My apologies. I thought I had already made it clear in an earlier post. Obviously when you’re angry it’s easy to get mixed up in what you say or write. The bottom line is we would want to sell this property intact, as it was when we bought it, and is on our plan. We have no objection to SAFER making an offer to buy the land as long as we have a reasonable right to say “no thank you” without being penalised for doing so. I hope this is clear enough. Thank you.
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Hi Alan…
What you outline sounds very reasonable to me… be interesting to know for certain where we stand.
Anne, that’s simply not true! They cannot “take your land from you” — in fact, THEY cannot do anything!
The SAFER system simply affords a ‘right of pre-emption’ to (normally) adjoining farmers to be able to buy land IF IT COMES ONTO THE MARKET. What has changed is the way the land is valued: previously, they could only buy it if they were prepared to pay the asking price; but I believe now a set value has been defined, irrespective of what the owner might think it is worth; but this is not so very different anyway, since any notaire would be valuing your land at that price anyway. The sensible law was originally introduced because in the past, due to (not sensible!) inheritance laws there had been far too much fragmentation of agricultural land; so in the '70s, the system was changed, basically to make it easier to re-group land into more viable (= larger) farms.
In fact, the uptake under the SAFER scheme is fairly low anyway, so the risk is not that high.
And it does NOT happen after the sale has gone through! It takes place after the PRELIMINARY CONTRACT ahs been signed, but BEFORE completion.
Although there is a standard 2-month waiting period, you can pay a little extra and have it ‘fast-tracked’ in a shorter time.
Bear in mind that IF none of your neighbouring farmers wanted to buy the land when YOU originally bought it, there’s a pretty strong chance they still won’t want to now… unless you’ve upset them and they might do it out of sheer spite!
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Tony. I have to disagree completely with almost all you say, so we’ll agree to disagree I think. In your first paragraph you say “THEY cannot do anything” then go on to say “their uptake is very low, so risk is not high” there’s a contradiction there somewhere. SAFER do have the power to purchase your land once a property is offered for sale and has a purchaser who has signed the compromise, thereby leaving an owner with very little land, this is a fact. By the way it’s not necessary to shout to make your point.
Tony’s laid it out clearly, as I did earlier, - why are you not complaining that the mairie can buy any property once a compromis de vente has been signed, surely that’s not fair either! Both systems, safer and commune pre-emption, are exactly the same across France and the uptake is low. France isn’t the UK (and yes there’s good and bad on both sides of la manche !) 
When we bought our home, the fields around it were not sold, when these later came up for sale, because we were happy to let the current tennant continue SAFER supported our ourchase, set a fair price, and allowed us to redesignate some of the land as garden and move an access to the fields from right past our window to well away from the house. SAFER were really helpful to us, non as farmers. I do know if/when we come to sell SAFER will have 8 weeks to determine if they want to buy the couple of fields BUT if the purchaser is registered in some agri business, I doubt there will be an issue…( post our tennant retirement of course)****
Can you please provide a link to an Official French Government site where it actually states that SAFER can pre-empt a sale and offer less than the Sellers Asking price?
Mike… this is SAFER’s own websight.
http://www.safer.fr/
I asked at the Mairie yesterday… briefly, from what they outlined to me…things are much as have been described. However, the Seller can refuse to sell to SAFER and take the property off the market. I have decided to pursue this enquiry with a gentleman from the Chamber of Agriculture…and will let you know what he says.
Stella. When you say the Marie has said. “things are much as described” could I ask please, do you mean as I, Anne/Alan Williams describe, or some of the other posts which don’t agree with what I’ve said? Yes, I did know that the vendor has the right not to sell to SAFER, but as I’ve said this means he would have to take the property off the market, should he wish to try and sell in the future the same thing would probably happen…sell to SAFER or take it off the market again. I did read a good article by I think French Entre, if you or anyone is interested to look at it, put in Google, SAFER France, to view. I will certainly be interested to hear what more you find out. Nothing would make us happier than to know what we understand at this point is totally wrong. Thanks. Anne
Hi Alan/Anne
Basically, … SAFER do have first claim on agricultural land… but it is not always so drastic as it sounds (the Mairie tell me). Which is why I want to enquire further along the line… I will pursue this subject after the weekend and post whatever definite info I can glean. No point in offering ifs and maybe’s…I’d rather offer hard facts.
I’ll be back…
Has the SAFER regulation been introduced since you bought your property?
David. I’m not sure who you were directing your last question to. But as the person who started this thread I will say, “their rights have changed since we bought our property”. As I have stated, I believe more than once since starting this post. Our understanding when we bought was, that the community had the first right to buy our property at market value should it be offered for sale, that was the whole property, house and land. What has changed with the new law is that now, SAFER have been given the right to buy just that part of the property they wish to have, ie the land, so in effect they can split the property, leaving the owner with a house and small plot of land. They do indeed pay for this, as I’ve already stated. In our area that would be 5.000 euro per hectare. Should we offer our property house and 5acres for sale at say 300.000 euro and SAFER decide they want the land, they will pay us around 10.000 leaving us with a house and smallish garden this we feel will now be worth a lot less than 290.000. I apologies to the person who has posted on here asking why I am complaining about this law, and say hopefully it never effects you. In the case of the Marie being able to buy agricultural land at any time just as SAFER can this may be the case I was not aware of it, however I wouldn’t think that the Marie could buy the land only part of the property when it has has been put up for sale, our Marie most certainly did not explain anything like that to my husband when he spoke with him last week. Thanks. Anne
I still don’t understand. You say they will pay €5,000 per hectare and give you €10,000, i.e. two hectares. That would leave you with the house and three hectares of land. That’s a very big garden.
