Tacit building permit: what it actually authorises and the three months in which it can still be withdrawn

The town hall has not replied. The examination period has expired, no decision has arrived, and the permit is legally granted: for an investor, this is not good news in itself, it is the start of a sequence of risks to be managed. A tacit building permit (permis de construire tacite) is enforceable immediately, but it remains open to withdrawal for three months, open to challenge by third parties for two months from the start of continuous display, and open to referral by the prefect within two months of its transmission. No document records the decision, which complicates display on site, proof, the release of funds and the drafting of conditions precedent. This guide reconstructs the decision timetable applicable as at 3 November 2026: the date the permit comes into existence, the administrative withdrawal window, the time limit for third-party appeals, the anchor point for financing, and then the validity and extension of the building permit.

A tacit permit arises from silence, on strict conditions

The starting point: a complete file received at the town hall

Article R*424-1 of the French Town Planning Code sets the rule: where no express decision is notified within the examination period, the silence of the competent authority amounts to a tacit building permit, development permit or demolition permit, or a decision of non-opposition to a prior declaration.

The examination period does not run from the date of filing but, under Article R*423-19, from receipt at the town hall of a complete file. This is the first weakness of the tacit permit: its start date depends on a fact, the completeness of the file, which the authority may dispute and which the beneficiary must be able to establish.

The ordinary time limits under Article R*423-23 are as follows:

• one month for prior declarations;
• two months for applications for a demolition permit and for building permit applications concerning a single-family house, within the meaning of Title III of Book II of the French Construction and Housing Code, or its outbuildings;
• three months for other building permit applications and for development permit applications.

A multi-unit residential scheme, an office development or a development permit is therefore subject to the three-month period.

Request for documents and change of time limit: two dates to monitor

Two safeguards limit the authority's ability to push back the deadline. First, Article R423-38: where the file does not include the required documents, the competent authority has one month from receipt or filing of the file at the town hall to send the applicant a registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt setting out, exhaustively, the missing documents. Second, Article R423-42: where the ordinary examination period is changed, the competent authority must inform the applicant, within one month of receipt or filing of the file, of the new time limit and its new starting point, the reasons for the change and, where the project falls within Articles R424-2 and R424-2-1, that silence will amount to a tacit refusal.

Operational consequence: the first step for an investor, as soon as the file is filed, is to time-stamp its receipt at the town hall and to monitor the post for thirty days. Once that month has passed without a request for documents or a notice changing the time limit, the timetable for the permit's coming into existence becomes clear. The exact effects of a late or irregular request for documents on the coming into existence of the tacit permit are a matter for the administrative court and must be analysed case by case.

Cases where silence amounts to refusal, not permission

The tacit permit is by no means automatic. Article R*424-2 lists the cases in which the failure to notify an express decision amounts to an implied decision of refusal: works requiring the authorisation of the Minister of Defence or an authorisation relating to listed sites, sites in the process of being listed or nature reserves, ministerial call-in, a building listed as a historic monument, a project subject to a public inquiry or to public participation by electronic means, consultation of the Corsican Assembly, a project located in the core of a national park or in an area intended to be classified as such, refusal by the departmental commission responsible for cinema matters, an unfavourable opinion from the departmental or national commercial planning commission, demolition requiring a permit in a registered site, refusal of the derogation under Article L111-4-1 of the French Construction and Housing Code.

Two recent developments must be taken into account. Decree No. 2026-275 of 15 April 2026 added to Article R424-2 a paragraph II: silence amounts to refusal where the project concerns buildings subject to the demolition obligation provided for in paragraph I of Article L121-22-5, a provision applicable to applications filed from the entry into force of the planning document incorporating the zones referred to in Article L121-22-2. Assets located in municipalities exposed to coastal erosion (recul du trait de côte) therefore change regime as local planning documents evolve. In addition, Article R424-3 maintains tacit refusal where the Architecte des Bâtiments de France (architect of the historic buildings authority) has notified an unfavourable opinion or a favourable opinion subject to conditions, and, since Decree No. 2026-674 of 27 July 2026, where the prefect or the regional prefect has rejected the appeal lodged by the competent authority against that opinion.

