Clé France

Buying a house is always a traumatic experience and in Britain it seems to get worse as the years go by. You can put an offer in, have everything accepted and agreed only for the buyer to pull out on the day of completion without any redress or compensation. By this time the vendor may have spent a lot of money and probably got the furniture removers standing by, or even fully loaded. This is really a very unsatisfactory situation if not pure madness.

In France once a price has been agreed a legal contract is signed and a 10% deposit paid. Should the buyer withdraw, then the deposit is lost. Nor can the vendor pull out because the law would compel him to sell on the basis of the binding contract. Hence there is no gazumping, or withdrawing before completion.

The ‘solicitor’ in charge, in France called the notaire, has a fixed fee no matter how much work goes into the conveyance. Their fees are fixed by government and at the end of the sale a full breakdown of where these fees have gone is given on a receipt. Not only that, but there is often a small refund as the fixed fee is the maximum that can be charged.

Normally the same notaire acts for both parties [as they are semi-government officials] and have to give impartial advice. However, should one party wish to appoint his own notaire he can and the overall fees remain the same – the notaires have to split the fee.

The surveys completed for a house are intended to ascertain whether there is any asbestos, lead or termite pollution, and there is also a calorific survey to see how well the house is insulated. These then remain in force in the case of lead, for life, in the case of asbestos for two years and the remaining two for twelve months each, so that paying a survey fee is not required every time an offer is made.

Consequently, buying a house in France, particularly for a foreigner, is rendered a lot easier and far less stressful by the rules that govern the process, and these are, for the most part, strictly adhered to.

Fraser Blake, 70, author of 'Dear Chips' and 'A Rant Too Far?' grew up in Africa, was at school in Scotland, and worked for the British South Africa Police in Southern Rhodesia. He has taught English in Saudi Arabia and sold and renovated hundreds of properties in Northern France.

In 1998 Fraser was selling houses in the Mayenne department of the Pays de la Loire region and so was the obvious choice, when Cle France was started, to be their first agent on the ground in France. In retirement he writes, blogs, cooks, drinks wine, and hosts to dinner unlimited numbers of ex-pats.

Always on hand with a viewpoint, Fraser is going to share his views on France, the French and the British, and other people who buy in France. Sometimes informative, sometimes funny, painfully true, outrageously opinionated but always entertaining so we hope it adds a slightly different dimension to the usual normality of searching through the fantastic properties for sale on the Cle France website.

If you want more? then follow the links above where you can buy Fraser's published books.