The fine is so small, something like €150, that few people do it. You may well find that the same clause was in the current owner’s contract and they never bothered either. But you can make it a clause suspensive that it is fixed before you actually sign final papers - you just won’t be popular.
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They told us it is definately the buyers responsibilty, so am i right if i make an offer less the cost of the fosse replacement which i led to believe is between 10k& 12k or would that be insulting to the vendor? (the house has been left to the children hence the sale, they dont want it).
I would. They can always say no.
Technically they are right as it’s owners responsibility and once you’ve bought it you are the owner. But if they had been controlled during their ownership they would have been liable to bring it up to standard or pay a fine.
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The vendors probably wouldn’t want to have it fixed anyway in those circs.
Is the house already priced to take the fosse replacement into account? I see so many UK buyers assuming a 10% lower offer would be expected; unless you know the market, it’s impossible to know whether a house is overpriced.
And there’s your attitude to risk, and how much you want the house.
It would do no harm to make the offer you contemplate, as long as there hasn’t been a lot of interest in the house.
Remember also that you can ask the immobilier/ère what s/he thinks. The good ones are much more active in negotiations than UK ones are, and will probably already have agreed the fee (so aren’t going to lose out if you offer less than asking price).
It’s a financial transaction, not a chat with your mates. If they’re not insulted then you’ve offered too much 
More seriously, don’t end up overpaying to avoid upsetting someone you’re unlikely to ever see again.
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That is not correct.
Having checked the sales price was not already discounted for the non compliant fosse, we offered the asking price less 50% of the anticipated fosse costs. The owners were in the midst of a very unpleasant divorce, so we thought it probably unwise to seek more of a discount, as they would probably never agree amongst each other. Our offer was accepted.
The actual fosse replacement costs were about €11k, two or three years ago in our case.
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The fine does not always stay at the same amount, our warning letter from SPANC (Regards not visible upon inspection) stated the fine could eventually be up to 400% of the original fine if we continued to not prove compliance.
With regard to getting a translation I would start with AI. I have fed chatGPT with 80 PDF pages from gouv.fr, a simple drag and drop, to help with my tax return and was much better informed after. I’m not sure if you can scan the diagnostic, and AI do the character recognition, or whether you need electronic copies. Anyway good luck with the purchase.
There are free apps as well or I think you can do it in Google Docs
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You are too nice George, hit them while they’re down.
My grandchildren adored their grandmother as they all do. Grandmother mentioned something in passing one day and our daughter picked up on it saying ‘that’s not nice grandma’ to which she replied ’ I’m not nice sometimes’ which came as quite a shock, not to me but to our granddaughter.
If ever there is an opportunity to make a cheeky offer on a house and exploit the situation then go for it.
It must be a common trait when your name is John H.
But would you be happy living in house knowing you’d exploited the previous owners?
The owners we bought off lost their 18 yr old son in a car accident just down the only road out of the village. Françoise was desperate to move and it had been on market a while (a neighbour told us when we were looking round village). We under-offered, and could have pushed for more. However that didn’t sit well with us.
A good decision as Jean-Michel has since helped us in so many ways, and alienating them for a bit more money would have been mad.
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I just couldn’t! It probably sounds very old fashioned but it would go against everything drummed into me by the (notorious) school I attended. Unless of course they’ve been a total b@stard, in which case they get everything they deserve. One buyer who was the greediest person I’ve ever come across, tragically found their lawn covered in sewage shortly after they moved in. Karma.
By showing them some kindness, it might repay dividends in future. One of the divorcing couple became very helpful and even offered to sit in our house (when it was a maison secondaire) to await future meter readers (pre Linky). Another buyer let us stay for 10 days in our former house, after sale, as removers were too busy to collect our stuff due to a stamp duty deadline.
You also never know who you’re potentially winding up. Not really knowing the community you’re moving into, you might find that you’ve alienated a key mover and shaker, whose future help and support is not exactly guaranteed if you’ve needlessly crossed swords.
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We were in the process of buying a renter when the Brexit vote took place. The owners wanted to rush the completion before the vote but we declined.
After the (disastrous) vote we reduced our offer citing the effect the vote would have going forward. They weren’t happy but agreed.
Then the house they were moving to was not complete (new build) and they wanted to delay the completion but we said no but they could stay on and rent from us if they wished.
They rented their former house from us for 7 months and were very grateful. Everyone was happy.
So in answer to your question, Yes.
In the end you have to be true to your conscience (assuming you have one) and do what let’s you be at peace. Not everyone does seem to have a clear sense of right and wrong, and then things become much more pointy. Not aimed at anyone in the thread btw so much as a general observation.
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I have been spared in my life from so much angst having sold only one property in that time.
It was the flat in Nottingham when we emigrated here in 1999. We asked two agents to value the place. The first a tired and middle aged man said £20,000 and a young, pretty and enthusiastic vision in a smart mini skirted suit, said £30,000.
Of course we went with ‘Legs’, as we called her and before they had chance to take photos and advertise the place a young man walked into the shop, said this is my range what have you got. He was shown the place immediately and said he would be back but had 2 viewings for the afternoon. He was back within 30 minutes to buy at the asking price because, as he put it ‘I am terrified you will sell it before I could get back’. Job done. No bargaining necessary.
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