Selling Property in France

November 2, 2007

When you come to sell your house in France make sure you deal fairly and squarely with your potential purchasers, warns Elizabeth Berry…

The French Civil Code puts a heavy responsibility on the sellers of a property. First they must clearly describe what they are selling, any ambiguity being interpreted in favour of the buyers. Careful attention must therefore be given when preparing the detailed description of a property and its surface area which is always included in the compromis and acte de vente. Then, the property must be delivered to the buyer; this takes place by handing over the keys and documents and title.

But the most onerous duty, of which not all sellers may be aware, is to guarantee that the property is free of hidden defects existing at the time of sale. The defects must be such that they would either render the property completely unfit for the purpose for which the buyers intended it or would seriously interfere with their enjoyment of it, so that if they had been aware of the defects they would not have bought it at all or would have offered a lower price.

Examples of such defects are structural cracks, a basement liable to flooding, woodworm infestation in an area where a survey is not compulsory. Selling land described as a building plot can even constitute a warranty by the seller that building on the plot will be authorised.

The seller will be bound by the guarantee even if the defects were so hidden that they themselves were genuinely not aware of them, although, if the contract is between two private (ie non professional) parties, the contract can stipulate that the sellers will not be liable for hidden defects of which they were unaware themselves. The nature of the defect must be specified; attempts to exclude liability for hidden defects altogether may be unsuccessful.

As is well known, in many areas of France the sellers have a statutory duty before a sale to carry out searches for some hidden defects and to disclose the results to the buyers; such matters are the presence of lead and asbestos, termite and other wood-boring insects, or natural and technological risks affecting the property.

But the law in these matters is not all in favour of the buyers. The sellers will not be responsible for apparent defects and the buyers must therefore carefully inspect the property for these. It goes without saying that the sellers must act in good faith, and not try to conceal such defects for example by growing climbing plants over structural cracks.

The apparent defects must be capable of being discovered by someone with a normal concern for their own interests. There is no need for an expert to be consulted, but buyers would be expected to make reasonable efforts to discover the defects, eg by going up into an accessible roof space to inspect the state of the timbers.

However, if the buyers are themselves experts or professionals concerned with immovable property, such as agents, developers or architects, they will be presumed to be aware of all apparent defects, provided the sellers acted in good faith.

To enforce the seller’s guarantee, the buyers will have to start court proceedings within two years of discovery of the defects and the remedy would be either the annulment of the sale or a reduction of the purchase price.

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