Mobile homes, modules, sheds, concrete slabs and platforms, a storage area, containers and a caravan, installed without any permit on plots classified as a natural zone. The municipality obtains in summary proceedings their demolition and the eviction of the occupants, deferred by one year. The occupant, aged 76 and ill, has lived there for many years. On 25 June 2026 the Cour de cassation (the French supreme court for civil matters) held that this delay was enough to make the measure proportionate. For anyone buying or valuing land built on without a permit, the decision restates a truth too often forgotten: what is built in breach of planning rules is worth only what the land is worth, less the cost of clearing it.
The facts
An owner holds adjoining plots located in zone N (natural zone) of the local plan (plan local d’urbanisme, PLU) of Brie-Comte-Robert. He settled there with his partner. The municipality contends that the buildings and works on the plots had no permit and breach the natural-zone designation and the local plan. It sues the occupants in summary proceedings for demolition, removal and eviction.
The Paris Court of Appeal, on 18 November 2021, orders the demolition of the mobile homes, modules, sheds, concrete slabs and platforms, storage area and containers, the removal of the caravan, movable items and vehicles, eviction at the end of a one-year period and the restoration of the land to its natural, wooded state. The owner appeals to the Cour de cassation: the summary judge cannot order measures that interfere disproportionately with the right to respect for private life and the home; the court had noted his vulnerability, his age and his close ties with the place, and could not rely on the mere deferral of execution to find the measure proportionate.
The decision
The third civil chamber dismissed the appeal (Cass. 3e civ., 25 June 2026, no. 22-13.550, published in the Bulletin). It recalled article 835, paragraph 1, of the Code of Civil Procedure: the summary judge may “always, even in the presence of a serious dispute, prescribe in summary proceedings the protective or restorative measures required, either to prevent imminent harm or to stop a manifestly unlawful disturbance”, and article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights on respect for private life and the home.
It stated the rule: “The summary judge may order, on the basis of the first of these provisions, the cessation of the manifestly unlawful disturbance resulting from the carrying out of works in breach of planning rules and sovereignly assesses the choice of the measure suited to ending the disturbance found, subject to its proportionality with regard to the rights guaranteed by the above Convention.”
It then approved the Court of Appeal: having held that the buildings and works, “carried out without permit and in breach of the PLU regulations, characterised a manifestly unlawful disturbance justifying that their demolition or removal be ordered”, and noted the occupant’s age, the length of his settlement and his state of health, it “could deduce that by deferring the demolition and removal measures ordered to the date of eviction” and “by deferring the latter by one year from service of the decision, the measure ordered, so arranged, did not constitute a disproportionate interference with the right to respect for the private and family life and home of the persons concerned”, “having regard to the public-interest imperatives of planning legislation”.
What this changes for valuation
An unlawful building has no market value of its own. What is built without a permit in a natural zone remains exposed to demolition ordered by the court at the municipality’s request. No informed buyer would pay for those installations; the valuer therefore cannot count them in the value of the property. The land is valued as natural land, with references of sales of non-building land in the area, not as an equipped leisure plot. That is the very definition of market value in the French valuation charter (Charte de l’expertise en évaluation immobilière, 6th edition, November 2025, Title III, § 1.1), which assumes a buyer acting with full knowledge.
The cost of restoration is deducted. The Court of Appeal ordered the land restored “to its natural, wooded state”. Demolishing slabs, removing containers and mobile homes, replanting: these are expenses the buyer will have to incur or the owner will bear. In a report they are deducted from the value of the bare land, on quotes or documented ratios, and they can leave the property almost worthless when natural land is cheap.
Lawfulness is checked before valuation. Zoning under the planning document, planning permissions granted, compliance of the works: these are documents to request before the visit, available from the municipality and, for zoning, on the national planning geoportal. Land in zone N or A with undeclared buildings is a frequent case in rural and coastal areas. The valuer flags it in the report as an express reservation and values on two assumptions when regularisation remains possible, which is rarely the case in a natural zone for a dwelling.
The occupant is protected, not the buildings. Article 8 of the Convention weighed on the timing, not on the principle. The judge adjusts execution, one year here, to the personal situation; the judge does not give up the demolition. For a seller or an heir hoping to rely on the length of occupation, the decision closes the door: length of occupation affects the calendar, not the value.
The price dispute. When such land was bought as if it were equipped, the question becomes the price paid. Depending on the sale documents, the buyer may seek the liability of a seller who concealed the irregularity, or annulment for mistake or fraud. In every case the loss is measured by the difference between the price paid and the market value of the land as it stands in law, at the date of sale, which is a classic valuation assignment.
What the valuer takes from it
- A building without a permit in a natural zone can be demolished in summary proceedings; it does not enter the market value of the property.
- The land is valued for what it is in law, with references of non-building land, less the cost of restoration.
- The lawfulness of the buildings is checked before the visit: zoning, permits, compliance; every reservation is written into the report.
- The occupant’s age or vulnerability defers execution; it changes neither the principle of demolition nor the value.
- Land bought as equipped when it is not in law opens a claim on the price, quantified by the gap between price paid and true market value.
Further reading
The Market value page describes the assignment, its timescale and its fee. The guide I paid too much, can I challenge the price and the glossary entry valeur vénale complement this article. On the same theme: Compulsory purchase of an unlawful building and Encroachment: demolition is due, and the strip of land has a price. The decision is available on Légifrance.
What next
A plot with buildings whose lawfulness is uncertain?
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