I reserve the accommodation(housing) thanks to the provisional sales agreement

When the salesman and yourself came to an agreement on the price and the date in which the accommodation will be free, you sign a provisional sales agreement. It is a contract by which the salesman is going to reserve you his good (property) up to the signature of the definitive sale.

Why cannot we sign at once the definitive sale?

Because, for a sale of real estate, it is necessary to obtain various papers (planning certificate, mortgage state, etc.) and the solicitor who is the only one to be able to take charge of it, needs time to obtain these documents of the various administrations. Also, if you ask for a credit (loan), it will set a little of time.

Once all these formalities were made by the solicitor and your possible obtained credit , that is approximately three months after the signature of the provisional sales agreement, you sign the definitive act of sale at the solicitor. This deadline(extension) can be lengthened if it arranges the two parties.

The provisional sales agreement can be signed at the solicitor's or privately (without solicitor).

May I have also my solicitor?

You can sign the provisional sales agreement then the definitive sale at the solicitor of the salesman, but if you wish to have your own solicitor, what we advise you, know that it will not cost you a centime furthermore, both solicitors being divided the fees.

Reminder(Abseiling): if the provisional sales agreement can be signed without solicitor, the sale on the other hand will necessarily have to be authenticated by this last one. It is moreover him who takes care to get back all the necessary papers.

A very secure sale

Today the buyer is really very well protected. The salesman has to put back to him(her), during the signature of the provisional sales agreement, numerous diagnoses which he will have made realize by a company approved and assured(insured). According to the type of sale, the place where it is situated and the date of construction of the building, the diagnoses are different. See the diagnoses.

During the signature of the provisional sales agreement, you will not arrange certain information, in particular in town planning, because it is necessary to wait that the solicitor asks for them. Feel reassured, if ever this information was negative, you could stop the sale and get back your compensation(allowance) of fixed asset(immobilization).
And if I made a mistake?

Once the provisional sales agreement was signed, you have a deadline(extension) of seven days during which you can again change opinion). This deadline(extension) is called the cooling-off period.

* If you sign devan " t solicitor, this one will indicate to you when comes to an end your deadline(extension).

* If you sign directly with your salesman, this one will send you to recommend a copy of the signed provisional sales agreement. The deadline(extension) begins the day after the first presentation(display) in the opinion of reception.

If you pursue your purchase, you have no initiative to be made. If, on the other hand, you decide not to buy, send at once and naturally before the end of deadline(extension), a registered letter from the salesman and from the solicitor (if the compromise was signed in front of solicitor).

What payment during the provisional sales agreement?

When you sign the provisional sales agreement, you pay generally 10 % of the amount of the sale to reserve the accommodation(house). It is called a compensation(allowance) of fixed asset(immobilization). Sometimes this compensation(allowance) is returned to 5 % when the signature of the sale is planned beyond three usual months, or when the transaction(deal) concerns the very expensive good(property).

If you do not obtain the credits which you declared to ask either if the information of town planning is negative, you can give up the purchase and get back this sum. On the other hand, if you change opinion, after the cooling-off period, you will lose this sum.

If you sign privately or at a solicitor, always make this check for the order of the solicitor, he(it) will put down(deposit) him(it) on an escrow account by waiting the definitive sale (attention, the check will be sold

How much cost solicitor's expenses?

In the former, solicitor's expenses vary 7 to 9 % according to the value of the good(property) and the amount of the credit. It is you, the buyer, that settle them, generally in two steps: you pay a reserve when the solicitor starts the steps(initiatives) and you pay the balance during the signature of the sale d@éfinitive.

Have I the other expenses to be paid?

If you buy an apartment in co-ownership, we shall ask you to pay a sum called "working capital". It is a perceived(collected) deposit by the management agent which will be paid off to you when you will resell the accommodation(housing). To know the exact amount of the working capital, you can phone to the management agent of the building.

As a general rule, the salesman gives you the keys of the accommodation(housing) the day of the signature of the authentic act at the solicitor, who intervenes approximately three months after the signature of the provisional sales agreement.

If you wish and if it is possible (apartment empty for example), you can agree with the owner to obtain keys earlier. In that case, think of making sure at once. See the insurances of the accommodation(housing).

Provisional sales agreement

Contract by which salesman and buyer make a commitment both, the one to sell, the other one to buy, to a given price. Legally, the sale is formed from the signature of the contract. this precontract can be signed between the parts(parties) or in front of solicitor.

Bill of sale definitive Contract by which the buyer becomes officially an owner. It is about an authentic act which must be necessarily signed with a solicitor.

I have found my apartment. This owner wishes to sign the provisional sales agreement between us, and not in front of solicitor. Is it possible?

Absolutely. The sale of an immovable property is always made in two time: first of all, the signature of a provisional sales agreement, followed approximately 3 months later by the conclusion of the definitive bill of sale. Only this one is necessarily made by a solicitor. For the compromise, you have the choice to sign either in front of solicitor, or privately, that is directly between private individuals: buyer or salesman. The compromise has the same legal value in both cases. We recommend the signature in front of solicitor because it is about an important act. However, if for some reason, you cannot obtain a meeting(appointment) quickly at the solicitor, you have the possibility of signing directly with the buyer.

