Fait a....?

[PaulT]

I have got a contract to sign and in the signature box it has:

Fait a (with an accent)

Le

Signature obligataire

Now I know that Le is the date (hopefully) and then the signature but what does the FAIT A require?

Paul

 

[NormanH]

It's the place where you are when you sign.  Could be Paris for example, or Boulogne..

[PaulT]

Norman

Many thanks for the swift reply.

Yes, now I can remember having to put down where I signed on previous contracts.

Paul

[ericd]

It doesn't specificaly have to be where you are geographicaly when you sign the document...ie. if you were to sign said documents during a trip away to Bordeaux but your normal address is Paris, you would sign Paris le 14 juillet 2012 etc..

[Debra]

[quote user="ericd"]It doesn't specificaly have to be where you are geographicaly when you sign the document...ie. if you were to sign said documents during a trip away to Bordeaux but your normal address is Paris, you would sign Paris le 14 juillet 2012 etc..[/quote]Not what I've been told Eric.  Same with signing cheques - it's supposed to be where you physically are when you sign it.

[ericd]

[quote user="Debra"][quote user="ericd"]It doesn't specificaly have to be where you are geographicaly when you sign the document...ie. if you were to sign said documents during a trip away to Bordeaux but your normal address is Paris, you would sign Paris le 14 juillet 2012 etc..[/quote]Not what I've been told Eric.  Same with signing cheques - it's supposed to be where you physically are when you sign it.
[/quote]

.........Again....who is going to check this....

So you live in Paris 75 but sign a cheque in Neuilly 92.......are you really telling me that you put "Neuilly", only metres away on the cheque?.....what if you don't know where about you are? It makes sense to sign with the place where you actually live.

I challenge you.....You live in Bordeaux but find yourself in "Triffouillie-les-oies" for the weekend......Don't tell me you will try to get the correct spelling for the place  [geek]

[Debra]

[quote user="ericd"]

[quote user="Debra"][quote user="ericd"]It doesn't specificaly have to be where you are geographicaly when you sign the document...ie. if you were to sign said documents during a trip away to Bordeaux but your normal address is Paris, you would sign Paris le 14 juillet 2012 etc..[/quote]Not what I've been told Eric.  Same with signing cheques - it's supposed to be where you physically are when you sign it.

[/quote]

.........Again....who is going to check this....

So you live in Paris 75 but sign a cheque in Neuilly 92.......are you really telling me that you put "Neuilly", only metres away on the cheque?.....what if you don't know where about you are? It makes sense to sign with the place where you actually live.

I challenge you.....You live in Bordeaux but find yourself in "Triffouillie-les-oies" for the weekend......Don't tell me you will try to get the correct spelling for the place  [geek]

[/quote]Er yes - because I follow the rules and I've been told that's the rule!

[ericd]

Am off to Saint-Remy-en-Bouzemont-Saint-Genest-et-Isson at the weekend. I hope I don't have to write a cheque whilst there........[:)]

[Boiling a frog]

Have you ever considered that it is not the rule

[Rabbie]

[quote user="ericd"]Am off to Saint-Remy-en-Bouzemont-Saint-Genest-et-Isson at the weekend. I hope I don't have to write a cheque whilst there........[:)][/quote]Have a great time[:)]. Just remember to take plenty of cash and your credit card

[ericd]

Forgotten my pin code....it will have to be a cheque......

[mint]

[quote user="Boiling a frog"]Have you ever considered that it is not the rule[/quote]

Anyway, aren't there always supposed to be exceptions to the rule in France?[;-)]

[Debra]

[quote user="Boiling a frog"]Have you ever considered that it is not the rule[/quote]I haven't actually - I guess I just believed the bank manager, the notaire and the primary school headmaster who told me that it was the rule when we first came over here in 2005 and then just continued doing it that way - and I have seen others do it too so that reinforced the idea.  Isn't it the rule then?

[idun]

I have done both, sometimes where I lived and sometimes where I was.

I actually cannot see any point in doing it at all unless it is actually where one is. But when I am abroad, it would also seem a bit odd to say put Roskilde, or Esh Winning.

[NormanH]

I think it is a matter of common sense. The OP wondered what to write and I suggested the place where you sign because like Debra that is what I have always been told and it works.

On the other hand one of our big ZACs is technically in the commune of Villeneuve-les-Béziers, but I wouldn't

couper les cheveux en quatre...  when I shop in Géante Casino I  would write 'Béziers'.

