French Property Purchase: Why a Notaire in France is Essential

“I live in England. I have offered to buy my friend’s house in France, and he says that we can complete the transaction in England to avoid having to pay all the taxes and notaire fees. Is this correct?”

In principle, the sale and purchase of a property in France has to be completed by a French notaire. In tandem with the involvement of a notaire is the requirement for the buyer to pay the notaire’s fees, costs that notaires are often eager to stress include stamp duty and registration charges. As a general guide, it is prudent to budget about 8% by way of notaire’s fees for a property purchase transaction. And if you are looking to fund with a mortgage, you should add a further 1% to the level of these fees.

On top of all of this, once you bear in mind that it is invariably the buyer who pays all of the notaire’s fees and duties on a French property purchase, it is understandable that someone may be interested in considering creative options for reducing the exposure.

However, while the suggestion that the transaction could be carried out in England might be interesting, the reality is that this would not work. In order to be valid in France, a French property transaction must be registered at the French land registry, as well as at the French tax office. Only a notaire is entitled to register a transfer deed at the French land registry.

Quite simply, therefore, if a sale is not administered by a notaire, it will not be recognised as having been completed in France. Your seller would still be registered as the owner of the property.

That being so, one may expect never to encounter situations where parties are purporting to transfer French property without the involvement of a notaire. Such situations do, however, arise on occasion, albeit relatively rarely, and generally on a historic basis. That is to say that sometimes people might contact us to say they own a property in France, producing an English document as proof of their ownership.

Our first task, then, is to seek out the actual title deed for the property to establish the identity of the registered owner. If that registered owner has since died, then the complications multiply: it would be necessary to deal with a French succession before being able to trace the correct title. That can, inevitably, be time-consuming, costly, and complex.

One option, however, is mooted occasionally, where the property in France is owned by a French company (which would generally be in the form of an SCI). The transfer of the shares does not necessarily have to be completed by a notaire. However, the transfer still requires a declaration for tax purposes in France. So that will not work either.

In addition, if you, the seller, live and pay your taxes in the UK, you will also be obliged to declare the sale of the French property to the UK tax authorities, as there may be capital gains tax due.

Overall, any attempt to sell the property otherwise than by the correct procedures is doomed to failure, is likely to cause immense problems further down the line, and is almost certainly illegal. Always seek suitable professional advice – while that may cost a little more, you can rest assured that the transaction proceeds smoothly, or that you will be suitably protected if problems arise.

Contact our French law solicitors today

If you have any questions or would like advice on creating a French Will, cross-border estate planning or buying/selling a French property, please get in touch with our specialist French Legal Services team through this website or by calling 0330 404 0768.