Sadly, due to a family emergency, we need to sell our French “Maison Secondaire”. Does anyone have any advise on:
*Is it best to appoint an English speaking solicitor as well as the notaire to oversee the process
*Do we have to have all the diagnostics done before we find a buyer and if so, how long do the diagnostic certificates last (worried it might take months to sell)
*We may need to install a new Fosse Septique - any ideas of how much this might cost for a 3 bed property
*Can we ask the new buyer to do this work after he purchases property given that this will be taken into account when agreeing a purchase price
Sorry for all these questions but I know that there is a lot of experience and knowledge on this forum so any advice would be greatly appreciated - many thanks.
I see no role at all for an English solicitor in the process of selling a property in France. What advantage do you see?
The diagnostics have to be done before putting the property on the market. Many companies seem prepared to redo the reports for free if the house takes so long to sell that they run out, or in any case I have never heard of anybody having to pay twice over.
You can leave the fosse for the buyer to sort out.
Is there a reason you think you need an english speaking solicitor? Notaire’s are indépendant public officials, so work for both parties.
You should have the diagnostics done before the house goes on the market. But speak to the estate agent (or notaire that you plan to use). The diagnostics should also identify problems with the fosse, so can then get a devis to bring it up to standard and either get it done or take the amount off the asking price (amd make this clear in advert)
If you need to sell quickly, be VERY realistic about what you will get and don’t rely on the UK market because of current exchange rates. For example, friends recently sold quickly and easily to Parisians (but they can be fussy and demanding). Make sure your place looks pristine for any photos and thereafter for viewings.
In my experience as an agent I recommend that you do not employ an English solicitor.
As others have said the notaires are independent, work to a state regulated barometre of fees and frequently act for both parties in an effort to expedite the process and avoid dossiers passing from one office to another. As they frequently seem to be, lets say somewhat slow, this does not neccessarily work.
Whenever a UK solicitor is involved the situation seems to become more complicated, stalling on numerous minor points, and the cynic in me tends to think that this is usually done to milk the fees.
I sold earlier this year and you would be throwing money away engaging a UK lawyer who actually has no say or anything to do with french notaire legal stuff. The Notaire in France will oversee everything for you from the moment yyou have a buyer ready to sign the compromis. The diagnostic is done some weeks before you sign the compromis and after you find a buyer who would like the property and expect to pay around €500- €600 but it is a very involved document (mine took three hours or more to visit and go through all the required items and the finished report was very many pages). A new Fosse Septique would depend on what the diagnostics/SPANC require and can cost anything from €8000 upwards depending on work required but you can actually bargain with the price and the purchasers and they get the work done, a friend did that and dropped the price €10k to cover it! Don’t be greedy, get the Notaire to value the property and give a realistic price and an acceptable price and remember that things that you may have replaced never really feature in the selling price to recoup the spending. I did all the negotiating, signing and both selling and buying Notaire stuff all by myself and you can always take along someone who speaks english to explain to you. As its a holiday home and you are not tax residents you may have to pay a profit tax on what you have made since you intitially bought the property but the Notaire will deal with that for you. Remember too, the buyer pays the Notaire not you!
If you speak French well, will be in France throughout the sale process and the sale is straightforward I would agree with the advice not to engage a UK solicitor.
If the family emergency is going to be a heavy burden, especially if you need to return to the UK immediately because of it - then it might be worthy of consideration.
We used Heslopp-Platt, OK but not cheap and our purchase was very straightforward so I’m still not sure how things would have been different if we hadn’t bothered.
Thank you very much for all this great advice - I have just seen adverts in French Property papers suggesting we get English speaking French lawyers to oversee the transactions. It is also suggested in my ancient book “Buying a house in France” so it worried me a bit. Good news/suggestion about the diagnostics being paid only once. Take care and thanks again.
Thanks Shiba - we got two agents to value property, one said 200K euros and the other 150K so you are right not to be greedy as we will prob go with the lower valuation agent as we feel this is more realistic. The agent gave me an estimate of the Notaires fees but I assumed we had to pay them?
They would be irrelevant because only notaires handle property transactions here. I expect those publications get kickbacks from English property lawyers they have frightened readers into getting.
For selling I would have thought you’d only need to make sure you can work with the notaire. It’s their job to transfer the property legally and to ensure all taxes are paid and requirements for the sale such as termite reports (if needed locally) environmental reports etc, are met. They are an official of the state but can be jolly helpful (though some are inefficient).
For buying I could just about imagine English-speaking help could be useful for some - but that would be an English-speaking notaire, not a lawyer. In France notaires do property transactions and they can’t legally be done without them, and lawyers don’t do conveyancing - that’s the notaire’s job, as well as a lot of parts of family law. Lawyers do other stuff.
When I bought my house in Vire [14500] a certified English translator had been booked by the notaire and was present at the proceedings. I had no say in this. The notaire arranged it, although my agent, present also, was fluent in English [married to an Englishman, years of running business in UK].
As has been said, the notaire runs the show and has also been mentioned, the process can be rather slow if holiday periods intervene.
Notaires can, quite correctly, insist on a translator if they don’t think your French is adequate. Most often for buying a house, but can be either. They don’t want any future comeback with the excuse that something wasn’t understood.
