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Couple splitting up. How to remove one name from house ownership?


Howie

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Hi all. Hope you can help.

If a couple are splitting-up, is it easy to move ownership of a property from joint-ownership to single-ownership?

This holiday property was bought with a Tontine clause and the couple are not married. There is no mortgage or other loan on the property. All other details of the seperation are amicable and it's just a question of removing one person from the ownership 'deeds'. Anyone any ideas?

Thanks in advance.
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been there, done that.

You have to effectively "buy" the other person out. It is treated as a sale even if no money changes hands. Actually some money will change hands - the notaire's fees still have to be paid!

If you're lucky then the notaire will put the value as half of what you paid for it, even if you have done extensive renovations, and he will accept the original lead and asbestos surveys as current. Not sure what happens if you bought before the legislation for the energy efficiency survey came in though!
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Thanks for the replies. Very useful.

As my French is very poor and I don't know an english speaking Notaire, does anyone (probably hoverfrog!) know the process involved and an idea of costs and/or other legal/financial implications?

Thanks in advance.

H.
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1/ make an appointment with the notaire

2/ take along all the paperwork from when you bought the house, as he can probably re-use most of it - but read the revised version carefully in case they forget to change your address!

It will almost certainly help if you use the notaire that dealt with the sale to you - he should have all the documents on computer so will just need to update them.

Take someone with you to translate - it doesn't have to be an official translator, just someone the notaire thinks is fluent enough to understand what's going on.

You will both need to go and sign the "acte de vente" - when the papers came through it was labelled "Licitation" instead of "Vente" in my case.

Don't expect it to be quicker than a 'normal' sale - I left all the papers with the notaire on the 6th January and we signed on the 20th March!

Notaire's fees are set at a percentage of the sale value I think but I may be wrong (Clair will know!)

Cost me €1800 (on a notional sale of 20K) to get back half of the house that I paid for originally but I don't regret it :)

You will still get things like the taxe d'habitation in both names for a year - it takes a while for it to filter through the system.

Don't forget to put the house insurance in the sole name of the person who will keep the house before the signing, as this is a legal requirement. Best to do the same for utilities too.

I have no idea what happens if you have a mortgage or other loan secured on the property, but I suspect it will get complicated!

Bon chance :)
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