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Swedish owners selling French Holiday Home not involving the French legal system


CeeJay
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We have some Swedish friends who are in the process of selling their holiday home to an aquaintance in Sweden, but are not involving a Notaire here in France. Not sure if they are involving a Swedish legal person, but it appears everything is being done in Sweden.

I was under the impression that a Notaire had to be involved, if only to collect Capital Gains Tax and to change the Taxe Foncier and D'habitation.

Is this situation possible or even legal?

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[quote user="CeeJay"]Is this situation possible or even legal?[/quote]I can't believe it is and even if they did do the deal out with the French system the buyers would face impossible problems if they wanted to sell themselves later on because from the French standpoint the property would still belong to the previous owners so wouldn't be theirs to sell !

A thoroughly BAD idea which can only end in tears.

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I don't see how this can be possible. The change of ownership will have to be recorded or the sale simply won't be recognised in France, and I don't see how a change of ownership can be processed without triggering off all the tax processes etc. And if France doesn't recognise the change of ownership, there are potentially going to be all kinds of problems in the future.
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[quote user="CeeJay"]We have some Swedish friends who are in the process of selling their holiday home to an aquaintance in Sweden, but are not involving a Notaire here in France. Not sure if they are involving a Swedish legal person, but it appears everything is being done in Sweden.

I was under the impression that a Notaire had to be involved, if only to collect Capital Gains Tax and to change the Taxe Foncier and D'habitation.

Is this situation possible or even legal?

[/quote]

 Hi,

     Maybe the money is being exchanged in Sweden , as in many UK house sales , and a french notaire doing the paperwork.  (If this is the first holiday home sold by the vendor there will be no CGT in France.- CGI 150 U).

Total sale done in Swede seems unlikely - unless , as suggested, there are Swedish -based notaires- there are certainly UK registered solicitors operating in France.

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I'd guess it was possible if the house was owned by some kind of company or similar entity: sale of the shares outside France wouldn't necessarily need to involve a French notaire. Weren't SARLs used at one time to get round the French inheritance rules?

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