Documents need to buy a house

[Ma Baggins]

Hi

My offer has just been accepted on a property in Normandy, apart from now I need a bank account in France and sort out the best way to transfer money.  I also have been asked for my marraige certificate (plus the usual birth certificate etc).  I am divorced so I no longer hold this as i now have my Decree Absolute.  Do i need to get a replacement copy or do I just need my Decree Absolute as it details when and where i got married?

Another thought is will i have a problem with my Change of Name Deed, that i also need to supply, as it is not a deed pole.  The deed has been accepted by the pasport office but it has not official mark on it or anything as it is something you can do without the cost of a solicitor or court.

Thanks Ann

 

[Will]

The documents are needed by the agent (if any) and notaire for preparing the legal compromis and Acte de Vente documents. For this, legally-recognised details of your birth name and married names are necessary to ensure that French law, particularly inheritance law, is complied with. The divorce decree should be sufficient, but it is quite simple to get copies of marriage certificates if required. The change of name deed is a bit more difficult, if your passport shows the name you currently use then that should be sufficient but to be on the safe side and avoid complications further down the line you could check with the notaire, through the agent if you used one.

In general, as long as you have a piece of official-looking documentation, that will normally satisfy the French, so I'd be inclined to just submit what you have and then get any extra documents if the notaire asks for them. But you may very occasionally come across a bureaucrat who demands translations or official certification.

[Iceni]

As Will says the French love official looking papers. By all means submit change of name deed but be prepared for it to be ignored - CPAM insists on using Di's birth name despite her High Court change.

John

[woody234]

a british passport is good enough to buy and sell property in france these days

[Ma Baggins]

thank you all that was all good to know.  I think I will try and persaude the agent to accept my passport and Decree Absolute while keeping my fingers crossed.  I have now found a photo copy of my marraige certificate I took before the court had it.  No doubt it will all sort out in the end.

[Patf]

In my experience they are more interested in your maiden name than any later names you might acquire.

[goose]

We are in the middle of purchasing a property in France and as we have both been divorced and are now married we had to supply EVERY document relating to the marriages both previous and our own also the decree absolute and our birth certificates!! We took along our passports just in case and they copied that too! In all the documentation we have had so far I am always referred to by my maiden name (which is French so this could help if we need it).

I am not surprised by anything the French require anymore after having to prove who I am and was [:D] It took 55 minutes to sign all the forms as there are 4 copies of the 30 page documents and we had to initial every page too [:(]. This is only the start I am dreading the final signing at the Notaires office.

[Clair]

[quote user="goose"]In all the documentation we have had so far I am always referred to by my maiden name [/quote]

At the risk of repeating myself, as far as French admin is concerned:

• The name you are registered with at birth IS your given (official) name.

• The
  details of a birth certificate are never amended and any change is
  matrimonial status (marriage, divorce) is added in the margin, which is
  why French admin requires recent (less than 3 months old) birth
  certificates.

• By convention, a woman can choose to use her husband's name on getting married, but her given (official) name remains the same.

• A woman with three dead husbands still has the same official name.
• A
  divorced French woman who had chosen to use her husband's surname during her
  marriage  must 'revert' to using her given (official) name, i.e. her maiden name (nom de jeune fille) and can
  only carry on using her ex-husband's surname if he agrees for her to do
  so.

[goose]

Hi Clair, I wasn't querying why they used my maiden name, I was just pointing it out to the person who wrote the original mail. As my maiden name is French it makes sense to use it anyway [:)]

I have learned an awful lot from this forum so thanks to everyone concerned.

[Clair]

Hi Goose

Nothing personal![:)]

This is one of the aspects of French admin which puzzles a lot of British people and it bears repeating several times a year! [:D][:D]

[Renaud]

"In general, as long as you have a piece of official-looking documentation, that will normally satisfy the French," say Will.

Arthur Ransome who was a war correspondent in Russia during the revolution, told the story that he was once in danger of a soviet firing squad. What saved him was a letter he produced with a flourish from his wallet. It was from the British Library demanding the return of a book. The quality of the paper and splendour of the die-stamped crest with the calligraphy of the signature so impressed his illiterate captors, that he was sent on his way.

[PaulT]

I do not think either of us was required to show our divorce papers.

Prior to the signing we signed papers altering our marriage regime and then to the formalities of the Acte.

However, our notaire seemed extremely unofficous whi possibly made a difference

Paul

[Ma Baggins]

I have just had my Compromis through, so i thought i would update what has been used on it in my case. 

It is all in the name I currently use (my partners, that i changed too with a home done Change of Name Deed). It states my birth name and it does referance that I was divorced, but does not show that name.  It quotes my passport number which i presume is being used to prove my current name, as the sellers are english and their passport numbers are not quoted.