How to purchase,or buy, a house in France

How to buy a house in France?

The country of wine and good food is also the country of lot of paper and burocraty. But don't mind it is quite simple to buy a house even in France.

1^st step: The visit:

You saw your dream house and contacted immediately the agent of Millesime Patrimoine to ask him to schedule a visit for this beautiful, gorgeous and character house flooded by the sun of the South of France, in this marvelous area, the Pyrenees Orientales.

The work-hard agent schedules a visit as soon as possible and you meet him. He asks you to sign a form called “bon de visite”. The agent is bound by law to make you sign this form which is a kind of contract because as well you sign it; you can’t buy the house directly to the owner: you are bound to buy it by agency.

The visit satisfies you and you intend to buy these wonderful mas, lost in the mountain where nobody could disturb you at the tea-time anymore. Well, let’s go to step 2.

2sd step: “Le compromis de vente”:

You found an agreement for the price and now the owner and you will sign another form called « compromis de vente » (Preliminary sales contract). This document bound the owner to sell the house to you and you are bound to buy it, at the price and conditions written.

You have 7 days to retract you offer since the date of signature.

The conditions :

In this document the owner and more often the buyer specify some conditions. It can be conditions about works to do, authorizations to obtain, or in the main case conditions of getting money from buyer’s bank.

If the condition is a loan, you have to prove that your bank refused the loan to cancel the purchase.

A date is scheduled to obtain the loan. After this date, the owner can cancel the purchase. The buyer has to prove he accomplished all the necessary to obtain his loan, otherwise he could pay "le dépôt de garantie" .

"le dépôt de garantie":

Usually the buyer pay a “dépôt de garantie” (a deposit as guarantee) of 5% to 10% of the price. If the purchase goes at the end, the final price is reduced from this deposit.

If the buyer cancels the purchase however all the conditions are fulfilled, he loses the deposit.

If he doesn’t get the loan (or if one condition is not fulfill) the deposit is reimbursed.

3^rd step: le notaire:

The real estate give a copy of this document to each part and send the original form to the "notaire" with some other document he has to ask you : identity card and family records book (or document which prove the marriage and the marriage contract).

The “notaire” is not a public servant but he’s the only one who can take care of a real estate purchase.

The real estate agency sends the “compromis de vente” to the «notaire». It can be one «notaire» or two (one for the owner and one for the buyer).

After several weeks, some very long weeks indeed, the «notaire» call everybody: owner, buyer and real estate agent to come to his office for the holly signature of the “Acte authentique” which definitively make you the owner of these superb Catalan mas in real stones and wood.

Bad step: the price:

How the definitive price is calculated?

“Le prix net vendeur” or the amount for the owner

“la commission d’agence”: the real estate fee, about 5%, but the price presented on agencies are always including fees.

“les frais de notaire” : the notary fees, about 7% (no negotiation is possible, the law decides the amount)

The bottle of champagne you are invited to offer the poor real estate agent who worked hard and need some drink to gain strength.

Special cases:

Sometime you have to obtain some preliminary license to buy your house: often is the “permis de construire” or license to build something.

· It can be the house if you just buy the land without anything on it.

· It can be the enlargement of the house if you need more space because of your 20 children.

· It can be outbuildings like a garage, boxes for horses, or a swimming-pool.

This license can be a condition to purchase: you have to write it on the “compromis de vente”, otherwise you are bound to buy even you don’t obtain the license.

Different land:

Mayor defines categories of land he has in his constituency. Some land is devoted to agriculture, other to trade and other housing. Some can be a mix.

It is a shortcut because it more complicated but the mayor have to defines too if the land are floodable or not, and to evaluate the risk of fire.

Depending on the risk of fire and flood the land can be declared “non-building land” : since, nobody can built anything in it but some boxes for horses sometimes or a barn, or grange, or something like that, just for agriculture.

If you built something forbidden on this type of land, mayor can obtain a judgment to destroy it…Even if it is your main home in Pyrenees Orientals.

Moreover it could very difficult to have electricity on the forbidden home because the French Electricity provider (EDF) cannot connect their wire to the house.

Summary :

- The visit

- Le compromis de vente

- Le notaire

- The price

- Special cases