French Conveyancing Buying a house in France is very simple. You make an offer, the seller accepts, you both agree the terms and conditions such as how much, when it is paid, is it subject to a loan, how much deposit etc and the house is secured as yours, the owner cannot sell it elsewhere and you are contracted to buy. This is all true, so why all the stress and worry. The truth is that buying a house in France is not necessarily difficult it is just different to buying a house in the UK. There is no French equivalent to the English ‘common law’ conveyancing system where the solicitor advises you and protects you from all the legal problems. A binding contract is signed at a much earlier stage. Soon after venturing into the estate agents office, without any previous enquiries and without the services of a surveyor you could find yourself having signed the contract, the compromis de vente, the document which kicks off the legal process. The Notaire Once the compromis de vente has been signed it is the notaire who takes over. The notaire is a lawyer who deals with conveyancing. Unlike an English solicitor he works for both parties. As seven years of law are necessary to graduate, the notaire is the most qualified professional of the French legal system. The notaire is an officer of the French state, responsible for collecting stamp duties and registering the purchase. His qualifications allow him to efficiently advise his clients in specific areas of law such as Property Law, Family Law and Corporate Law. He is able to counsel clients on matters all over France without any restrictions. The French State confers to the notaire an authentic power to legalise certain agreements such as property sales, which cannot be enforced by any other means. This monopoly prevents almost any subsequent litigation concerning these contracts. The notaire does not only draft and authenticate deeds he can also do some counselling. What does he do The notaire is deemed a Public Official with powers delegated by the State to authenticate the deeds he drafts and provide complete security to the contracts he supervises. It is his role to complete the transaction. The law imposes a personal liability on the notaire for his professional acts which is more extensive than that of any other branch of the legal profession. Not only would the professional mistake be penalised immediately by a judge, but it would also mean that all of the notaires would be held liable as they have a common insurance, providing an immediate financial guarantee to the client. The foreign investor is therefore facing a specialised lawyer fully liable for his deeds. The property registration system in France is slow but very sure. It takes two to three months for a sale to be registered, and only the authentic deeds settled by the notaire can be registered. The content of the deeds are controlled by both the notaire and the Registration Authority. On one hand this procedure might seem long compared to conveyancing in the UK, but on the other hand it results in a lack of litigation concerning these agreements (on average 0.5% per year on property transactions). The notaire has the task to both completely satisfy his clients and to impose some limits to their queries according to his Public Official status. Although the notaire might offer some advice, legal advisor is not his primary role. He will not generally volunteer advice and give progress reports. Often you will hear nothing from him until a few days before you are due to complete. At Poitou Charentes Properties we will seek to keep you informed throughout the property transaction process and will be there to answer any queries you might have. What does he charge. The fees concerning the work performed by the notaire are fixed by Law. The fees levied are determined by reference to a national table of charges and they vary between 6,5% and 10% of the net property price, plus VAT. Neither the notaire nor the client may modify these fees. If there are two notaires, the fees are shared. As concerns any other deeds and advisory fees, these are freely fixed with the client, the same as for UK lawyers. So to summarise, the role of a French notaire is quite different from that of a UK lawyer. Notably he is French official who has duties vis-à-vis both buyer and seller. He cannot be counted on to give advice in the same way as a UK lawyer – he will not make arrangements for mortgages and insurance. See our finance and insurance sections for advice on these matters. It is important that you inform yourself of certain important legal issues when you purchase a property in France. While we at Poitou Charentes Properties do not pretend to be legal advisors we do address many of these issues in our fact sheets and can advise you where to go for more specialist advice. Some of the questions we answer are : What law applies to French Property? What is the French conveyancing process? Can I choose my own Notaire? Can I go back once I have signed the preliminary agreement? Do I need a survey? What will my property cost in all? When and who do I pay? Do I have to pay a deposit? What are conditions suspensives? What about service charges? Will I own the property contents Do I have to be in France to make the purchase? When can I move in? Request our free French Property Law fact sheet for the answers to these questions and more :