Obligatory since last year, the declaration of occupancy of real estate must be made by the owners, “on the fly” according to the terms of the DGFiP, and in any case before June 30 of each year. if a change has taken place in the occupation of the property. Whether it is the departure of a tenant or the arrival of a new one, a purchase, a change between primary or secondary residence... As soon as the owner bats an eyelash, he must carry out a new declaration to the tax authorities.
Officially intended to identify households liable for housing tax - abolished for main residences, but still applicable in other cases - and the tax on vacant housing, the declaration corresponds to a processing of owners' data which is wants exhaustive. However, this is not yet the case since 17% of owners are still missing the call from the DGFiP (General Directorate of Public Finances).
Claims for changes to the description of the real estate contained in the occupancy declaration can be made at any time.
On the last line of the declaration, the category assigned to the accommodation
To better understand the issues of the declaration, you must refer to the last line of the document that owners must validate online, called “Category”. For an apartment or a house, this category, which goes from 1 (very luxurious real estate) to 8 (very mediocre real estate), is determined according to the characteristics of the accommodation.
It is important because it “determines the rate per square meter which applies to the weighted surface area of your premises for the calculation of its rental value (...) used to calculate your property tax”, by the same admission of the tax administration.
If the letter “M” appears next to the number, this means that the property is located between the category corresponding to the assigned number and the one below it. For example “2M” means that the property is estimated between category “2: luxury” and “3: very comfortable”.
An outdated description that encourages vigilance
The establishment of the categories dates back to the end of the 1970s, the descriptions of each of them make you smile today. However, you have to live with it and check whether you tick the boxes or not.
In 2024, there are very few properties without running water or WC, two criteria taken into account in categories 7 and 8. Conversely, many buildings have lowered their standard and given up on the carpet in the common staircases which is estimated as “usual” in categories 1,2 and 3.
As for the "maid's rooms" in so-called luxury buildings which are accessed by a back staircase, they also raise problems when they have been sold separately from the apartments with which they formerly formed a common lot - and this is often the case -. Today they probably still carry category 1 “Great luxury”, 2 “luxury” or 3 “very comfortable”, that is to say that of the building in its version 45 years ago. However, today it is only accessible by a small service staircase without an elevator, the possibility of installing toilets is often hampered, and the bay windows are very small, which would bring them down to “ordinary” category 6. , 7 “mediocre” or even 8 “very mediocre”.
Checking the category assigned to your property is therefore essential to determine whether local taxes are correctly calculated. If it does not correspond or no longer corresponds to reality, it is possible to make a complaint by writing to the tax authorities from the secure messaging of your personal space on the tax site.
“For obvious errors, the tax administration will promptly correct the data. For more complex cases, you will need to make a specific request to the land registration service,” explains Nicolas Message, associate lawyer at the FTPA firm.
Based on this principle, the taxpayer who obtains a change of category and therefore of the rental value of his property also has the possibility, in the event of a favorable decrease, of obtaining a retroactive reimbursement over the three previous years. To obtain it, “you will have to make a contentious claim by writing a letter on plain paper to your Tax Center,” adds Me Nicolas Message.
Owners who declare the occupancy of their real estate are therefore supposed to check the category assigned to their house or apartment before validating the online form. And the changes to be made must go in both directions: in favor and against the taxpayer.
In the case of a property which has been the subject of improvement work since 1979 - the year the nomenclature was established - for example with the creation of a bathroom or toilet, the owner must, in theory, having made a so-called “H2” declaration for apartments or “H1” for houses (downloadable forms at the end of the article).