Cheers @Brian_Wheeler
So what caused the misunderstanding? I could understand if an application to convert an agricultural building into a residential building had been blocked because many communes across France have stopped allowing that but a house is a house and although some changes need special permissions, or might even not be allowed, restoration and renovation is usually straightforward.
OK, still saga goes on, the planning guy is still not convinced we can go ahead, and now we have put forward our proposed layout to him he says we wonāt be able to use him as itās now over the 150sqM limit so will require an architect. Thatās fine I think working with an architect will in the long run probably save us money and stop us making expensive mistakes. But the planning guy says we should and must bottom out the situation with the CU situation before spending several thousand euros on an architect. Heās putting us in touch with a lady who does this stuff, all the time who will go to to see the Marie and the planning department in ErneĆ© and confirm exactly what is what.
Then we can either move forward with the project or confirm we canāt and we will have to sell the field and house to the local farmer as a cow shed. He tried to buy it off the previous owner but due to a feud she wouldnāt sell it to him. So hopefully worse case scenario we can at least still move it on and find something else. Weād be sad to do so as we love this place but if thatās what we have to do well so be it.
So sadly our Mayenne adventure is at an end we canāt get planning to do the project we want so we have instructed an agent and are selling up. Itās not been an easy decision to make but we know itās the right option for us with this property.
The adventure isnāt over as we have been house hunting again already, but we are going to take on less of a renovation project and something that needs more of a cosmetic facelift this time that we can actually move into, live in and enjoy now still before we make the permanent move over. We will keep you posted on the next purchase.
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That is exactly the case Dusty the house is quite small and yes we can renovate that as it stands but for it to work for us we needed to make the barn part of the house to give us the additional accommodation we needed we canāt get that because of the changes regarding barn conversions now in rural agricultural areas so the projects a non starter for us now so we are selling it on and finding a new project.
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Thatās really sadā¦Iāve been following your journey since the outsetā¦
Hope you find a purchaser quicklyā¦
Brianā¦ it might be an idea for you (personally) to speak with the local Mairie of any possible property, next time around. Get simple questions translated and to hand - covering the essential things that would make or break a purchase decision.
Canāt really get my head around what happened in your Mayenne adventure - major misunderstandings somewhere along the line or something important missed-outā¦ since you obviously would not have bought it in the first place without feeling confident.
Ah wellā¦ best of luck. There are loads of properties about - brush up on your French and (as I say) get the important things translated and offer a selection of responsesā¦
I call this a āfoolās guideā and used a 4-language one in UK where my firm had lots of foreign visitors with little/no English. Each question had a variety of answers and made it so easy for folk on both sides of the language-barrier to understand one another.
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Hi Stella, we arenāt going to take on a full renovation project this time so hopefully will be much simpler in future. But we have learned much from our folly this time round and we have a good team around us now of planning experts, builders, Fosse installers, etc etc to guide and coach us and have made some good friends who come with us and help us raise any questions etc. Our everyday french is improving but the technical french still has a long way to go. I have a great book now which is a pictorial dictionary which has been very useful for this purpose to. So hopefully can get by in the future.
We have found a property we really love and want to view but we canāt get the French agent to respond to our requests. We have contacted them three times now by email and text, he reads them but doesnāt respond and we wrote to him in French so it wasnāt like we didnāt try. Will just have to be patient and hope he gets back to us eventually.
Put a note through the door - it worked for us and saved agents fees.
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Ooh great idea Matt thank you. If I can find the postal address for it I might just write to them. They could be keen as they are set to pay the agents fees.
You just reflect the non-existence of fees in the offer so that they receive enough to convince them to sell.
Is the house in an area that a fellow Survive France member could pop a note through the door?
Top fettle! Have you moved yet?
Normally the buyer pays the agents fees.
From our purchases the total sale price of a house is agreed indirectly with the vendor via the agent - the total sale price includes the house price which will go to the vendor and the fees which will go to the agent - the buyer pays the total sale price.
Eg - Total Sale Price = ā¬109,000
House Price = ā¬100,000
Agents Fees = ā¬9,000
If a direct approach is made to a vendor without approaching an agent the vendor may well accept the house price of ā¬100,000 as they will receive what they were always going to receive and the buyer has saved ā¬9,000.
Ultimately the buyer pays the agents fees - but they are normally wrapped up in what the buyer offers for the house - in above example including an agent the offer would be for ā¬109,000 which then gets apportioned between vendor & agent - so agent fees are not added on top of the offer.
It would be good to hear the latest from Brian. What an account! Iāve just read it for the first time. Iāve ordered the pictorial french book - looks useful. Hope Brianās had better luck.
The agent, whether they be immobilier or notaire, has to state their fees (amount/percentage) on any advertising or fiche. Fees can no longer be āwrapped upā or lost in an overall selling price.
Therefore it is perfectly clear what monies are going to the vendor and what to the agent/notaire.
It is a common misconception that buying through a notaire saves agents fees. This is not true as the notaire will apply their own fees for the sale in addition to their fees for processing the sale (conveyancing). The latter are controlled and determined by the state.
Any agent or notaire who does not isolate their sales fee as a seperate amount is breaking the law and can be pulled up on it.
Any fees, whether they be with an immobilier or a notaire can be negotiated - or at least an attempt can be made to negotiate.
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The fees are separated but the headline total sale price is the figure that stands out on a listing - the fees are not a secret and can be avoided if buying direct from the vendor.
Ooopsā¦ it all dependsā¦
If a property is listed with an Agentā¦ there are cases where the Agent can still demand the fee, even if the sale has been privately agreedā¦
this happened locally and the Vendor and Buyer agreed to pay 50/50
We have sold our property above it was just too big a project, but are 3/4 of the way through buying another, a magnificent Maison Dāmaitre. We were due to complete this Thursday but itās been pushed back, but once we have completed Iāll put up a new post of what we have bought and our new adventure itās not the property I was trying to find out the owner for though. That turned out to have very misleading photographs and was actually a wreck.
Not always most agents do that, but itās the sellers choice, if they wish to they can offer to pay the fees to make the property more attractive which it the case I mentioned above was clearly because it had been some years since the photos were taken and the state of the property now so weāre hoping to shift it on.