buying in france using sterling

[zippot]

we have agreed to buy paying the english owner sterling (suits us both) does a uk solicitor have to do the money transfer or could this be done by a currency company.?

what are the advantages/disadvantages of using a solicitor

[parsnips]

[quote user="zippot"]

we have agreed to buy paying the english owner sterling (suits us both) does a uk solicitor have to do the money transfer or could this be done by a currency company.?

what are the advantages/disadvantages of using a solicitor

[/quote]

Hi,

 If you are buying a house in France you HAVE to use a french notaire, because it is he who registers the change of ownership. It is possible to arrange to buy by transferring sterling via a UK solicitor, but you will have to find a notaire who is willing to liaise with your solicitor and the french fees will have to be calculated and paid in € .

[Will]

This has been discussed several times before, see here.

On that topic you will find people who have done this, both as buyers and sellers, and as French estate agents who have arranged sales in sterling.

You don't necessarily have to use a British solicitor - the pros are that your interests should be looked after, the cons are the cost and the possible time delay. Parsnips is right that the most difficult thing is likely to be to find a notaire prepared to handle the French end of the transaction (which you have to have by law). Most notaires just don't want the extra bother.

 

[PaulT]

Perhaps this subject needs to be a sticky?

Paul

[zippot]

The french notary that we are using suggested the solicitor but the seller now wants to use a money transfer to avoid £117 fee. he has not been very proactive during the sale and now wants to change things after we agreed on the compra vent. what a tw.t .

[Stan Streason]

I have done it and I used a UK solicitor.

As the purchaser as long as you dont release the funds till the Notaire says the property is yours then as far as I can see the risk is with the seller.

However the Notaire did need to be comfortable that the funds were available and the fact we had a solicitors confirmation a couple of days in advance that they had cleared funds ready to make the trasnsfer made the Notaire happier that he had properly discharged his responsibilities.  Not quite sure how the notaire can confirm funds are available otherwise.

Remember as you dont have to use any particular notaire you can shop around till you find one willing to act on this basis.  Fortunately the first one I asked said yes.

[Les]

We have found a firm of UK solicitors willing to handle the Sterling transfer, they want a cheque upfront for £470 [:(] £130 squids an hour. But what choice do we have?