Before treating a permit as granted, checking the regime applicable to the land (heritage protection, ABF perimeter, public inquiry, CDAC (departmental commercial planning commission), coastal erosion) is therefore a prerequisite, not a formality.

What a tacit permit actually authorises

The scope of the review is set by Article L421-6: the permit may be granted only if the planned works comply with the statutory and regulatory provisions relating to land use, siting, purpose, nature, architecture, dimensions, drainage of buildings and the landscaping of their surroundings, and if they are not incompatible with a declaration of public utility.

The standard wording that Article A424-8 requires to appear on the decision sets out the scope of this authorisation: The permit is issued without prejudice to the rights of third parties: it checks the conformity of the project with planning rules and easements. It does not check whether the project complies with other regulations and with the rules of private law.

The permit therefore clears neither contractual easements, nor the co-ownership regulations (règlement de copropriété), nor abnormal neighbourhood disturbances, nor other administrative police regimes. An investor who acquires an asset relying on a granted permit is buying a planning authorisation, not a guarantee that the asset can be used.

What is specific to the tacit permit is that, by construction, it contains none of this wording, no conditions, no reminder of time limits. There is no decision to read. Two practical consequences follow. First, the beneficiary must reconstruct for itself the timetable of time limits that the decision would have set out. Second, a project that would normally have warranted conditions (access, parking, architectural requirements) carries none, which feeds precisely the ground of illegality capable of founding a withdrawal within the three months.

Enforceable immediately: display, site works and certificate of tacit permit

Article L424-8 is unambiguous: The tacit permit and the decision of non-opposition to a prior declaration are enforceable from the date on which they are granted. There is no need to wait for a document from the town hall before starting work on site.

Display, on the other hand, is an immediate obligation. Under Article R*424-15, notice of the permit, whether express or tacit, must be displayed on the land, visible from outside, by the beneficiary, from the date on which the tacit permit is granted and throughout the duration of the works. This display also states the obligation, imposed on pain of inadmissibility by Article R600-1, to notify any administrative or judicial appeal to the author of the decision and to the beneficiary of the permit. The sign repeats the wording of Article A424-17 recalling the two-month appeal period and the obligation to notify within fifteen clear days. In parallel, within eight days of the tacit grant, an extract of the permit is published by display at the town hall for two months, which may be replaced by publication by electronic means on the municipality's website.

The certificate of tacit permit under Article R*424-13 is not an instrument that constitutes the permit: the competent authority issues a certificate on simple request from the applicant, the declarant or their successors in title. This certificate states the date of display at the town hall or the date of electronic publication of the notice of filing and, in the case of a tacit permit, the date on which the file was transmitted to the prefect. This is the document that the notary and the lending institution will ask for: it does not prove the legality of the permit, it records its date and its transmission for legality review.

The three months during which the tacit permit can still be withdrawn

This is the least well understood window, and the most costly.

A decision of non-opposition to a prior declaration, or a building, development or demolition permit, whether tacit or express, may be withdrawn only if it is unlawful and within three months of the date of those decisions. After that period, the decision of non-opposition and the permit may be withdrawn only at the express request of their beneficiary. (Article L424-5 of the French Town Planning Code)

Three points should be noted. The period is three months, not four: the general rule in Article L242-1 of the French Code of Relations between the Public and the Administration, which allows an unlawful decision creating rights to be withdrawn within four months of being taken, is set aside in planning law by this special provision. The starting point is the date of the decision, that is, for a tacit permit, the date on which it is granted, and not the date on which the town hall becomes aware of its existence. Finally, withdrawal requires the permit to be unlawful: a town hall that regrets a lawful project cannot go back on it.

Withdrawal is not discretionary as to its form. As it withdraws a decision creating rights, it must be reasoned under point 4 of Article L211-2 of the French Code of Relations between the Public and the Administration and, by cross-reference to Article L121-1 of the same Code, it is subject to a prior adversarial procedure: the beneficiary must be given the opportunity to submit observations before the withdrawal is pronounced. Article A424-8 states this in operational terms: the authority is required to inform the beneficiary of the permit beforehand and to allow them to respond to its observations. A letter announcing an intention to withdraw is therefore not a decision: it opens an adversarial phase, and this is where the outcome is largely decided, by demonstrating the lawfulness of the project or by negotiating a regularisation.

