Revealing Faults to a Purchaser and Agents Responsibilities

[Deimos]

I know that (quite rightly) in France a seller is duty bound to reveal any faults with the property to a purchaser. However, estate agents are normally "locals" and might be aware of "issues" with a property that the owner is not. Is the agent selling the property also under an obligation to reveal any faults they are aware of to a purchaser ?

In fact, in France is the agent acting for the seller or the purchaser (or themselves) ? In the UK it seems clear that an agent is acting for the seller (as that is who is paying them). However in France they clearly have similar interests to the seller (i.e. to sell the property though maybe price is currently less of an issue for the agent), though they are paid by the purchaser. Might be this "clouds" who they are really acting on behalf of ?

Ian

Edit: This is not relating to any purchase/issues/faults or anything. Just out of interest.

[Will]

The agent relies on the seller to give full and accurate information. So I don't think who pays is really relevant.

As to the local knowledge thing, that's a bit more difficult. The convention in France is that it is the buyer's responsibility to make sure that what he/she is buying meets their needs, and this applies just as much to houses as anything else. With that in mind, if the agent knows a new main road will run past the end of the garden, and the buyer has said they want peace and tranquility, then it's not too professional to offer that house as meeting their needs. But if the buyer wants good communications it's a rather diffeent picture. And no agent (or notaire) is going to point out that there is a slim chance that a high voltage power line might run nearby, or that the previous occupant of the house shot himself - but if asked a specific question they have a duty to answer it as honestly as they can (i.e. there is a proposal for a new power line but it could go anywhere in a 30km corridor if it ever gets built, and there are far more likely routes than the one that runs past this house). Also, if the buyer starts taking off plaster from the walls when he moves in and finds a serious structural problem, that's not really misrepresentation because the seller may well not have known, and the agent certainly wouldn't, though if the buyer had commissioned a building condition survey then something perhaps should have been noticed.

I don't suppose it answers the question at all, other than to say that the buyer has to take some responsibility for checking things himself, that's the way it's done in France