Caught out by the Mandat de Vente?

[smudger]

This is the

contract one signs with the immobilier to sell one’s property in France.

I

subsequently received an offer below the asking price – which I declined. I

suggested a compromise and expected the prospective purchaser to come back with

a slightly higher mutually agreed offer – again below the asking price.

I didn’t

get anything so decided to withdraw the property from sale by sending an email

to the said agent on Day 1 at 4:58 PM. Day 2 I received an email from the agent

saying that they had received my email but that the property was subsequently

sold. Apparently the original interested party had come into their office at 5

PM on Day 1 and had left at 7PM after signing a Compromise de Vente for the

full asking price. Apparently it is the “law” that a full asking price offer

must be accepted by the vendor.

I have subsequently,

Day 6, received a bagful of documents to sign and return, toute de suite, to

the agent to proceed with the sale.

Notwithstanding

the intricacies of French property law, I’m inclined to ignore everything and

see what happens.

Does anyone

have any views as to my fate? Possibly being sued by the purchaser or the

agent, or both? Arrested by the gendarmes?

In reality

the property is dead cheap, a ruin really. I don’t live there and don't mind if it sits there for a year or so, if I am arraigned by the hussars,

cavaliers or whatever it is they do around here.

 

[BJSLIV]

If you are happy to pay the agent his fees without the sale going ahead, then you can ignore the paperwork.

Im not sure whether the "purchaser" can also sue, but its a real possibility.

Whatever happens they will be able to recover any damages and legal and bailiffs fees by selling your property in France so it probably won't cost you any real money back in the UK.

Why do you now not want to sell when you were happy to accept a below asking price offer?

 

 

 

[Sunday Driver]

"Caught out" by the mandate de vente?  Of course you were!  You've been caught breaking the legal contract you signed with the agent to sell your property. 

Am I right in thinking there's something perverse going on here?

You put your property up for sale and receive an offer below the asking price, which you decline. Fair enough, that's your prerogative.

You then suggest that if the potential buyer were to come back with a slightly higher offer (albeit again below the asking price) then you would accept.

The buyer follows your suggestion and goes back to the agent the same day with another offer - but this time it's the full asking price, ie higher than what you expected him to come back with and higher than what you would have been satisfied with.

Then you call the whole thing off in the middle of the negotiations?  And, amazingly, you further declare that you're inclined to just ignore everything and see what happens?

To be honest, if I was the buyer, I'd be a bit peeved at having made the full offer and spent the next two hours with the agent sorting and signing the legal paperwork, only to have you renage on the deal.  If I was the agent, I'd be very wary about accepting any future instructions from unethical British property owners - and I'd certainly be suing you for my fee.  So I wouldn't worry about the property, it won't sit there for long.......

 

 

[Bob T]

Sunday Driver talking sense there. Same would happen in the UK and you would have to pay the fees. Why put the place on the market if you don't want to sell? Could it be that you wanted to take it off the market and sell it privately, thereby saving (conning) the estate agents fee?

[smudger]

Like all

Living France forumites, it seems, I am scrupulously honest and would never,

ever, seek to pull a fast one over a French estate agent or mislead in any way

their purchasers. And the idea of pulling out of an agency sale to sell privately

just would not compute. No, the change of heart was just that.

The

situation is just interesting in a number of ways. The fact that I got the first

offer within 6 hours of signing the mandat, thesubsequent signing of the C de V

by the purchaser after the agent had

received my ‘reneging’ email, the failure of the agent to tell me that the full

offer had been made in the first place and the absence of any information on

the mandat pertaining to the ‘must sell at offer price’ law just smacks a tad

of skulduggery.

But, of

course, it cannot be, so slap on the wrist for peeving off my now official purchaser

and giving us 'Honest John' Brits a bad reputation.

[Sunday Driver]

[quote user="smudger"]

The situation is just interesting in a number of ways. The fact that I got the first offer within 6 hours of signing the mandat, thesubsequent signing of the C de V by the purchaser after the agent had received my ‘reneging’ email, the failure of the agent to tell me that the full offer had been made in the first place and the absence of any information on the mandat pertaining to the ‘must sell at offer price’ law just smacks a tad of skulduggery.

[/quote]

Come on....

The agent probably had the potential buyer on his books as being interesting in that type of property.  That's a normal situation and one which you should have been pleased with.

The prompt signing of the C de V shows the agent was acting in your interest by not giving the buyer an opportunity to subsequently withdraw.

The timing of your e-mail is a red herring.  You sent it at 4.58pm, but you don't know whether he looked at it that evening.

You had instructed the agent to sell for xxx euros and he'd achieved this according to your instructions.  He carried on his job by signing up the buyer that evening.

Mandates are not required to contain clauses referring to acceptance of offer price.

Can't see much skullduggery here on the part of the buyer or the agent.......[8-)]

 

[Will]

In France, the first offer at the asking price secures the property. That's normal practice - as has been mentioned many times on this forum and others - and there is no need for it to be included on the mandat.

Should you not go ahead, the agent is entitled to claim his fee from you and the disappointed buyer may well claim compensation too.

That's the law in France.