View property for sale at auction in France

3. Advertising of Property Auctions in France

There is no single, comprehensive source of information about forthcoming auctions, so you will need to use several websites.

i. Judicial sales (seizures, partition sales and liquidations)

Licitor has listed court-ordered property sales since 1996. It shows upcoming sales by court and region, starting prices, viewing dates and results, and you can register for free alerts. There are also iPhone and Android apps.
Vench is built by people from the legal press and indexes court property sales across France. It lists results and has directories of courts and lawyers. The former Special-Encheres site now redirects here.
Info-Encheres is another listings site. Check that it is still current before relying on it.

ii. Voluntary and mixed sales

Encheres-Publiques is probably the broadest general source. It carries voluntary sales, seizures and liquidations, and also vehicles, art and equipment, so use the property filters.

iii. Notarial auctions

Notaries run their own, mostly voluntary, property auctions. Find them at Immonotairesencheres and on the notaries' national site immobilier.notaires.fr. The Paris Chamber of Notaries also publishes programmes with visit dates, deposits and starting prices.

Many of these sites let you set up email alerts for new auctions in the areas that interest you. Licitor's alerts are free.

Official notices

The law requires the pursuing creditor to publish notice of a seizure sale in a legal-announcements journal for the arrondissement where the property lies. A simplified notice must also be posted at the entrance to the property or on its boundary. Both must be in place at least one month before the hearing. Notices are often displayed too on the noticeboards of the local mairie and the tribunal judiciaire. A lawyer will advise on the precise requirements for a given sale.

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