I know it’s a bit like 'how long is apieve of string ’ but does anyone know all the costs involved in selling a house in France apart from the agent’s fees please.
Also a rough idea of removal cost to the UK (price per cuft) would be a good starting point to working out the best price we can accept from a purchaser.
The seller dosn’t pay anything, its the purchaser who pays. I only paid the bit of TF that was outstanding and that was it. Think you may have to work in m3 for removals. I paid over €5000 from Brest to down here in 66 two and a half years ago so its going to be a lot more than that especially with a couple of lorries and ferrycharges. Suggest you get some quotes from UK removal companies, french ones won’t want the hassle which brexit has caused with paperwork. I just remembered that the Diagnostics report will be down to you to pay for, I paid just under €1000 for a 40+ page report for the purchasers. For a price to sell at you need it valued, I used the local Notaire who dealt with everythng from that to the final acte de vente and the diagnostics and was cheaper than an immobilier. Don’t be too greedy if you get a value and someone offers a few thousand off, you may not get another offer for some time if you need to sell fast. If you have had works done, you need to present the official receipts from the artisans too.
Property sales price depends on numerous things, foremost of which is location. Look up the current prices offered for similar properties in the same area, then consult an immobilier. They will give you a list of related sales expenses.
Removal costs depend on cubic quantity and quality of protective handling.
Thank you Shiba for your very informative reply. We have had an offer which is way below the price quoted which leaves us in a very difficult position. This is why I wanted to make sure I had all expenses covered so if we could stretch to the offer. It is a very cheeky offer and the timescale is quite tight too. I am mentally allowing 15k for the removal plus the same for the agent but wanted to make sure that was all, apart from the DPE re-testing, that I would need to find.
I will contact a couple of UK removal companies to get a ball park figure per cu mt as a guide. Thanks again.
Thanks Susannah. I have a few enquiries to make now. We have an estate agent who priced the property so will check with him any other expenses we may have.
As a seller you will need to pay for the diagnostics to be prepared and depending on the energy rating possibly an Energy Audit.
If you have a septic tank you will have to pay to have that inspected unless it has been done very recently, normally prior to the sale you will have to pay to have this emptied also.
You will also have to provide evidence of chimney having been swept.
Not strictly true. Our house was advertised as seller pays the agent’s fees. Of course, the price will have been adjusted to take that into consideration but that’s another discussion.
I was only speaking from my own personal experience recently. Obviously there are scenarios that are different depending on what the seller and buyer agree to. I did forget to mention the chimney sweep but that is a minor issue and drainage was all included in the diagnostics as it was all mains drainage and not a septic tank etc. End of the day, its upto the seller what offer they take or wait until a better one comes along but you have to weigh up pros and cons in that situation and whether just cutting your loses and being able to move on.
I was (unfortunately) watching an episode of that programme we all love to hate ( A Place you know where etc) recently and found myself getting very cross at people offering a greatly knocked down price as their offer just because “we would like to update the kitchen or put in a new bathroom suite”. To me that is wrong, they saw the place and the seller should not have to fund their dream kitchen or bathroom by accepting a low offer when both things are perfectly presentable and usable and not in a terrible state.
I agree that should not be a reason to expect a discount - such things are an incredibly personal choice - one person’s gorgeous avocado suite is another’s Green Goblin nightmare…
See also the French propensity for “everything wooden must be brown”, and love of mismatched highly patterned wallpaper on all surfaces (including cupboard doors and ceilings) whereas British tastes run more to shades of beige and “if in doubt paint it white”.
I am stereotyping and exaggerating but you get my point.
I thank everyone who has taken the trouble to reply to my post, it has been very helpful.
I think it is a bit unfair to offer a price that is ridiculously low as usually all the details are listed in the sales blurb along with photos. A 5 or 6 percentage drop is acceptable but we we offered a further 12.5% reduction after recently dropping the original price by the same amount. 25% overall is not acceptable by us.
We would like to sell as the house and garden are too big and we are getting older but we have to buy another house in the UK and I don’t want to live in a caravan if that is all we could end up with.
We are hoping for a bit of adjustment to the buyer’s offer which is why I wanted to make sure I had everything covered as far as expenses were concerned.
Removal costs given here are much lower than I had anticipated but of course it depends on how much we abandon or sell here. I will investigate that this afternoon.
Diagnostics are a retest as it was done 20 months ago so that should not be too bad and the agents fees are taken into account as are the fosse and the chimney sweep.
It’s not about fairness, it’s about offering what someone thinks it is worth which, of course, might not align with what the seller thinks it’s worth or, possibly, been advised it’s worth by an estate agent keen to get something on the books. Sorry, but I’ll really cynical about estate agent valuations when they’re trying to get a seller to sign on the dotted line.
Someone might be interested in the house, as described, just not at the price asked.
Sooner or later, one of the buyer or seller will be proved right.
That’s true, I suppose but still annoying when you go through the endless questions, traipsing in and out of the house many times and then find they have no intention of coming anywhere near the asking price. They either like it (which they said they did very much) or they didn’t and were just trying it on. I had no expectations at the start having been there before, so have not read more into it. Maybe the immobilier did but I am naturally very sceptical and am not fooled easily. We were told that our price was €15k short of a favourable decision but they offered €50k, less a bit of a difference that makes the decision a no brainer.
I am putting it down to another experience and next time will not pull out all the stops.
At least I can now get close to a ball park figure for our costs etc which will make it easier to come to minimum sale price for the future.