One point that is often misreported deserves to be corrected. Since Law No. 2018-1021 of 23 November 2018, Article L424-5 provides that the prior issue of a planning authorisation for a given plot does not prevent the same beneficiary of that authorisation from filing a new application for authorisation concerning the same plot. Filing that new application does not require the previously issued authorisation to be withdrawn and does not entail its implied withdrawal. Filing a second permit on the same land therefore no longer causes the benefit of the first to be lost. For an investor who modifies the programme during marketing or fundraising, this is a means of securing the position: the two permits coexist.

Third-party appeals and the prefect's referral (déféré préfectoral): the real window of exposure

The time limit for third-party appeals

Article R*600-2 sets the starting point: The time limit for judicial appeal against a decision of non-opposition to a prior declaration or against a building, development or demolition permit runs, as regards third parties, from the first day of a continuous period of two months of display on the land of the documents referred to in Article R. 424-15.

The mechanism is therefore twofold: two months of continuous display are needed for the starting point to be fixed, and the two-month appeal period is then counted from the first day of that period. Display that is interrupted, moved or illegible restarts the mechanism and leaves the permit open to challenge. For a high-stakes asset, building an evidence file of the display, through reports drawn up at intervals by a commissaire de justice (bailiff), is market practice and not a requirement of the text, but it is what will make it possible to plead that the time limit has expired (forclusion). In practical terms, a lender will rarely rely on a clearance being achieved before a horizon of around four months from the date the permit is granted, the time needed for the continuous two-month period to be established, for the appeal period to expire and for any notification to reach the beneficiary.

Article R600-1 indeed requires anyone lodging an administrative or judicial appeal to notify it, on pain of inadmissibility, to the author of the decision and to the holder of the authorisation, by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt, within fifteen clear days of the filing of the appeal. Since Decree No. 2019-303 of 10 April 2019, this formality no longer applies where a modifying permit, a modifying decision or a regularisation measure is challenged under the conditions provided for in Article L600-5-2. The holder of a modifying permit therefore cannot rely on the absence of notification to conclude that there is no appeal.

The risk of a stop to the works is concentrated in summary suspension proceedings (référé-suspension). Under Article L600-3, an appeal against a permit may be accompanied by an application for summary suspension only until the expiry of the period set for the crystallisation of grounds (cristallisation des moyens) before the court of first instance, and the condition of urgency provided for in Article L. 521-1 of the French Code of Administrative Justice is presumed to be met. Where a third party accompanies its appeal with an application for suspension, the summary proceedings judge rules within one month. On appeal time limits and their effect on the continuation of the works, see our analysis of third-party appeals against a building permit.

The prefect's referral

The tacit permit is transmitted to the prefect, and the certificate under Article R*424-13 states the date. Under Article L2131-6 of the French General Code of Local Authorities, the State representative refers to the administrative court the acts that he considers to be unlawful within two months of their transmission. Above all, in planning matters, a request for suspension made by the prefect within ten days of receipt of the act results in its suspension until the summary proceedings judge has ruled, the act becoming enforceable again one month after receipt if the judge has not ruled. Works begun as soon as the permit is granted can therefore be stopped by the mere effect of a request from the prefect, without any prior court decision.

The end of the litigation exposure

Two limits close the sequence. Article R*600-3: no action for annulment of a building or development permit or of a decision of non-opposition is admissible after the expiry of a period of six months from completion of the construction, the completion date being, unless proved otherwise, the date of receipt of the declaration certifying completion and conformity of the works. This period was one year before Decree No. 2018-617 of 17 July 2018, applicable to applications directed against decisions made after 1 October 2018. Article R462-6: from receipt at the town hall of the declaration of completion, the competent authority has three months to challenge the conformity of the works, extended to five months where a compliance check (récolement) is mandatory.

Clearance, proof and financing: which documents to produce

Two documents are frequently confused, including in preliminary sale agreements (promesses de vente).