[Boiling a frog]

[quote user="Debra"][quote user="Boiling a frog"]Have you ever considered that it is not the rule[/quote]I haven't actually - I guess I just believed the bank manager, the notaire and the primary school headmaster who told me that it was the rule when we first came over here in 2005 and then just continued doing it that way - and I have seen others do it too so that reinforced the idea.  Isn't it the rule then?

[/quote]

I suspect there must have been some element of doubt in your mind if you had to confirm it with 3 separate people, or were they all there ensemble at the signing of your first cheque.

[osie]

We have lots of people signing cheques and they always put the village where we are... so, I have to agree that the norm is where you are.

[andyh4]

While I have no idea what the "rule" might or might not say, to put your place of residence on when you are miles (or should that be kilometres) away seems pretty dumb given that your place of residence is already printed on the cheque.

 

But as they say, to each his own.[:P]

[Debra]

[quote user="Boiling a frog"]I suspect there must have been some element of doubt in your mind if you had to confirm it with 3 separate people, or were they all there ensemble at the signing of your first cheque.[/quote]Why do I have this compulsion to answer every silly question directed at me?!  Obviously they weren't present at the signing of my first cheque.  My first three cheques were signed in their presence.  They were quite helpful pointing out what to write where - obviously they knew UK cheques were different and could tell by my hesitation (and squinting) that I wasn't quite sure what to write where.  I don't actually write that many cheques - if I can help it; I get my husband to do it.  Partly because I'm a bit miffed that all the cheque books have his name on them anyway and not mine and partly because I never remember to take any glasses out with me and it's getting difficult as my arms get too short!  My husband always writes wherever he is at the time too.  If you know it's  not 'the rule' then why don't you say how you know that instead of having a dig at me?

[Debra]

Isn't it weird what some people argue about?  It seems pretty clear when

you think about it that the 'fait a' is obviously the place you are 'a'

- how can you write somewhere you're not at?  As Andy said, what would be the point of it even being there if it was where you lived when that address is already on the cheque?  It could be pre-printed by the bank if that was what they were after.

Anyway - to BAF: I just remembered I signed an acte de vente at one

notaire's the other day and a compromis de vente at another notaire's a

week before that and both of them told me to write the town I was in

where it says 'fait a' when I was doing my signature.  They weren't

telling me particularly because I was English - I noticed that they told

the French people signing the contracts exactly what to put where too.  Why would they do that if it wasn't what was required?

[Boiling a frog]

I just wondered if anyone had ever asked the legalities of it or just accepted what someone(or several people) had told them.

On reflection it has all to do with the law of contract. When you are issuing a cheque you are entering into a contract . so it is essential to the contract to specify the date,have it signed and in French contract law the place where the contract was initiated.

[Chancer]

it always bemused me so I made the fatal English mistake of asking "why?" which left me more confused, then I decided that as no_one could tell me why I should be writing where I was when writing or signing a cheque that i would just leave it blank.

Then one day someone got real shirty about recieving what was to him an illegal cheque, he said that I must be an arnaqueur, I didnt have the right, I would go to prison etc so to faire chiér to him I wrote fait à la lune [:)]

I have written it on all my cheques since then and to date no_one has even noticed.

If I am in the mood I like to demand of people "why do you need to know my date and place of birth for this?", thats always a good one, they are always shocked to be asked, dont have an answer and have never even considered the question before.

following it up with "perhaps its to be able to discriminate on the grounds of race" always gets them retreating.

[idun]

Chancer you have made me laugh. The 'pourquoi's and 'c'est quoi's, I was well known for them, and telling people that some things made no sense at all. Because they didn't. I can still see, in my mind's eye, people looking at me quite perplexed and occassionally annoyed and in one case angry, who said it was the french way, and it was not for me to say anything about it. People who became friends would talk about Idun and all her questions, not that the questions ever really stopped, but some apparently had not only perplexed but amused future friends a lot when I had asked.

And just how could I have learned anything at all without these questions. It was that, or going to a big bibliotheque miles from where I lived, because there was no internet, and no minitel, not that we had a phone at home from 1981 to mid 1983.

It's a doddle now, just sit at home and tap in those questions. The sad thing is that there is no human contact, no parlez-vous'ing . So one may follow the laws to the letter and get it all right. But I made un paquet d'amis the way I did it. I'd not swop.

[EuroTrash]

You are supposed to put the place where you are when you sign the cheque - after all why would you want to write that you're in Paris if you're in St Tropez - but it only becomes really significant if you write a French cheque when you're in a different country, because different banking rules apply to cheques issued outside of France.

[andyh4]

But who is going to accept a French cheque outside France?   Note French cheque and not Eurocheque.