Does anybody know what happens to a house that is in such a poor condition that the inheritors decline to inherit it ? Does ownership revert to the state, and if so, then at what level ?
I assumed so but wasn’t sure so just googled it… Seems it’s referred to as a “succession vacante”.
There’s a lot of info about it here… Effectuer une démarche concernant une succession vacante | impots.gouv.fr
I’m supposed to be asleep but I’m now going to look at the properties for sale instead 
Thanks very much. The link is very helpful.
I bought such a “property” which is where we now live comprised 1½ hectares of various buildings and a small wood in a separate parcel.
The history is that the previous owner did not pay his property taxes and owed a substantial amount when he died. The inheritors declined to inherit as a consequence as a result that the property fell into decline over a period of some 40 years. One part of the property was a huge barn directly alongside a public pathway and the local commune were forced to take action to make it safe. The main house had already all but collapsed and as it too was abutting the roadway, was made safe and partially demolished.
Eventually, as I say, some 40 years later, the property and terrain was auctioned off as a whole for the princely sum of 10k€ to the next door neighbour and we bought it from them 10 years later for 19k€. The proceeds of the first sale were used to pay off the outstanding debt.
We had no problems with the Mairie obtaining permissions to clear the whole site in preparation for a new build wood frame bungalow - where we now live. The site was an eyesore and although hidden from the main view in a discrete semi circle of 3 properties, it really needed to be repurposed and brought back into use.
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Similarly with a property in the heart of our village.
The Owner died in secure-hospital/care and left debts… heirs could pay the debts and claim the property, or do the other thing…
They visited, were horrified at the state of the property and simply threw in the towel… The subsequent auction raised just a few thousand and that went to the State and presumably the debts were then considered “cleared”.
In a fit of madness, we put in a sealed-bid as per the instructions of the Acting-Notaire… but never heard anything more. It’s now a super gîte complex, something which we would never have been able to do… and I’m quite relieved that we didn’t “win”.
In the case of our neighbour (who have since moved on) they attended the auction in person with the intention of only acquiring a small part of the whole but they were the only ones there to bid. The auctioneer told them it was all or nothing, so they bought the lot - or rather the husband did and only told his wife when he got home! As a young family with 2 kids, they had to borrow the money from the bank to honour the bid so our purchase from them paid off that loan. I guess they still came out of it in “profit”, if only just! They did nothing to the land or property in the 10 years they had it other than occasionally hack away at the grass and ronce and the other neighbour kept a goat on the land in a small wire construction close to their boundary.
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Love hearing about this. How long were you looking before you found it?
The land was advertised on a scrap of paper in the Mairie. We probably took a year to pluck up the courage to respond to it by phone (as it was obviously hand written in the French style) but we needn’t have worried. The couple selling it were both local teachers and spoke reasonable English to our poor French. It mentioned the lieu-dit where it was located and we took some time to look for it - we already lived in the commune - and as it was so overgrown, it was difficult to locate but we eventually managed to do so. Once we established contact, everything happened very quickly. We used their notaire for the purchase - a very upright military style chap with a handlebar moustache - my type of lawyer who also spoke good English.
My memory of the final signing is with some amusement - he twitched his moustache and declared “at this point messieur/dame I am required to 'and over the key but here there is no key as it’s a ruine”
It didn’t have a roof either…
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What a brilliant chain of events. Thanks for sharing.
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