selling house

[johnycarper]

Can anyone advise what the law is in France as far as selling your house privately and then going through an agent.What I would like to know is if I sell the business through an add I have placed can the agents try and claim they want commission.

Hope this makes sense,

John

[Quillan]

There will be a set period that you negotiate with the agent and during that period the sale must go through them. Once the period has finished you can basically do what you want.

[P-D de Rouffignac]

You can sign a simple mandate ('mandat simple') with one or more estate agents, under which you reserve the right to try and market and sell the house through your own efforts (advertising, word of mouth etc), in addition to what the agent(s) may be doing to try and sell your property. . Disputes most often arise when an agent first introduces a client to a property and later the vendor and buyer try to do a private deal, depriving the agent of his commission. The law is quite clear on this and agents can recover their commission from the vendor (with whome they have signed a mandate) through the courts.

In the case of exclusive mandates, there is generally no right for the vendor to try and market the property privately, and even a private sale between vendor and a buyer may result in commission being due to the agent. You would need to check the wording of the mandate carefully.

Simple and exclusive mandates are generally for three months renewable automatically (unless you cancel the mandate) and sometimes effective up to two years - if a buyer first introduced by the agent negotiates a private deal within 24 months, the vendor could still be liable to pay the agent's commission.

There is rarely any point in trying to negotiate privately with a buyer introduced by the agent, as the buyer will expect a price reduction (the commission the vendor would have paid the agent). I am speaking generally of course not suggesting you are planning anything underhand! Hope this helps.

[johnycarper]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the answers and clarification as that's what I had been told but its always good to have it confirmed.

John