenge. The local commune and EPCI decisions must be checked because they can limit the saving.

The deadline is practical as much as legal: report the construction or change within 90 days, expressly claim the relevant exemption, and preserve reliable proof of the filing. A British postal receipt or secure online acknowledgement can be valuable. When the first notice is wrong, make a documented réclamation to the territorial tax service within the applicable period, separating TFPB from TEOM and explaining the precise work, dates and statutory basis. The quality of the evidence usually matters more than the budget headline.

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