Selling property in France experience

[CarreraLightweightRacing]

At the time I bought I believe there were 2 rules for renters:

1- Unfurnished: they have a 3 year notice period
2-Furnished: Only 1 year notice

For this reason I fully furnished the place so that it gave me options.

I'll give the website mentioned above a try

[smifffymoto]

Options unless it's winter.

[paulwirral]

Oh well , I completed the sale of my house on Monday morning ! There's a thread on the homes and garden section if anyone's interested . If anyone else is selling up over there just be aware the notaries seem to be somewhat reluctant to release the funds once you've signed .
Luckily I was ready for this and I stayed on in France for a few days and ended up going back to the notaries office a few times to insist the transfer was done !
With reference to the rental comments above , a French husband of a girl I know down there rents a few houses out , it took him 3 years without any rental income to evict one tenant !

[YankeePorker]

paulwirral said:

Oh well , I completed the sale of my house on Monday morning ! There's a thread on the homes and garden section if anyone's interested . If anyone else is selling up over there just be aware the notaries seem to be somewhat reluctant to release the funds once you've signed .
Luckily I was ready for this and I stayed on in France for a few days and ended up going back to the notaries office a few times to insist the transfer was done !
With reference to the rental comments above , a French husband of a girl I know down there rents a few houses out , it took him 3 years without any rental income to evict one tenant !

Yep, the legal protection given to a tenant in France allows them to really take the piss if they know how to play the game. With friends I have an investment property near Paris, big family house converted into 10 studio flats. We rent out as much as possible to foreign students, and they have always been good for the rent. Last few years we've had less students and had to rent out to French tenants to keep the studios full - they have been a pain in the arse!

Signed the contract for our house sale in France 2 weeks ago. Painful loss, ripped a chunk out of future retirement funds, but will be happy to not have to worry about it anymore. It was a nice place to live.....

[Perik Omo]

paulwirral said:

. If anyone else is selling up over there just be aware the notaries seem to be somewhat reluctant to release the funds once you've signed .
Luckily I was ready for this and I stayed on in France for a few days and ended up going back to the notaries office a few times to insist the transfer was done ! !

I was wondering about that and was going to enquire how soon after signing I can get the cash. We are getting closer to an offer I think as some folks who came a couple of weeks ago are flying over for a second visit next week, it's probably going to come down to how much we'll drop!!

I'm interested in time to get the cash as we want to buy a forward contract for the currency and will need to know the end date.

[paulwirral]

Perik Omo said:

I was wondering about that and was going to enquire how soon after signing I can get the cash. We are getting closer to an offer I think as some folks who came a couple of weeks ago are flying over for a second visit next week, it's probably going to come down to how much we'll drop!!

I'm interested in time to get the cash as we want to buy a forward contract for the currency and will need to know the end date.

This is the second time I've sold a property over there , the way it goes is the notaire is little more than a tax collector , they do the calculations and can tell you in advance what balance you will receive. I think it's up to you to argue with the tax office if you think it's wrong . In my case I paid a lot but it was less than I expected . Try to include a sum for fixtures and fittings if you can as you won't be taxed on this , obviously keep it real though .
As for receiving the proceeds , in hind sight I should have agreed a cheque on completion, as it was they said that the money would be transferred to my French account within 48 hours , when I asked the person that does the transfers was off that week so I was told I would have to wait . All I did was tell them it was to fund another property in England that was due to complete on Friday so I needed the money there and then to avoid extra charges ! It wasn't but it seemed to do the trick as they managed .
They should re emburse you straight away as they have the cleared funds in their account but apparently it's common practise to hold them as long as possible .
If you are proceeding I would make sure it's agreed with the notarie in advance that the balance is paid by cheque there and then on competition .
Good luck

[Perik Omo]

Our place is registered under an SCI so we have audited accounts for all the expenditure the only problem is that if the notaire wants all the invoices too then we've got a problem as our first accountant was a bit of a pain, he was based in Limoges and all was well for the first 5 years or so then he started to get bigger clients down Toulouse way so he ditched us and told us that he was closing the Limoges office and moving to Toulouse so OK we went and found another accountant and this is where we hit a problem. When we told him that we'd actually found another accountant he started get all ar*sy and then wouldn't communicate with the new accountant or us, just wouldn't respond to emails or letters and when he finally sent us back all our original documents we found half of them missing, presumably he'd lost them during his move from his quite frankly chaotic office, some quite major invoices among them and after a couple of years we just gave up with him as there was just no communication at all. As I said we have all the audited accounts although the new accountant has noted that the previous accounts were done correctly but he hasn't seen the original invoices as they have been lost, he did go through everything with a fine tooth comb though so everything should be OK although you never can tell where the notaire is concerned and just hoping that the filed accounts are enough to prove expenditure ( some of the original tradesmen/companies have long since disappeared or retired/stopped trading so no hope of getting replacement invoices). The other thing is that the SCI owes us a shedload of money that we provided in the form of loans and the sale price is far, far less than the outstanding loans so not sure what happens in that case either but we're hoping that it's something like selling price less original purchase cost less loans outstanding so no profit gained (it's something like a 300k negative figure at the moment plus this years costs).

[paulwirral]

I didn't get any relief from materials even with invoices , the materials must be bought and work done by registered French trades people . You may be lucky with your accounts though. In your position I'd find a notaries now and get them on the case , explain everything and let them get on with it . Your buyer uses the same notarie anyway and if they are English they'll probably appreciate the ground work , but they'll not be impressed that they have to pay the notarie !
You'll no doubt be aware that you need the spanc drain inspection and energy report .

