Land Registration in France

The official system of land registration in France is called the cadastre, equivalent to a public land registry.

It is normally not too difficult to determine the boundaries of a property through the numbered plots on the cadastre on which the ownership of land is based.

The cadastre will show buildings, the size of the plot and the place name (lieudit) of the property to which it belongs.

However, the cadastre does not show the precise boundaries between properties.

A copy of the local cadastre will be held in the local mairie and you can freely inspect it. The local notaire will also have a copy.

Whilst in most cases the cadastre does the job you need it to do it, it can be contested.

If there is a need to determine the boundaries of a property because the cadastre is unclear or a plot is to be broken up into different ownerships, the process is known as bornage.

Where a parcel of land in single ownership is to be divided as part of the sale of the land then, since Oct 07, it is obligatory to engage the services of a land surveyor to undertake a formal division of the land.