HomePropertiesRentalsGuides to FranceRegionsServicesForumsVersion FrançaiseNewsletter
Wanadoo and Orange Users - Adjust your settings to receive IFP newsletters and enquiries, click this link or see our helpguide for more info.
Log-in | Register

Log-In to Account
Username

Password


Not registered?
House Buying Process in France
Legal Process
 - 1. Top tips
 - 2. Offer to Buy
 - 3. Sale & Purchase Agreement
 - 4. Contract Conditions
 - 5. Property Surveys
 - 6. Local Search
 - 7. Sole Ownership
 - 8. Joint Ownership
 - 9. Company Ownership
 - 10. Ownership structures
 - 11. Completion
 - 12. Fees and Taxes
 - 13. Annex Pre-Contract Enquiries
IFP Guides
Buying Property in France
 - House Buying Process
 - Buying Off-Plan
 - Buying at Auction
Building & Renovation
 - Building a New Home
 - Planning System
 - Financial Assistance
Finance & Taxation
 - Banking in France
 - French Mortgages
 - Personal Taxation
 - Inheritance Laws & Taxation
Public Services
 - Health Care Services
 - School Education
 - Higher Education
Work & Business
 - Starting a Business
 - Letting Property
Property Rights
 - Land Registration
 - Property Boundaries
 - Boundary Walls
 - Noise Nuisance
 - Rights of Way in France
Household and Motor Insurance
 - Organising Household Insurance Cover
 - Types of Insurance Cover
Contact

Contact Us
Send this to a friend
Community and News
 - IFP Forums
 - IFP Newsletter
 - Newsletter Sign-up
Services
 - Bookstore
 - Metric Unit Conversion
Finance
 - UCB Mortgages
 - Mortgage Brokers
 - Mortgages & Taxation
 - Currency Services
  

Search from our database of over 10,000 properties and find your dream home today!
PriceRegionBedrooms 



6. Local Searches when Buying French Property

  1. 6.1. Capacity of the Parties
    6.2. Title
    6.3. Pre-emption Rights
    6.4. Planning Enquiries


6.3. Pre-emption Rights When Buying Property in France

Sometimes, there are certain bodies and persons who have an automatic right of prior acquisition, or pre-emption, on the sale of a property.

These rights are called the droits de préemption.

Accordingly, before the sale can proceed the notaire will need to ‘purge’ the property of these pre-emption rights.

The rule of prior acquisition means, quite literally, that even though the seller may have agreed to sell the property to you, they may be obliged to sell it to another party.

Thankfully, this occurrence is quite rare, so you should not feel too anxious that you are going to be robbed of the French idyll you may have found!

The parties with prior acquisition rights are sitting tenants, the local mairie and the national land agency, SAFER.

The local mairie only have a right of prior acquisition if the property is located within a designated area as shown on a local plan, and SAFER only have a right if the land parcel exceeds a minimum size.

The threshold figure which triggers a right of prior purchase by SAFER is determined by the local préfet on a five year cycle. In some parts of France it can be as low as a few hundred square metres.

The right of prior acquisition by SAFER relates only to the whole of the property, not just part of it. This often means that larger estates avoid being caught, as SAFER may not have funds to make the acquisition. In other cases, sellers do sometimes come to a negotiated agreement on the sale of parts of an estate, prior to it being placed on the open market.

All sitting tenants also have the right of prior acquisition. This includes a tenant farmer on land belonging to the property you are proposing to purchase, who will have the right to purchase the property itself.

Those with a right of prior acquisition are given two months by the notaire to decide whether or not they wish to purchase the property.

Accordingly, completion of the sale cannot normally take place earlier than two months, although it is possible to pay a small additional fee to gain clearance from the mairie and SAFER on an express basis.

The law offers some limited protection to the original purchaser in this whole process, in that a sitting tenant only has the right to buy at the same price as that contained in the sale and purchase agreement.

However, this same rule does not apply in the case of the local mairie or SAFER, who may make an alternative lower offer if they consider the initial sale price to be in excess of the market value.

If this occurs then the owner can either withdraw the property from the market or contest the offer in a court of law. More often than not the two sides enter into discussions to arrive at an amicable settlement. Of course, the end result is that the property is then acquired by the public body!

Nevertheless, it is possible to contest the use of pre-emption rights in the courts, and many such cases are won by the applicants, often because of a failure of due procedure by the mairie or SAFER.

Top Tip!
If you are buying a property that includes agricultural land on it, and you are concerned about the risk of pre-emption by SAFER, it is possible to structure the sale to limit this risk, which you would probably best discuss with the seller, a friendly notaire, or avocat.


Next: Planning Search

Back: Title Searches



The IFP Guides are published for general information only.
Please visit our Disclaimer for full details.

  


LinksAdvertisingHelpAbout IFPContact UsReferenceLegal

Copyright © 1995 - 2008 Internet French Property