Part of what makes France France, and has led to the quality of life we appreciate stems from a protection for work and workers. To me it is an immense shame that rights are being eroded.
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Well, yes I mostly agree - I think the desire to make sure that people are suitably qualified for the services that they offer is laudable and when you engage (eg) a builder or (to a lesser extent) a plumber in the UK you have no idea how they learned their trade. At least gas & electrics is regulated (in fact to a tighter extent than in France in some ways).
But I don’t think anyone on SF would claim it is easy to get an artisan to do a devis, or the work in some cases and rogues abound despite the rules, so it’s not a perfect system (OK, I agree nowhere has one of those).
BTW - there are about 7,500 Notaires in France, there are ~7000 law firms in the UK who offer conveyancing services, most will have more than one person actually doing the residential property work.
Notaires do more than conveyancing here too! But I would never argue than France is not a paper heavy county! However as public officials they are involved in all sorts, and ours even sorted out our assurance vie.
But you seem to be saying it is better to have fewer worse paid and overworked legal professionals?
(We have never actually had a problem getting an artisan to provide a devis and do the work. But we accept that the devis will arrive when it arrives, and the work will be done when it is done unless specified. Our plumber knows if I say “this is urgent” he will be there within the hour, but if I don’t he will do the work when he can.)
You can say that again, “normalement” still rules in our neck of the woods. However, after much chopping and changing we now have a responsive plumber and electrician, but it’s more because we’ve become friends with them than they feel any sense of professional urgency. The only stress free thing to do is to accept that things will be done in due course. Well maybe 95% will be, the final 5%, who knows?
Generally speaking artisans will be with you in a flash if it’s a genuine emergency. If it’s just a normal job they usually have a first come first served system as you might imagine and if they are any good they will be booked up months ahead.
I wouldn’t trust an artisan who isn’t, frankly.
You can of course add that… And I’ll respectfully disagree 
I’m not taking issue with the system (which is why I’m trying to understand the nuances).
I’m taking issue with someone who is not responding at all but is contacting the agent.
My take so far is that the more effective approach will be to just deal with the agent and make it their problem to ensure the notaire does the necessary.
For example, we want to ensure certain things are stipulated in the compromis. I’ll just tell the agent they need to make sure that’s done.
By the way, the immobiliere’s first comment to us after we chose the notaire was “I hope they’ll be responsive”. I don’t think it’s fair to characterise this as a Brit not being willing to adapt.
I’m not quite sure you can get from what I said to that conclusion, certainly it was not my intent.
There is a balance to be struck - I am not sure either country gets it right.
I think the headline of this topic says it all
“Tips on getting service from a notaire”.
- A notaire is there to serve the state, not the buyer.
You may well get more but if given, not demanded.
- Any topic with an issue about “getting service” from a person, profession or organisation (particularly a government organisation) here in France, is pretty much doomed.
Here in France, people and organisations resist any implication, even inadvertent, that they are “servants”. “Service” or “serving” if wanted, seems sometimes to be unfairly conflated in the mind from which service is being pursued against unknown or apparent obstacles, with being considered a “servant”, which won’t be accepted. Pushing directly to ‘receive service’ will make things worse. However asking for advice on something, or perhaps ask for help or information, seems to help, presumably avoiding the “servant” risk.
I’ve overstated it but it seems to apply all sorts of dealings with almost anyone, not just notaires.
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