[Perik Omo]

Yes, all the reports have been done in the last 15 months so all that stuff is in place. As soon as the offer comes in (if it does!) we will go and see the notaire that set up the SCI for us.

[harrycovert]

I`ve put this on the market in your opinion is it priced to sell?

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/overseas-property/prope...

Only got it with a couple of local agents at the moment.

[paulwirral]

harrycovert said:

I`ve put this on the market in your opinion is it priced to sell?

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/overseas-property/prope...

Only got it with a couple of local agents at the moment.

It looks cheap , but !
Is there a reason , work wise , for anyone French to move there ? It's a big house and the French tend to scratch their heads at our English mentality of buying a big house without having family to fill it full time . They tend to buy smaller , easy to run houses .
And remember, there's a lot of French people in France who buy houses because they need to for work and life purposes . A lot of English people in France limit their market to the English , Dutch market for some reason.

[harrycovert]

A couple of valid obsevations. We bought it in 2002 as a project to make a gite capable of sleeping ten people but had a change of plan in 2006 when it was finished. We got an offer on our existing French farm house which we had bought in 1995. Moved in to this one thinking it would give us more room for classic cars.
A few years down the line and now its much too big unless family are staying .Also Mrs covert would like to spend her remaining years in the UK .

I suppose I should be looking to market it as a Gite but I expect that market has disapeared along with all the Brits
.Maybe some French entrepreneur will be tempted at this price .
Thanks for you input.

[paulwirral]

The guy I originally started the thread for has had his house for sale well over a year now and has had maybe 6 viewings , none of which have been English . I'd just bang it up with every agent you can , local and Internet , and sit tight . There's definitely buyers out there in France .

[harrycovert]

Will do thanks for the encouragement.

[harrycovert]

Thank you Zulu some good points .Have used leboncoin for cars and carparts ,didn`t think to use them for the house and its free!

[Perik Omo]

Well, we had a surprise second viewing from the English folks on Wednesday and had a call from the agent 8pm last night to say they are working out the finances over the weekend with the view to making an offer nearer the asking price on Monday if everything works out, we had another offer from a French couple as well but it was way too low as they had a maximum budget of 400K inclusive of all fees so that just wasn't going to work at all and we'd rather stay put than let the place go at a low price. So, we'll see if they can do it or not after making all the right noises, but I do think they are doing the right thing in making sure the money and work situation is right before jumping as I know of many who've fallen in love with a place, bought it then have manufactured a financial disaster.

[Kev_Mk3]

paulwirral said:

Oh well , I completed the sale of my house on Monday morning ! There's a thread on the homes and garden section if anyone's interested . If anyone else is selling up over there just be aware the notaries seem to be somewhat reluctant to release the funds once you've signed .
Luckily I was ready for this and I stayed on in France for a few days and ended up going back to the notaries office a few times to insist the transfer was done !
With reference to the rental comments above , a French husband of a girl I know down there rents a few houses out , it took him 3 years without any rental income to evict one tenant !

do you have a link I cant seem to find it?


Sadly need to get ours on the market with my mothers health getting worse but need her to get over to start it for signatures etc.

[paulwirral]

Kev_Mk3 said:

do you have a link I cant seem to find it?


Sadly need to get ours on the market with my mothers health getting worse but need her to get over to start it for signatures etc.

Search "French self build " on here and you'll find it .
We've just been sat in London on a weekend break talking about selling the house and wondering if we really should have sold up , to late now though . My wife was a little more upset than she first let on , she shed a few tears when i drove her to Limoges airport the day before the sale , but it's just really sank in the last couple of weeks what we actually achieved . One bloke building a house on an admittedly compromised piece of land by himself , from drawing the plans to locking the door for the last time over 8 years ! I'm starting to wonder if it was the right thing to do myself tonight !

[magooagain]

paulwirral said:

Search "French self build " on here and you'll find it .
We've just been sat in London on a weekend break talking about selling the house and wondering if we really should have sold up , to late now though . My wife was a little more upset than she first let on , she shed a few tears when i drove her to Limoges airport the day before the sale , but it's just really sank in the last couple of weeks what we actually achieved . One bloke building a house on an admittedly compromised piece of land by himself , from drawing the plans to locking the door for the last time over 8 years ! I'm starting to wonder if it was the right thing to do myself tonight !

I did give some thought as to why you sold it Paul. After the hard work you had a perfect turnkey holiday home.
I just thought you have just had enough of France ,but you're various posts seem to be the opposite.

I have a very nice plot for sale if you fancy another new build.

[paulwirral]

magooagain said:

I did give some thought as to why you sold it Paul. After the hard work you had a perfect turnkey holiday home.
I just thought you have just had enough of France ,but you're various posts seem to be the opposite.

I have a very nice plot for sale if you fancy another new build.

Thanks for the offer but once was enough , especially as I'm into my fifties now ! It was a perfect little place and I did design it to be more or less maintenance free but once I'd finished it I was spending less and less time there . I'm sure I'll miss it next year but the hassle free sale was a bonus , a fluent English speaking French guy that could easily afford the place and the large furniture was to good to pass up , not to mention a profit on my investment, and we know there's more than a few people in France would like to be able to say that !