9. Overbids at French Property Auctions

Bizarrely, although you may have made the highest bid at the auction, that may not quite be the end of it because of la surenchère.

Within ten days of the end of the auction anyone else can make a bid of at least 10% higher than the auction sale price.

If this occurs then another auction has to take place, with the opening price that of the new surenchère bid. If no-one bids higher then that is the final bid and the procedure is not repeated.

The surenchère procedure is not adopted at domaine auctions and overbids are, in any event, very rare.