The certificate of tacit permit under Article R*424-13 is issued by the town hall, on simple request. It attests to the existence of the tacit permit and its reference dates. It says nothing about appeals.

The certificate of no appeal (certificat de non-recours) falls under Article R600-7 and is issued by the registry of the administrative court before which an appeal may be brought: it attests that there is no judicial appeal or appeal on points of law against the decision or, if an appeal has been registered, states the date of its registration. The secretariat of the litigation section of the Conseil d'État issues the equivalent for appeals to that court. A clause in a preliminary agreement that makes completion depend on a certificate of no appeal "issued by the town hall" is therefore unworkable as it stands. The drafting of the condition relating to a permit cleared of appeals is dealt with separately in our article on securing a land acquisition subject to a permit condition.

No text provides, on the other hand, for a "certificate of non-withdrawal". The expiry of the three months under Article L424-5 is not proved by an administrative document: it is deduced from the date on which the permit was granted, which the R*424-13 certificate helps to establish. This is a further reason to document rigorously the date of receipt of the complete file at the town hall.

The decision timetable, step by step

For a building permit other than for a single-family house, in the absence of a request for documents and of an extension of the time limit, the sequence reads as follows:

• D0: receipt at the town hall of the complete file (R*423-19), time-stamp to be kept.
• D0 + 1 month: end of the period for requesting missing documents (R423-38) and for notifying a change of time limit (R423-42).
• D0 + 3 months: the tacit permit comes into existence (R423-23 and R424-1). The permit is enforceable (L424-8). Display on the land becomes mandatory the same day (R*424-15).
• Within 10 days of the prefect's receipt of the act: window during which a request for suspension by the prefect suspends the permit automatically (L2131-6 CGCT).
• Two months from transmission to the prefect: end of the prefect's referral period (L2131-6 CGCT).
• Three months from the date of the permit: end of the administrative withdrawal window (L424-5), subject to a prior adversarial procedure (L121-1 CRPA).
• Two months from the first day of a continuous two-month period of display: end of the third-party appeal period (R*600-2), together with mandatory notification within fifteen clear days (R600-1).
• Three years from the date the permit was granted: lapse if the works have not been started (R*424-17).

The trade-off lies between the withdrawal window, which is the shortest and the most severe, and the clearance of third-party appeals, which is the longest and the most uncertain as to its starting point.

Validity, lapse and extension of the building permit

Article R*424-17 sets the current rule, resulting from Decree No. 2016-6 of 5 January 2016: the permit lapses if the works are not started within three years of notification or of the date on which the tacit decision arose, and likewise if, after that period, the works are interrupted for more than one year. The reference to a two-year period, still widespread, corresponds to a repealed wording.

The validity period is suspended in the event of an appeal to the administrative court against the permit, or of an appeal to the civil court based on Article L480-13, until a final court decision is handed down (R*424-19). Litigation therefore does not cause the permit to be lost, it freezes its clock.

Extension of the building permit is governed by Articles R424-21 to R424-23: the permit may be extended twice for a period of one year, at the request of its beneficiary, if the planning requirements and administrative easements of every kind to which the project is subject have not changed in a manner unfavourable to it. The application is made in two copies and sent by registered post or lodged at the town hall at least two months before the end of the validity period. The extension is granted if no decision has been sent within two months of the acknowledgement of receipt, and it takes effect at the end of the validity of the initial decision. A specific regime, running up to ten years by annual applications, exists for installations producing energy from a renewable source within the meaning of Article L211-2 of the French Energy Code. These rules are covered, from the angle of an operation's timetable, in our article on the period of validity and the extension of a building permit.

Two derogatory regimes arising from Decree No. 2025-461 of 26 May 2025 must be checked for the older permits in a portfolio, without ever being generalised to recent permits: the validity period of permits and decisions of non-opposition granted between 28 May 2022 and 28 May 2024 is extended to five years, which precludes their extension under Articles R424-21 to R424-23; and authorisations granted between 1 January 2021 and 27 May 2022 are extended by one year.

