If you own land that cannot be built on, there is no need to leave it fallow, you can use it for your personal pleasure or to earn income. Because it’s not because you can’t erect a “hard” building there that you can’t do anything with it.
First possibility: set up a light dwelling there (yurt, wooden hut, safari tent, tiny house…) to spend time there during weekends or holidays. You do not need any authorization for this, provided that it is removable or mobile and does not remain on your land for more than three months per year.
Be careful, there are many exceptions, because “this duration is limited to fifteen days within the perimeter of remarkable heritage sites, surroundings of historical monuments and sites classified or in the process of being classified”, underlines Blandine Roul, notary in Treillières (Loire-Atlantique) and member of the Monassier Group. To know your zoning, consult the local urban plan (PLU) of your locality and ask for an urban planning certificate.
These documents will be very useful if you plan to transform your light house into a main residence. In this case, it will be necessary to obtain the authorization of the town hall, to make a preliminary declaration and to lodge on the spot at least eight months per year. Finally, if you enlarge your shed, “a building permit will have to be filed if the floor area to be created is greater than 20 square meters, or, in urban areas with a PLU, greater than 40 square meters”recalls Blandine Roul.
The exploitation of the plot is possible
The second possibility is to rent your plot to an operator. As the agricultural lease is very restrictive – it is concluded for a long period, can be transmitted to the heirs under conditions and the amount of the rent is fixed – it is better to sign a lease derogating from the status of tenancy.
For this, you must rent a small plot, “each department defines the latter, it is for example 50 ares, or 5,000 square meters, in Loire-Atlantique, for meadows and arable land in the reorganized municipalities”says Blandine Roul.
Another solution is to sign an agreement for the provision of your land with the local Land Development and Rural Settlement Company (Safer), which will lease it to a farmer. Advantage for you: you retain the possibility of recovering your land at the end of the lease. Disadvantage: the rent is fixed, and generally very low, and the lease is for six years, renewable once.
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