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Translated deed and Power of Attorney


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Good evening everybody and I hope things are well.

I am currently in the process of buying a property in Normandy from my parents. A notaire has been identified and we have been communicating via email.

The notaire gave us an approximate costing of the process and the figure that would need to be transferred to them for the process to continue. This is fine, but I have now been asked to cover the additional cost of translation either when signing for property in person or a translated copy of the Power of attorney, which could be sent to me in the absence of being able to travel to France at the moment. In addition to this, the translation of the deed will also carry a significant cost.

Can somebody confirm if the translation is a legal requirement or like when my parents purchased the house, the discussion took place in English when signing for the house.

I appreciate that I am currently unable to travel to France, but I would prefer to sign for the house in person, if possible, which I hope may be in the summer.

Any help and guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Kindest regards and stay safe.
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I do not quite understand your post, are you saying that you need this power of attorney in english? And is it only the power of attorney you are talking about and not the deeds too?

We had them sent to us, in french and we signed and returned, because we would be away when the transaction went through.

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Thank you for the reply and sorry for the confusion.

I am asking if the power of attorney and the deeds must be formally translated. The notaire is happy to send me the documents in French, but said the signatures will need to be witnessed by a solicitor over in England.

If I am to complete this remotely considering the current situation, can I not just have the documents sent in French for me to have translated by one of many friends, which speak fluent French and the simply return with signatures understanding the content of the documents?

What I don't understand is, why I have to pay extra costs for translation that I don't require as I have many people who can do that for me.

Kindest regards and thank you very much for your help.
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Isn't that OK. Does the solicitor  need to know what is in the documents, just that they have witnessed you signing them?

Like people witnessing a will, they often are not told what is in it, just that they are witnessing..........

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Ok. Thank you to everybody for their help in here. Maybe I could get the documents sent over to me, I can then go through them with a French speaking friend so I am aware of the content and then have it signed by a solicitor.

Thanks again and take care.
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Confused by all the references to deeds and poa and especially Woolly's reference to a survey, where did that come from?

Surely all that needs translating is the contract to be signed, and I suppose the reason for that is that strictly speaking a French notaire is duty bound to make sure that a client who signs a contract drawn up by the notaire, understands what that contract says. Officially in the interests of protecting the vulnerable, and in practice more in the interests of covering his/her own back, so that a purchaser can't come back afterwards and say "my notaire let me sign this contract but if I'd understood that there's a right of way through my garden I wouldn't have signed it".

Many notaires don't care tuppence whether English purchasers understand a word of what they're signing or not, but you seem to have hit on one of the few that do.

You can try to convince him you won't sign anything you don't understand but if he insists there's not a lot you can do, it's his job and his career.
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Might it be possible to change notaires at this stage? Maybe the rules have been tightened but it was left to us to translate to English. Surely if it's in the official language it's a case of "buyer beware". There are dual French Notaire/Solicitors in UK if you google.
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Is it really at the time of signing that someone should be 'not' signing because of a right of way? And would this be a good enough reason to not lose a deposit?

Also, in the OP's case, this place is owned by their parents, therefore, any oddities in the contract are already in place. Now if they don't buy, then
either their parents sell to someone else, OR when they eventually go, they and family will be stuck with this house, no matter what it states on the deeds.

PLEASE ONE AND ALL, tell me if you had sight of the deeds prior to signing, because we did not, never suggested at all. AND signing for our houses in the UK I don't think we saw anything in advance either.

Re understanding, well, there were pages and pages of blather on our french deeds, that I doubt I will ever understand half of it.

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Yes I agree it seems particularly pointless in this case since the OP is buying his parents' house.

I'm sure I didn't see the deeds to my French house before purchase, they rolled up nearly a year later. Though if everything is now computerised it may be different. But I can't believe the notaire is asking for the deeds to be translated, the deeds are what they are and they're not the notaire's responsibility.

Actually it's not clear to me whether this is the compromis or the acte, I was thinking compromis. As you say idun, if it's the acte then it shouldn't have changed significantly from the compromis, which hopefully they did get translated or explained to them. I remember a very long session with my notaire when we hacked through the compromis together and there were several points that I had to have explained to me..
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Yep, likewise had to initial every flippin' page.

I think my notaire was quite good because for instance there were a few new DIY installations including the hot water boiler and she explained about the 10-year guarantee thing which I had never heard of before, and that it was up to me whether I signed the waiver or not. There were other things she went into that I was glad to have learned too, can't remember what. But I do remember was struck by how thorough she was and how useful I'd found her, which is probably why I'm surprised at how many people seem to see it as a formality, they just want to get a document and sign it and send it back and be done with.

However this is all off topic for the OP since the house is in the family already, it's not like he's taking a leap into the unknown, and hopefully his notaire will take that on board.
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