Before Signing the Compromis de Vente

The subject of buying a home or land in France was raised on a French forum I frequent. I shared some advice about what to know before signing the compromis de vente. That advice is repeated below.

Have your own notaire. The notaire need not be local to the region where you buying land.

While a notaire is unlikely to proactively protect your interests, notaires are charged with being fair and to answer questions. Do not expect a notaire to volunteer information.

Ask the notaire plenty of questions about risks and your responsibilities. Ensure you know how you could get out of the sale, if problems arise.

The main piece of advice I can give is this. Treat the “compromis de vente” as if it were the final contract. Signing the compromis is effectively buying the land.

Talk to a notaire before signing the compromis de vente. Never sign a compromis de vente with an estate agent.

You can add clauses to the compromis de vente. Clauses such as, if specific tasks are not done, the sale is cancelled. If the seller does not provide a bornage, the sale is cancelled.

If the compromis de vente does not include any clauses of your own, you are probably missing a trick.