Registering Property in France

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Standardized property

Registration Requirements Summary:

Registration Requirement Details

Procedure 1.

Obtain from the relevant Land Registry a non-encumbrance certificate ("Demande hors Formalité") and a 30-year search on the property

Time to complete:

5-10 days (simultaneous with procedures 2, 3, 4 and 5)

Cost to complete:

€12 per demand for up to 5 plots of land + €2 for each supplementary plot of land (hors formalite) + € 2 for postage

Name of Agency:

Land Registry (Conservation des Hypothèques)

Comment:

The notary obtains from the relevant Land Registry a non-encumbrance certificate and a 30-year search on the property at the Real Estate Office (one document) (hereafter the “Land Registry Search”) using the Tele@ctes system. In 2009, notaries make the request electronically for around 80% of transactions.
The payment is made on-line through the notary’s bank account “Caisse des depots” at the Banque de France.
The Land Registry Search must be obtained before completion of the transaction. It is valid only for a set period and then it has to be updated. The Land Registry Search contains the following information: all transfers of ownership, mortgages, charges, and easements, on the property registered since 1956. The Land registry delivers 50 years of information, but only 30 are used by notaries.

The notary obtains copies of all transfer deeds over a 30-year period. Search shows all transactions in the last 30 years, the notary must obtain a copy of each of the previous deeds of sale for the last 30 years from the Land Registry. Alternatively, the notary can request the same information from the notaries who executed the deed of sale in each previous transaction. It will take between 1 and 5 days and it will cost € 0.5 per page copied.

Procedure 2.

Obtain a cadastral certificate ("plan catastral")

Time to complete:

1 days (simultaneous with procedures 1, 3, 4 and 5)

Cost to complete:

no cost

Name of Agency:

Cadastral Registry (www.cadastre.gouv.fr)

Comment:

The notary obtains a cadastral certificate showing the reference of the property at the Cadastral Registry. This certificate is obtained by the notary immediately on the internet for all of France since January 2008 in the website www.cadastre.gouv.fr.

Procedure 3.

Obtain planning certificates ("document d'urbanisme")

Time to complete:

1 day (simultaneous with procedures 1, 2, 4 and 5)

Cost to complete:

no cost (internet) [or 120 € when the demand is made by a surveyor]

Name of Agency:

Municipality (Mairie de Paris)

Comment:

The notary obtains planning certificate from the Municipality. The request can be fulfilled on the Internet in some cities like Paris.

Procedure 4.

Seller obtains mandatory environmental reports

Time to complete:

15 - 30 days (simultaneous with procedures 1, 2, 3, and 5)

Cost to complete:

About EUR 800

Name of Agency:

Comment:

The Seller obtains mandatory environmental reports (3 in total) mentioning the presence or absence of termites and asbestos. Without these reports the seller would remain liable towards the purchaser if termites or asbestos were found in the future. Termites Certificate was made mandatory by the Law 99-471 du 8 juin 1999, decrét 2000-613 du 3 juillet 2000, arreté du 10 aout 2000). Asbestos certificate is mandatory by décret 96-97 du 7 février 1996 modifié et appliqué depuis le 1er janvier 2002) and the certificate for natural disaster and technological risks
As a result of the implementation of the Power Performance Diagnostic (“Diagnostic de performance énergétique”), is only for information.
The seller can be held liable later if he does not submit these diagnostics.

Procedure 5.

Obtain the waiver of preemption rights from the Municipality

Time to complete:

60 days (simultaneous with procedures 1, 2, 3 and 4)

Cost to complete:

no cost

Name of Agency:

Municipality (Mairie de Paris)

Comment:

The notary writes to the city mayor to obtain the waiver of the city’s preemption rights on the property. The notary informs about the transaction and the conditions agreed among the parties.
It is common that many properties are subject to these requirements, since the Municipality may have the right to buy the property at the same price that it was agreed on the sale agreement. If the city does not answer in 2 months, then the preemption rights have been waived. It may be the case that the city informs the notary before the 2 months. There are some exemptions: if the building has been completed in the last 10 years or if the lot sold (used for residential purpose) is in a building where the co-ownership rules have been published at the land registry more than 10 years ago.

Procedure 6.

Notaries prepare the draft of the deed of sale

Time to complete:

2 days

Cost to complete:

Fees are due at the signing of the deed in Procedure 7

Name of Agency:

Comment:

