Nightmare buying French house

Good link and can recommend Fabien as we have just availed ourselves of his services for our house insurance on our recent purchase…EXCEPT… At no time has the Notaire ever asked to see evidence of this insurance being in place!!!

We only had an Acte to sign (no Compromis) and all during the process in his office, the question of the insurance was never raised. Acte signed and sealed, handshakes all round then a very pleasant walk around Monestiers before champers back at the new home!!!

French bureaucracy moves in mysterious ways…

C

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Thanks for the recommendation. It’s actually good to hear of other people’s experiences good and bad! We have just heard that the EDF man turned up at the property today despite cancelling him once we knew sale wasn’t completing.
Luckily we have the cancellation email!
It was to fit a smart meter !
Anyway we have heard now we can sign next Friday and we were coming across anyway for a weekend. Seller emailed us not the Notaire and said Friday 26 had been agreed which is perfect as we travel and arrive in the morning. We then get an email from the Notaire and says 30 oct would be better for him. I’m back in the Uk for work by then.Won’t even squeeze us in on the Friday or Monday. Getting really hacked off now. I work in a busy hospital so needed back but will have to call in sick as this is so important.
Even after explaining my situation they have suggested another date in Nov :tired_face::tired_face:

Hi Carrie,
If you wish to still buy the house, then I would keep the money with the Notaire. You won’t get much in the way of interest on the funds in the UK and would be subject to fluctuation in the exchange rate.
Regarding the transfer of the French property to next of kin, that could take a while. A friend’s wife died a few years ago and they were owners of a holiday home here. The Notaire here took over a year to complete the paperwork regarding inheritance of part of the property by their daughter.
I think that you might be entitled to the rental cost being deducted from the sale price. If I’m wrong, someone will correct me.
You state the house is a beautiful one and I’m sure that it is. However, France is a place where you will always see a prettier property! You also mention it is a renovation. I’m sure that you have done your homework, but renovations are notoriously expensive unless you can do much of the work yourself. We are looking to move and have looked at three ruins so far that will just be money pits. We also looked at a house that on the face of it looked nice, but on further inspection of the basement revealed quite a lot of woodworm, wet rot and a supporting joist held up with an acro prop. I do know of someone that that a few years ago brought over a container of building materials from the UK. It cost them £2000 for the transport, but saved them £16000 on their build.
Good luck.

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That’s really helpful. We are hoping to do some work ourselves . We have already spotted woodworm in one of the floors!
I agree there are plenty of lovely places. This house is on the edge of a golf course and my fiancé is an avid golfer so perfect location. I do play but can see I’ll have to busy myself doing other things.I’m hoping to run a B&B for the health conscious as unable to work as dietitian in France, otherwise will fly back and forth to UK for work!

One of my best finds here was the local sawmill. Timber there is much cheaper than you can buy in a builders merchants. Plus, if you give the measurements of your project, you pay for what you buy and there is little waste. Sometimes, they will do a deal for cash too! You might be surprised how cheap oak can be.
Extra’s from there can be free sawdust or wood shavings plus cheap firewood in the form of a roll of off cuts 2.4m long totalling about a stere or more for €12!
One of the best buy’s for me was a small tipping trailer (2m x 1.35m) bought new 12 years ago for €750. That equated to £500 at the time. It has paid for itself many times over with trips to the decheterie etc. It’s now rather tatty, but has lots of life left in it. UK prices might be cheaper.

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So update with good and bad news. We were told at short notice that we can sign our Acte de vente on Friday 26 oct as we pushed that we are available this weekend . Now we get an email saying no one in office speaks English on that day and we have to bring a translator. Is this right that we can’t sign without one?? We have already gone through everything and know what we are buying . We know it would be prudent to have someone to help us but Our french is limited .we agreed to go with our sellers Notaire as one speaks good English . They have asked us for name and address of our translator. We have English friends with good french but they are busy . Is anyone fluent and can translate at short notice? We are near Castillion and Notaire is in Pujols near Castillion la Battielle and meeting is at 4pm. We will pay for your time.

Doesn’t have to be fluent but some understanding and doesn’t have to be an official translator !

When we bought our house we only went to the first signing and had power of attorney for the second so didn’t even go to france.
As you say if you have had the compris explained then the Acte de vente shouldn’t be very different. (I wait to be corrected).

Hope you get sorted.

From my recollection of the acte de vente the Notaire has to assure himself that you have understood and do understand the conditions of sale and purchase, including any last-minute variations in or developments of the contract.

Even if he speaks perfect English he will address these in French (as they are rendered in the acte de vente) and, as you aren’t conversant with the language he will need you to have a translator chosen by you, on your own responsibilty for her/his accuracy, not the Notaire’s. This is the law.

It is or can be a slightly intimidating experience as a lot is at stake, and there can be no room for misunderstanding. Our Notaire was very careful and conscientious throughout the whole process, and we are grateful for his professionalism to this day. Hope all goes smoothly and agreeably for you too! :grinning:,

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So presumably we gave our notaire permission to act for us?

As I understand the Notaire’s part in proceedings, he acts for both parties with impeccable and irreproachable neutrality, that is the nature of his role, one which is jealously guarded.

He/she ensures that the process configures the law with not the slightest deviation to the detriment of any party to the seller or the buyer, or to other parties who may have past, current or future interest in or title to the property, under French law. It is quite unlike English law, and this is true about much in France, and needs to be taken thoroughly on board by anyone who wants to live here. That’s why I think, this forum is known as Survive France. There’s much to learn and adjust to, and in my own experience the sooner the better.

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Thank you all, totally understand needing a translator . We thought maybe our friends could sit in with us but think they are worried they’re not fluent. It’s something we should have considered but we assumed the Notaire had perfect English but he’s in Paris on that day and someone else is standing in!

We didn’t have the benefit of a translator - though the estate agent spoke pretty good English.

We’d exchanged a lot of email with them in French so I think that they assumed my spoken French was better than it actually is.

However I’d been through the Acte de Vente with a fine toothed comb, dictionary, WordReference and Google so I was pretty comfortable with what I was signing (and we’d engaged a bi-lingual solicitor in the UK as well).

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@Roucaud - good to see progress.

We have done this twice, once with the estate agent who acted as translator and once without, the Notaire had someone from their office dit in who could help but it wasn’t really needed.

Could your estate agent help - I am sure they would if you hinted that the sale may fall through otherwise.

Which town is your Notaire in?

We did start by using Google translate to translate each page so we knew what was written.

We have been using google translate for emails and has got us to this stage as been really useful :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
We have now got someone for Friday for €75 , the daughter of a friend but she’s bilingual and has translated before so reasonable as was expecting much more but hoping Notaire is not expecting a certified translator .

It is a private sale . The sellers had a huge sign displayed on the hill but it had already sold . Sellers then contacted us when it went up for sale again. We talk via google translate but it’s been very good.
The Notaire is in Pujols near castillon la bataille and they are very polite and professional but we’ve just been unlucky with the progression since we first agreed the sale. Looks like now it will progress as found someone bilingual and fingers crossed happens on Friday :pray:_emphasized text_

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We have bought in gardegan but Notaire is in Pugols near castillon