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Notaire fees after death of husband


Blodwyn
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I went to the notaire with a friend who has also recently lost her husband. We were told the fees will be 3-4000 euros, which came as a bit of a shock.  I have a communaute universelle and my friend has no children, so it should be a straightworward transfer of the house and everything else.

The notaire explained that the fee is set nationally and she charges the same as other notaires.  A lot of the cost is based on the value of the property, which in both cases is under 150 thousand. Has anyone recently had experience of this?

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When my mother died we were charged around 7 euros (which the Notaire's staff member had spent to check a list of registered Wills). Other than that as my parents had a C.U. there was nothing to do so charge was zero.  I have to say we were dumbfounded but very pleased.   For complicated reasons there was no house involved but I can imagine that if a name has to be changed on Deeds it could be different.
The friend without the CU could well be different too.
We did have to keep reminding the Notaire about the CU which he seemed not all that familiar with! The member of staff clearly never "got it".

You may have found that the Bank debited a charge - my father was furious as they had nothing to do. It seemed to be for sending a booklet (not wanted or needed) and saying that they could free up money to pay for a funeral - not needed either as my father was able to access what had been the joint account.
I wish you well, sorting out the details seem to go on forever after a death.
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[quote user="Hereford"]
When my mother died we were charged around 7 euros (which the Notaire's staff member had spent to check a list of registered Wills). Other than that as my parents had a C.U. there was nothing to do so charge was zero.  I have to say we were dumbfounded but very pleased.   For complicated reasons there was no house involved but I can imagine that if a name has to be changed on Deeds it could be different.
The friend without the CU could well be different too.
We did have to keep reminding the Notaire about the CU which he seemed not all that familiar with! The member of staff clearly never "got it".

You may have found that the Bank debited a charge - my father was furious as they had nothing to do. It seemed to be for sending a booklet (not wanted or needed) and saying that they could free up money to pay for a funeral - not needed either as my father was able to access what had been the joint account.
I wish you well, sorting out the details seem to go on forever after a death.
[/quote]

Hi,
  When only the transfer of property is involved the bulk of the "fees" are in fact various government taxes and charges .The notaire gets only a relatively small part of them. 

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Thanks for the replies. I said we were both shocked because we'd both have to pay 3-4000 and neither house is worth more than 150k. I later emailed the notaire and she said she could phone and explain, or we'd get the details when we sign the papers. She said the fees are the same whichever notaire used. I suppose the main cost is transfer of property. Someone else with a much more valuable one was quoted £5000, and decided not to bother! I guess you only have to do the transfer of title when you sell the house. I wonder if there is any disadvantage in delaying? It might be simpler for my children if the house is in my name when I die.

I don't know what other charges there will be. The bank took 113 euros for 'succession'. It took about 1 minute to amend their computer record and (unlike Nationwide) they didn't even provide a new chequebook in my name only!
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I don't know how it works in France but when I did probate work for a UK solicitor, he often found that the title of a property had not been changed after the death of the first spouse. Documents relating to the two deaths were simply submitted to the Land Registry together and it was all sorted out in the wash, the family effectively avoiding incurring two lots of transfer costs. One difference is that there would have been no tax implications in the UK on the earlier death if ownership passed between spouses.
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I reckon you should find another notaire and go and see them, taking all your paperwork, including the way you had sorted your affairs/property out.

This seems too much from what you have said.

If what you have been told is correct then you have lost nothing. IF it is not, then you are on a winner.

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Just a question, do you have to transfer the house into your name? I ask because we were also CU and our notaire told me there was no need to transfer the house into my sole name until I came to sell it. As the cost was a few thousand euros and I have no intention of moving out, just yet ,I decided to leave it as it is.

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I could be wrong, but I think there have been other discussions about "transfer of property" in France.

It's not just a simple transfer, it's as if the house was sold, and then bought by another person. Whether close relative or not.
So you've got all the usual notaire fees for buying.
As others have said, not like the english system.

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