Choice of the solicitor

I have just found my house. We wish to sign the provisional sales agreement in front of solicitor. Who, of him or I, has to choose the solicitor?
Even if the buyer usually has priority for the choice of the solicitor, this choice is totally free. You can even choose each your solicitor. In this hypothesis, both solicitors intervene in the transaction and divide up the tasks and the fees by whom(which) the amount is not increased) according to rules determined by the interdepartmental chambers of the solicitors.

Cooling-off period Deadline(Extension) of 7 days from which benefit the buyers of new or former(old) housing, to cancel the contract signed privately (article L271-1 of the Code of the Constitution and the House). This faculty of retraction concerns the contracts of booking of apartments, the contracts of construction of detached houses and generally any precontract concerning the acquisition of housing, new one or second hand one.

Co-ownership Distribution of the property of a built building or a group of buildings built between several persons by lots, every lot understanding a privative part(apartment, cellar) and a share of common parts (staircase, elevator, courtyard), garden). Since a building belongs to two different owners and since it is divided into lot, it is subjected to the status of the co-ownership. The co-ownership is governed by the law of July 10th, 1965 and the decree of March 17th, 1967.

Labor-union Council consultative Organ asked to assist and to check(control) the management agent in its management. it is endowed with no decision-making power. Since 1985, the institution of a labor-union advice(council) is compulsory, except when the general assembly gives up it. He(it) is established(constituted) by co-owners named by the general assembly with the majority of the voters of all the co-owners. A president can be indicated(appointed) within the members of the aforementioned advice(council).

If you buy the good(property) (apartment, car park, shop) in a building, you will become a co-owner. Sometimes, houses in new villages built by promoters(developers) are also in co-ownership. We speak then about " horizontal co-ownership ". It is rare, but if it is the case, what what follows also concerns you.

Privative and left common parts(parties)

There is co-ownership when several persons have to be divided common parts(parties). In a building, these common parts(parties) are the hall, the intercom, the elevator, the staircases, the landings, the walls or the carrier floors, the facades, the roof, the collective heating, the conduits and the girdles, the collective antennas, the premises common as the changing room of the guard, etc. In a new village, they are traffic lanes, green spaces, common premises, etc.

The privative parts(parties) are your "at home"!. It is your apartment, its terrace, its cellar, a garage, a room of service either your Ì shop, your house. But remember there, in a building, pipes, conduits of fireplace(chimney), the carrier walls, while being at home, are common parts(parties). If you have to realize works on these elements, you have to obtain the authorization of the management agent.

The division in lots of co-ownership to establish the rights and the loads(responsibilities) which return to every co-owner, the building or the new village is divided into lots of co-ownership. A lot is always constituted by two elements:

* Your privative part(party) * your share of common parts(parties) Every prize(lot) is numbered and every co-owner possesses the privative property of his prize(lot) and a share of the common parts(parties) which expresses itself in percentage.

During your purchase, you will read for example that you become an owner of:

- lot n°6 including the privative property of an apartment in the 2nd floor, including,2 rooms,kitchen, bathroom, and the co-ownership of the common parts up to 245/1.000 - lot n°21 including the privative property of a cellar in the 2nd basement, numbered 32, and the co-ownership of the common parts up to 34/1000.

Voucher namely: You will often hear about "thousandth" of co-ownership, simply because the majorié of buildings are divided into one thousand fractions but in the facts, the share expresses himself in percentages because the building can be divided into 7.243 percentages or quite other number.

The regulation(payment) of co-ownership to know your rights and obligations(bonds) concernant your privative parts( and the common parts you will receive, during your purchase, a "Bible": the regulation of co-ownership.

This regulation contains among others:

* The destination of every lot: house, offices, businesses, * the functioning of the co-ownership with the name of the authorities which are going to manage it (the management agent and the labor-union advice(council)), * the distribution loads(responsibilities). Indeed, you will not pay the same loads of elevator if you are at the first floor or at the 6th, etc.

This regulation(payment) can be modified if, for example, a co-owner buys two apartments from the same floor and wishes to get back a part of the landing, or two superimposed apartments and to create a duplex.

Accommodation charges Definition:

Spending(Expenses) and cool(expenses) Fliés in the interview(maintenance) of the common parts and in the collective services. Distributed in general loads and special loads, accommodation charges are proportional among percentages of every co-owner and recover from the accounting(countable) system of loads(responsibilities) to fall.

General loads All the spending(expenses) for the preservation, the interview(maintenance) and the administration (insurances, fees management agent, guards, etc.) of the building. These loads are distributed between all the co-owners, according to their percentages special Loads. The spending(expenses) concerning equipments with exclusive custom(usage) of certain co-owners (example an elevator). The special loads(responsibilities) are distributed according to the utility