This article comes out of an opening that got four things wrong. Not wrong in the sense that the restaurant never opened — it did — but wrong in the sense that four obligations were discovered after the fact, each costing time, money, or both.
These are not obscure rules. They are rules nobody tells you about: not the landlord, not the accountant, not the architect, each assuming it is somebody else's business.
The four that are found out too late
1. The survey you get at signature is not the pre-works survey. The asbestos check before building work is a separate obligation, yours to pay for as the client, on any building whose permit predates July 1997. People find out once the work has started — which is to say, too late.
2. Your contractor's workers are your problem too. Above €5,000 of contract, you must ask for the Urssaf compliance certificate (attestation de vigilance), check it, and ask for it again every six months. Without it, you are jointly liable for your contractor's unpaid social contributions.
3. The noise impact study is not only for nightclubs. It covers venues that play amplified sound regularly and at a high level — a DJ on Fridays, a real sound system, not the background music during service. And it has to come before the soundproofing work, or it will make you redo what you have just paid for.
4. The food-safety declaration is its own step. Registering your company does not declare your food business. Any establishment handling products of animal origin must declare itself to the DDPP of its department using form Cerfa no. 13984, before opening — allow a month.
The list, in order
Before signing the lease
- Check that the permitted use of the premises allows catering: a commercial unit is not automatically a restaurant, and a change of use is decided by the town hall.
- Check that extraction is feasible: without a duct to the roof, no hot kitchen. This is the point that kills the most projects, and it is checked before signature.
- Ask for the existing surveys and the year of construction.
- Check the co-ownership rules to see that the activity is not forbidden, and on what conditions.
Before drawing up the works
- Noise impact study if you intend to play amplified music at a high level, on a regular basis.
- ERP works authorisation, which also covers accessibility and fire safety. Allow for the processing time.
- Prior declaration or planning permission depending on scale, and for any change to the façade.
Before the first hammer blow
- Pre-works asbestos survey, report passed on to the contractors.
- Lead report if the building predates 1949.
- Compliance certificate from every company above €5,000.
Before opening the doors
- Food-safety declaration to the DDPP (Cerfa 13984), one month ahead.
- HACCP training: at least one person trained in food hygiene on the premises.
- Operating licence and alcohol licence if you serve alcohol, declared at the town hall.
- SACEM and SPRE if you play music — two separate rights, one bill.
- Permission to occupy public space for a terrace.
- Safety commission inspection depending on your ERP category.
On opening day
- Price display, outside and inside.
- Allergen information.
- Mandatory staff notices.
- Single staff register from the first employee.
What this article cannot do
It gives the national framework and the order of operations. Three things are beyond it, and they decide the rest:
- your ERP category, which depends on the number of people admitted;
- the departmental food-safety rules, sometimes stricter than the national text;
- your town's local planning scheme.
Those three are asked of the town hall and the prefecture. Nobody can answer them for you, and an article claiming otherwise would put you at risk.
This article is kept up to date from the texts in force, each cited at the foot of the page. The rules change: check the update date, and confirm with the relevant authority before committing to any spending. The sources are in French — they are the exact titles of French legal texts, and translating them would stop you finding them.