Compromis de Vente or Sous-Seing Privé

[Paul Bradford]

Hi All,

Has anyone any experience of inserting a clause into a Compromis de Vente or Sous-Seing Privé relating to the purchase being reliant upon the sale of a house in the UK. I have heard that this is not liked by the Immobiliers here, but is it possible to do it? I would be grateful if anyone has had any experience of this. From what I have read of this legal process, it mentions substantive clauses being inserted regarding mortgages being available. It doesn't specifically say that you cannot insert a reasonable clause.

I would be grateful if I can have definitive replies rather than conjecture. Also, if anyone has successfully had such a clause inserted into their Compromis de Vente or Sous-Seing Privé, would they be happy to furnish me with a copy, with names blanked out if you wish?

Thanking you in advance,

Paul Bradford

[Clair]

See here for previous discussions on this topic:

• http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/1183162/ShowPost.aspx
• http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/1281866/showPost.aspx

[Boiling a frog]

You as the potential purchaser can ask for any clause you wish to be inserted, but the vendor must agree to this clause by signing the compromis.Whether the vendor would sign is a total guess unless you discuss that with them before the compromis is drawn up.  

[PaulT]

I think that if I were the vendor I would explore what the property market is in the UK and based on that not agree to the clause.

I also found that a Notaire would not agree to a clause - I wanted to insert subject to a satisfactory survey (the place was a tip). However, he would not agree. We had the survey carried out before the signing but at the signing we were the only party to turn up! The result, we wasted our money on the survey and the trip to sign. If it had been a clause we would only have wated on money on the trip to sign.

Paul

[Lou]

Hi

When we bought our house three years ago, we had a clause for this. HOWEVER at the time of signing the compromis we already had a buyer in place for the UK house, and were able to argue convincingly (albeit with fingers crossed under the desk!!) that the sale was certain to go ahead - our solicitor was able to confirm to the notaire/sellers expected dates for exchange of contracts and completion.  The sellers weren't thrilled to have the clause but agreed as they were pretty desperate to sell, but did insist on it being time limited.

Wording:

Condition suspensive de la vente de la maison en Angleterre des Acquéreurs

Les présentes sont conclues sous la condition suspensive que la vente définitive de la maison sise en Angleterre des Acquéreurs soit intervenue avant le 30 septembre 2005. Si au 30 septembre 2005, leur maison n'était pas vendue, chacune des parties sera libérée de des engagements contenus aux présentes.

In other words if we hadn't sold the house then we could have pulled out but equally so could the sellers, with no penalty on either side.

We signed the compromis in July, completed in the UK at the beg of Sept and in France mid-october.

Of course the UK market was rather different then......whether someone would agree to this now under current conditions is another matter.

Hope this helps

Lou

[Paul Bradford]

Hi All,

Thank you for taking the time to reply. Thank you Lou for supplying the wording to your clause. I can now pass this information on to my friend.

Regards

Paul

[Iceni]

Lou

Had you been certain that the UK sale was to go ahead you would not have needed the clause suspensif but well done anyway in choosing to buy from desperate sellers.

In today's market many sellers are probably even more desperate so I would probably agree to a similar clause.

John