I’ve obviously confused you by talking acres and hectares, my apologies. We have 5 acres which is mor or less 2 hectares…sorry if I’ve made it hard to follow. To be honest I never wanted to get this involved. I started by asking a very simple question, see first post, a lady then asked what I was concerned about and its escalated since then. I’m already upset about the whole thing with SAFER and land, although I would be interested to read anything constructive that people may find out relating to SAFER law, I’m inclined to let this go as far as commenting any further. Thank you. Anne
I’ve just completed a land purchase - the SAFER value on agricultural land is roughly 1250€ per hectare but it’s up to the purchaser and vendor to agree a price - after I paid the deposit I had to wait 3 months for SAfER to offer it to registered agriculteurs at the price agreed between me and the seller. I had the option to pay 90€ or so to reduce the wait to 2 months but didn’t bother as any farmer would have snapped it up immediately if interested. The sale went through on the last day of the 3 month period - the wait was a pain but the procedure isn’t complicated. SAFER offer the land for sale they don’t buy it.
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[Re Mike Longhurst on SAFER pre-empting]
The SAFER can reprice agricultural land if they think the prices are getting excessive. I’ve seen them take a couple of thousand per hectare off a price that had been arranged privately (6k down to 4k). The seller refused to sell after the repricing, of course. They don’t do it often but it does happen. In this case the buyer started up a joint company with the seller and took over the land over a couple of years by buying the seller out of the joint company at the original price.
What stops farmers buying up properties with a few hectares is you have to pay for the buildings as well unless the SAFER wants to resell them separately. Why buy 10k of farmland when you have to buy 290k of buildings to go with it? Alan’s post talking about the change in the rules is very interesting. If it really is the case that the SAFER can now stop you selling your farmland with your house it would hit smallholdings hard. I wonder what choice the seller has when his sale is affected by this?
The new law which was introduced in 2015 or 16 does mean that SAFER can now opt to buy the land without the house, this is what we feel is wrong. As you rightly say Brett, why would SAFER want to pay for both house and land when all they want is land. The powers that be have made it very easy now for them to acquire just the land. All of the land adjoining our property is owned by different members of one family, and all of it is farmed. Our property was owned by a member of the family, at the time we bought it in order to be able to purchase the land it would have been necessary to buy the house also. We feel almost certain that when the time comes the land will be taken up by a member of the family. We do understand that SAFER don’t buy land to keep but basically on behalf of a local who wants it. Our desire is to sell the property, which is going to be hard enough given the market in France, this is potentially going to make it even harder. Thanks. Anne
Hello Anne, Have you spoken to the SAFER? Chances are they do not want to mess with your property value and would be happy for you to keep your property intact. There’s no point getting worried about this prematurely. Call them up and find your local technicien and tell them you are worried. 2ha is a small amount of land to them, they’re more worried about the 100ha farms that change hands or where the proprieteur dies. .
Dear Anne…I’m not sure whereabouts you are but my understanding of the SAFER in our area (12/15) is as follows.
Since some time in 2016 the government has allowed the SAFER to be notified of every sale in a commune of less than 2000 inhabitants. Nit to preempt but to verify they are not missing out on opportunities for the agricultural community whose interests they protect. Two months must be allowed for this before sale can be completed.
The above is not to be confused with their right to preempt on behalf of the farming sector. I, as a property agent, have always understood that the product you sell will get notified AFTER the Compromis has been signed. If someone in the farming community wish to purchase THIS product at THAT price, they have 2 months in which to do so from having received a copy of the signed Compromis. If the SAFER preempts the vendor will sell to whomever the SAFER has suggested or not sell at all but the price will be the same. I have not come across a case where the farmhouse is separated from the land after a Compromis is signed. If the SAFER have prior knowledge then yes they can insist on different prices etc.
I fear that there is another subject here which concerns the family members who own land surrounding the property: if they wish to sell I think the owners of surrounding parcelles will always be priority buyes especially if they are farming the land and they get subsidies over the amount of m2 or hectares they exploit.
I would always always ask a notaire to clatify if you trust him to be independent.
Dear Alan, firstly thank you for bringing up the subject which sent me running to read a few opinions on internet. I have not found the precise reply for you, however there are certain things you might try if you haven’t already done so.
Discuss the issue with your notaire and try to get clear advice. As you may know in France you can put in
retracting clauses (clauses suspensives) in your sales contract. You would need to add that if the Safer or anyone else (YES there are others who can preempt a sale) then the sale is cancelled. This will at least prevent them from getting your property for a song. Also can they really preempt your house? You would need to have been a registered farmer for at least 5 years, with farm buildings equipment etc. I would look on the website of your local Safer to see what rules they apply. There are also agricultural experts who would be able to advise you. Finally I read some acerbic comments about the SAFER written by french farmers on “droit finances” - basically they are a MAFIA. Also worth a look “ooreka” type in SAFER.
My own property is not agricultural so I don’t think SAFER preemption applies. I have trees… but the forestry equivalent can only preempt on properties smaller than 4HA. Phew!