For many, the barbecue is the star of the summer and the preferred way of cooking on sunny days. However, its use can be regulated. What the law says.
User-friendly for you, the use of your barbecue may be considered inconvenient by your neighbours. However, the law specifies that its use “if occasional, not considered a neighborhood disturbance”, noted Service-publicthe official site of the French administration.
On the other hand, it can be framed by a co-ownership, subdivision or rental regulation, the clauses of which should be checked. A municipal or prefectural decree can also be signed. Service-public emphasizes that the use of the barbecue can be restricted “at certain times of the year and particularly in regions with a dry climate”, the embers can fly away and cause fires to start.
“Certain clauses or decrees only restrict the use of charcoal-powered barbecues and not those powered by gas or electricity, others limit it to certain time slots”, specifies the administration’s official website. French.
Neighborhood disputes
In the event of regular nuisances and damage caused (blackening of a wall, projection of ashes…), your neighbors can sue you for “abnormal neighborhood disturbance”.
This concept is assessed by the courts according to its intensity, the time and place at which the disorder occurs and compliance with the regulations in force. An amicable process can then be initiated. In the absence of an agreement, a letter of formal notice may be sent to you.
Until deportation?
If you do not react, this may precede an intervention by your property trustee, your town hall or even a justice conciliator. Of the damages you may be asked if the nuisance is proven.
Our colleagues from Monde recently reported an extreme situation where a tenant is threatened with eviction if he does not remove his barbecue due to the smoke from the merguez which bothers some neighbours.
After a legal battle lasting more than 4 years, the lessor finally obtained from the Montpellier Court of Appeal at the beginning of the year that the barbecue installed by its tenants be removed despite the prohibition stipulated in the co-ownership regulations. . The tenant could be evicted within four months if he does not comply with the court’s decision.