Start the works or wait: our view

A tacit permit is a real permit, but it is the least documented permit in planning law: no decision, no conditions, no reminder of time limits, and a start date that depends on a fact to be proved. Committing to significant works before the expiry of the three months under Article L424-5 and before the third-party appeal period has been cleared amounts to financing a site that a request for suspension by the prefect made within ten days, or summary suspension proceedings benefiting from the presumption of urgency under Article L600-3, may stop.

The reasonable position for an investor is not to wait passively, but to reduce the period of exposure. Start the display on the land on the very day the permit is granted, have it recorded at regular intervals, request without delay the certificate of tacit permit under Article R*424-13 to fix the date of the decision and that of its transmission to the prefect, then request from the registry the certificate of no appeal under Article R600-7 once the period has expired. Set the conditions precedent in your preliminary agreement and the milestones for the release of bank funds on these two documents, and not on a generic formula such as "final permit". Finally, if a letter announcing a withdrawal arrives, treat the adversarial phase under Article L121-1 of the French Code of Relations between the Public and the Administration as litigation already under way: it is there, and not after the decision, that the case is won.

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take for a tacit building permit to be granted? On expiry of the examination period, which runs from receipt at the town hall of a complete file (R423-19). That period is one month for a prior declaration, two months for a demolition permit and for a building permit concerning a single-family house or its outbuildings, and three months for other building permits and development permits (R423-23). It is also necessary that no request for missing documents has been sent by registered letter within one month of filing (R423-38) and that no change of time limit has been notified within the same period (R423-42).

Can a tacit permit be withdrawn for three or four months? Three months. Article L424-5 of the French Town Planning Code provides that the permit, whether tacit or express, may be withdrawn only if it is unlawful and within three months of the date of the decision. The four-month period in Article L242-1 of the French Code of Relations between the Public and the Administration is the general rule for decisions creating rights, set aside here by the special provision. After three months, the permit may be withdrawn only at the express request of its beneficiary.

Can works begin as soon as the tacit permit is granted? Legally yes: Article L424-8 provides that the tacit permit is enforceable from the date on which it is granted, without waiting for a document from the town hall. Display on the land is mandatory from that date and throughout the duration of the works (R*424-15). Economically, the exposure to administrative withdrawal, to the prefect's referral accompanied by a request for suspension and to third parties' summary suspension proceedings justifies phasing the commitment of expenditure.

Who issues the certificate of no appeal? The registry of the administrative court before which an appeal may be brought, under Article R600-7: it attests that there is no appeal, or states the date on which the appeal was registered. The secretariat of the litigation section of the Conseil d'État issues the equivalent certificate for appeals to that court. The town hall, for its part, issues on simple request the certificate of tacit permit under Article R*424-13, which states the date of display at the town hall or of electronic publication of the notice of filing and the date of transmission to the prefect.

When exactly does the third-party appeal period expire? It runs from the first day of a continuous period of two months of display on the land of the documents referred to in Article R424-15 (R*600-2). Display that is interrupted prevents the starting point from being fixed and leaves the permit open to challenge. The person bringing the appeal must also notify it by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt to the author of the decision and to the holder of the permit within fifteen clear days of filing, on pain of inadmissibility (R600-1), a formality that is no longer required to challenge a modifying permit or a regularisation measure within the meaning of Article L600-5-2.

Does filing a new permit on the same land cause the tacit permit already granted to be lost? No. Since Law No. 2018-1021 of 23 November 2018, Article L424-5 provides that the prior issue of an authorisation for a given plot does not prevent the same beneficiary from filing a new application concerning the same plot, that filing does not require the previous authorisation to be withdrawn and does not entail its implied withdrawal. The two permits coexist, which makes it possible to modify a programme without sacrificing the permit already granted.

How can a tacit building permit be extended, and until when? The permit lapses if the works are not started within three years of the date on which the tacit decision arose, or if they are interrupted for more than one year (R424-17). Extension is possible twice for one year, if the planning requirements and administrative easements have not changed unfavourably (R424-21), on an application in two copies lodged or sent by registered post at least two months before the end of the validity period (R424-22), the extension being granted if there is no reply within two months (R424-23). First check whether the permit falls within the derogatory regimes of Decree No. 2025-461 of 26 May 2025, the five-year validity granted to permits issued between 28 May 2022 and 28 May 2024 precluding any extension.