“Information about the risks to which this property is exposed is available on the Géorisques site:”
Does that usually mean Mines/subsidence?
That can be one thing, but there are loads. It’ll also tell you about floodzones, the water table, earthquakes, radon gas, old factories that did dirty work, etc… My house has about 8 or 9 different known risks.
You can just put your address in here: https://www.georisques.gouv.fr/
2 Likes
thank you.. yeh minutes after posting I found the site… dont know exact address, but suppose it will give me an indication of the area 
1 Like
It’s a standard wording for pretty much every advertised property.
Ours refers to clay soil and the risk that it swells and dries out …
Useful to explain any cracks in the walls, but your property isn’t being singled out!
on a slightly related note… Estate Agents, are French ones as devious as UK ones ? any to watch out for ?
Not in my limited experience.
Met a good half dozen. The one we bought through was excellent; others were fine to good, whether independent or chain.
1 Like
Personally I find the ones that cater more specifically to anglophones tend to be over priced.
Other than that they are only as honest as they have to be, so buyer beware. Do your homework on local sales prices (you can see exact sale prices for the area here
Consulter les dernières transactions immobilières (demande de valeurs foncières) | Service Public )
And triple check everything, so don’t be rushed. We didn’t turn on all the taps because agent was not dawdling, which was a huge mistake!
3 Likes
Not in my limited experience, either. The man who sold us this house back in 1993, was sent by the inheritance notaire to value it. He made the valuation and refused to accept a fee. 
Hmmm when they’re bad, they’re very very bad though. And occasionally you hear of them being in a ring with, say, a corrupt notaire.
When I bought this new house in 2022, the Notaire presented me with a separate tome of all the risks for the region for just about everything you could think of which they have to do now. When you sign the compromise any known imminent risks should also be mentioned. As this is a flood plain obviously there are pages and pages of facts and figures to past problems and also new anti-flood projects that have/will be implemented over the coming years. On Tuesday evening my son in the next commune near to the sea had some experts round, organised by the Mairie and department to advise on flood prevention. The consensus is that within the next 50 years or so, his commune will become subject to rising levels of the Med. Now, to show how stupid these so called experts were, they advised him to have his big fuse box moved up into the mezzanine as the house is a plain-pied and said box is a couple of meters up on the garage wall out of the way. So, said my son, what good would that do when the Linkys for the street are all outside about a foot off the ground and if water gets as high as the garage mounting, we will be long gone as will the house and the grid supply - he was flabbergasted they needed to point this out.