Our partner and colleague Fernando Lacasa, has written the following article on the purchase and sale of real estate in France, highlighting the figure of the French Notary, involved in this intervention:
We are used to the legal certainty that our positive law gives us when buying a property in Spain.
Is it the same in France?
Yes, but the intervention of the French Notary is even more complete.
Not only do they usually receive the purchase price or the amounts paid on account, deducting from them the payments due to the seller and paying the remainder to the seller, but, if the seller is a non-resident, they withhold and pay the taxes due to the French treasury.
In addition, they verify with third party reports risks such as: flooding, seismic risks, soil pollution, flight contamination, termites, acoustic damage due to the passage of aircraft,…
And this, without going into another essential difference and that is that the French Notary is a Notary of part and in the important operations, each part brings its Notary and each one of these defends the interests of its client taking position.
Fernando Lacasa