By law, notaries are charged with administering nearly all aspects of the transaction: preparation, signing and execution of the final deed.
The purchaser’s notary with the assistance of the vendor’s notary prepares the draft of the deed of sale. The deed of sale contains two parts:
The first part is a standardized one and is the one sent to the Land Registry. It contains all relevant information for registration purposes. The manner in which this part is drafted is compulsory, failing which the Land Registry refuses registration of the deed of sale.
The first part of the deed of sale contains the following information:
• Details (full name, address, extrait CABIS) of the vendor and of the purchaser
• Description of the property which must refer to the cadastral reference
• Origin of title (provided by the seller)
• Sale price
• Taxes payable upon the sale: stamp duty normally due by the purchaser and capital gains tax due by the vendor
The second part of the deed can be freely drafted and contains basically a summary of the information/documents collected during the due diligence phase described previously:
• Information, representation, warranties on legal, technical, regulatory, planning, existing contracts relating to the property, environmental aspects of the property;
• Conditions of the sale;
• Information on the title to the property, i.e. a description of the transfer of title over the 30-year period;
• Information on easements.
Although some of the information described in the 2nd part of the transfer deed is not compulsory for the Real Estate Registry it is compulsory under other legislation failing which the purchaser could seek termination of the sale after it has been completed, for misinformation.
The notary of the vendor collects and provides the notary of the purchaser with the following documents:
• Land Registry Search (obtained in Procedure 1)
• Copies of all transfer deeds over a 30-year period (obtained in Procedure 2)
• Cadastral certificate showing the reference of the property at the Cadastral Registry (obtained in Procedure 3)
• Planning certificates (obtained in Procedure 4)
• Environmental reports (obtained in Procedure 5)
• Waiver of Municipality’s preemption rights (obtained in Procedure 6)
• The buyer and seller both have to provide the notary with personal information such as their name, occupation, date and place of birth, address and marital status.

Procedure 7.

The deed of sale is executed by a notary

Time to complete:

31 days

Cost to complete:

0.825% of purchase price (notary’s fees) + 5.09% of purchase price (Registration Fee)

Name of Agency:

Comment:

Once the notary has completed the necessary searches and inspections, acquired the necessary information from the local authorities and the bank (if there's to be a mortgage), and prepares the final deed of sale, the parties meet once again with him for the execution of the deed of sale.
The deed of sale must be executed before a notary, failing which it cannot be registered at the relevant Land Registry. The notary is required to read the deed through completely, aloud, to both the seller and buyer and make any relevant amendments, and assure that they both understand the terms. Registration fees and notaries’ fees are payable up-front.
The buyer has full ownership of the property immediately after the deed of sale has been signed before the notary. He can dispose of the property as he wishes by selling, leasing, mortgaging it, etc. though in practice, only after publication at the Land registry the sale is opposable to third parties and will a third party be willing to buy it and a bank grant a loan based on it.

The notary must apply for registration of the deed of sale at the relevant Land Registry within 2 months maximum of the date of execution of the deed of sale. In practice, in 2009, the average time for submission between the moment the deed is signed and the moment it is submitted to the land registry is 31 days (weighted average time), as shown by the statistics for the 12 land registries in Paris (Conservation des hypotheques) (source, ‘Direction générale des Finances publiques‘).

Procedure 8.

Apply for publication of the deed of sale at the relevant Land Registry

Time to complete:

5 days

Cost to complete:

EUR 25 (publication tax, included in procedure 7) + 0.1% of purchase price (for the salary of the registrar)

Name of Agency:

Land Registry (Conservation des Hypothèques)

Comment:

The notary must apply for registration of the deed of sale at the relevant Land Registry within 2 months maximum of the date of execution of the deed of sale. The notary can send the documents to the Land Registry immediately after the signature of the deed, personnally or electronically through Tele@ctes. Simultaneously, the notary pays to the Land Registry the publicity tax and the salary of the registrar on behalf of the purchaser (the value added tax is paid by the company directly). The original deed of sale (called the “minutes”) remains with the notary for 100 years.
The Land Registry will verify the transaction (name and date of birth of person should coincide with the Conservation’s records; parcel & section catastrale). The transfer of property is opposable to third parties after publication of the deed by the land registry office.
A Publicity tax (Taxe de Publicité Foncière) equal to 25 EUR is paid for the publication of the transfer, together with an additional 0.1% of the property value for the salary of the registrar.
On completion the vendor’s creditors if any, must execute a deed of discharge or release of the existing mortgages benefiting to them.

In June 2009, 28% of all transfer publication requests in France are made electronically (for publication of the "acte authetique de vente" in order to make it opposable to third parties) . This rate has been increasing consistently during 2009. This makes the system faster and reduces the chances for errors, because the Conservation employees do not have to input information manually into the system. Data is inserted electronically into the Fiji system automatically from Teleactes. Land registries are proactively inviting notaries to participate in the electronic system, with a positive response from notaries. A pilot was also launched in March 2009 where notaries submit property transfers online for publication and receive the deed signed by the Conservateur electronically. Around 3 land registries were participating in the pilot by March 2009, and the plan is to expand this capability to other registries during 2009. Before, the signed deed was sent on paper to the notary after publication. To participate in this system, notaries need to have an updated software version of TéléActes.

In practice, the delay for publication at ‘Conservation des hypothèques‘ as of May 2009 is 5 days (weighted average time) (source, ‘Direction générale des Finances publiques‘), from the moment the deed is submitted at the land registry until the moment it is published.