Sales contract

 Once the negotiation is ready a sales contract is drawn up.
This sales contract is the most important document in the whole sales process, exchange of title some two to three months later, is just that: the completion of the sales process once all searches have been done.

The compromis, is a sales agreement between buyer and vendor, set up by the estate agent.
A commitment by both parties, defendable by law, but not registered by the cadaster.

If the Notary set this sales agreement up, he will do this usually with a Promesse de vente. In essence an option to sell to the buyer during a period of time, usually two to three months.
This promesse needs to be registered as an ‘acte” and carries some extra costs of setting up by the Notary.

The buyer gives a deposit guarantee as proof of faith, this deposit is between 5 and 10% of the agreed sales price.

In both cases suspensive conditions will be detailed:
The most important one is the one relative to obtaining the needed financing.
Other suspensive conditions are for example:
Proof of ownership, no preemption right by the commune, discovery of serious restriction to use the property for its intended purpose, etc.

The sales agreement is only valid once the buyer has his 10 day cooling off period. This 10 day cooling off period starts once the contract has been handed over with all signatures and attachments.

At France4u, we prefer to set up a COMPROMIS. This allows us to set up a bilingual contract, with French and English next to it. Also we control the timing of all activities ourselves as we are dealing direct with both parties and we know the property best.

It is of course permitted to ask your own legal council to check out the Compromis set up by France4u estate agent. But beware of advisors charging you extra for translations (not needed if we use a bilingual contract)