Friday 8th June

The French system of buying a house has much to commend it, though it does take a bit longer.  Firstly, after verbally agreeing a price, the estate agent draws up an official offer letter which is signed by both parties, then the vendors usually appoint a Notaire to handle the contract, the purchaser can either use the same Notaire or one of their own choosing.  Either way makes little difference as there is absolutely no adversarial aspect.  The Notaire is there to make sure that the interests of both sides are looked after.  Both parties then sign an initial contract, with a 10 day cooling off period for both sides, and provided the purchaser deposits 10% of the purchase price with the Notaire the sale is legally binding on both sides.  The Notaire does all the searches and informs both sides of any issues arising.  This should take about 6 – 8 weeks, but a longstop date is put into the initial contract and barring any unforeseen circumstances it should happen in that time frame.   The buyer pays the Notaire for all of their work plus taxes and stamp duty, and unlike here, the buyer pays the estate agents fees.

No side can gazump, or throw stones in the road, or change details or threaten to pull out unless such and such, (usually more money) is paid.  The beauty is that once the ten days have passed, provided that you have the money to purchase, you know the house will be yours.  The nightmare of the English system is that as each parties solicitor is only working for their own client’s interests there is inevitably the blame game, and also as both sides are free to walk away at any time before exchange of contracts, one, especially the vendor, can end up paying for surveys and searches and drawing up of contracts without ever being guaranteed of a purchase.  So viva la France, and their much more civilized approach to house-buying.