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Renting before Buying, French law states I cannot


Barbel Bob

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I am buying a house in france but as it is taking so long to get things sorted, we have arranged to rent the property whilst the sale goes through. We have been told today by the sellers that we cannot rent as French law does not allow it as the seller loses all rights as soon as we enter the property. This is now a massive blow as we have nowehere to live, we have a truck load of furniture and we leave the day after tomorrow. I have my wife and two children, plus friends who were coming over to help us move and now we are all wondering what we can do. We have given up our jobs, sold our house and all plan to move in two days.

Does anyone have any idea of what I can do? Is there a loophole I can exploit as this destroys all our plans?

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[quote user="Barbel Bob"]

get things sorted [/quote]

I guess that without knowing the detail of what the problem is with these 'things', it's hard to offer any form of suggestion.  One can see the legal problem of not allowing you to rent, and unless the vendor is playing silly ******s, he / she would otherwise be keen to 'play ball'. Wouldn't have agreed to your original proposal otherwise.

Is the Notaire being difficult and / or dragging his feet?   Presumably funds are all in place?

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Are you attempting to do a formal rental agreement or just asking if you can live in the property prior to completion of the sale?

The vendor may be a little worried due to the time of year, there is a law here in France that says you cannot evict a person between the 15th October and a date in the spring (not sure of exact date). Therefore should anything go wrong with the sale you would be able to stay in the property until spring and there is nothing the vendor could do about it.

Try and bargin direct with them and not through the notaire.

Regards

Victor    

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Most unwise of the seller/owner of the property to suggest allowing you to move into a property, under any condition (as a guest or paying tenant) before completion of the sale. Also unwise of the buyer to pack up and travel to France until completion and in possession of the keys. Anything can and may go wrong between the signing of the original 'compromis' and the two to three months required for completion, as a result either of suspensive clauses or the notaire's searches (title, easements, hidden defects etc), which is why the process takes time.

I strongly disagree that you should try and do a private deal with the present owner/seller and byepass the notaire (he/she is your best protection).   

P-D de Rouffignac

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Thanks for replies so far.

We do not want to do anything underhand or behind the Notaires back, we had agreed a rent and everything was planned in advance. We are pretty devastated by the news from the Notaire to the seller to say that if he was to allow us to rent then this may backfire on him and he would not be able to get his property back.

The seller needs to fell secure that he will not lose his house and we can only assure him that we are good people and would never do this, however this is not enough so we need a legal way that will give the seller the security he needs to allow us to rent his and our future home.

We have been offered a Gite to rent for two months but we do not want to go down this avenue, our children are our first priority and we want the move to be as seamless as possible.

Is there an answer out there?

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[quote user="Barbel Bob"]

We have been offered a Gite to rent for two months but we do not want to go down this avenue, our children are our first priority and we want the move to be as seamless as possible.

Is there an answer out there?

[/quote]

Sorry Bob, but as I see it, that is the answer.

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What I would do is, rent the gite, put all the furniture in storage, and start life in France as you would always find it, a bit of a challenge.

Children are more adaptable than we give them credit for.  They'd see it all as a big adventure (if the parents make everything seem "fun" and normal and NOT something to be knitting their brows over and hugely worrying).

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Pads

That would NEVER do.  What if there is some sort of dispute about ownership amongst the seller's family and the house is not available after all?

The OP might then find another property and be unable to proceed until they get their money back from the notaire and goodness knows how long that will take?

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Hi,

Thanks for the replies, we have been trying to sort this out all day, the seller has now offered to rent us rooms on a B & B basis and live with them until the house sale is complete, I certainly do not want to do this, we have posted on the site for the rent of a 4 bed Gite from the 1st Oct for two months, if you know of anyone that has one close to Excideuil Dept 24 (this is where the children start school next week) then PM the details.

Thanks again!

J

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