There is something like a crown to the story. Promogim has finished the housing complex (lotissement in French) without a valid permit. This can be easily proved. They introduced changes that were not in the original permit. This was regularised ex-post facto only later in 2005. We have the number and date of the permit and their request in our safe, if needed. This was an excuse for the municipality not to treat our requests of authorisations for garden cabins and other auxiliary constructions. When we asked Promogim to assume their responsibility and assist, we got just an arrogant letter from their Regional Director – the letter was in such bad tone that I lost any interest in reacting to it.

As the developer usually selects the notary, the notary is loyal to the developer. The notary refused to take a deposit of 5%. I still consider the possibility of denouncing his misbehaviour to the notary chamber, because it was against the professional ethics. Promogim refused another legal possibility to have the 5% on a blocked account in the bank – they would not give use the keys, so we would remain without a house. It is particularly shocking as they were delivering houses without a certificate of conformity and even without applying for a permit (modification of the original permit).

By the way: The illegal status of paperwork did not present any obstacle to the municipality in collecting the local taxes.