Terms and Conditions
With generally over 200 properties in the
Limousin and
Poitou Charentes regions, let us use our 14 years of experience to help you find your French property.
It is the policy of Immobilier Maisons Rurales to eschew any form of 'hard sell' and at all times to ensure complete veracity in its descriptions of properties.
It is the policy of Immobilier Maisons Rurales to eschew any form of 'hard sell' and at all times to ensure complete veracity in its descriptions of properties.
Maisons Rurales can guarantee that their fees will be the lowest available on any advertised property.
For your reference and security, please find below our French registration details:
SARL IMMOBILIER MAISONS RURALES
24 Place du Maréchal Leclerc, 86500 MONTMORILLON
RCS POITIERS 453 731 978 APE 703 A
Carte Professionnelle delivered by the Prefecture de la Vienne, No. 514T
Garantie Financière : AGF, 98-100 Rue de Richelieu, 75092 PARIS Cedex 02
Contact us by email - tara.finch@maisonsrurales.com
or telephone - 01227 832994 (UK) 05 49 48 55 61(France)
24 Place du Maréchal Leclerc, 86500 MONTMORILLON
RCS POITIERS 453 731 978 APE 703 A
Carte Professionnelle delivered by the Prefecture de la Vienne, No. 514T
Garantie Financière : AGF, 98-100 Rue de Richelieu, 75092 PARIS Cedex 02
Contact us by email - tara.finch@maisonsrurales.com
or telephone - 01227 832994 (UK) 05 49 48 55 61(France)
Situated on the market square, in the small, mediaeval town of MONTMORILLON in the heart of the Vienne, in the Poitou Charentes region, Immobilier Maisons Rurales will use their many years of experience to help you find the French home you are looking for. Our bi-lingual staff ensures that there are no language barriers and that your purchase is a simple, hassle free process!!
The purchase of a property abroad can be full of pitfalls for the unwary. With the language barrier, an unfamiliar legal system and a plethora of potential problems many people simply shy away from the idea of buying a home in another country. They, however, will be missing out on an enormous amount of enjoyment and a marvelous improvement in their quality of life. Whether you are seeking a holiday home or are considering a full time move, we can help you buy a property in
France with complete peace of mind. Immobilier Maisons Rurales is a company of the new millennium, with a new approach for a changing world. Established in 2000, our experienced staff are young and enthusiastic about living and working in
France and helping you to do the same. We will be brutally honest with you from the very beginning not only about what the houses are really like, but also about the reality of putting your dream into practice. We are not in the business of pulling the wool over anyone's eyes in order to make a quick sale.
By the time you read this you will have seen that we have a selection of properties available in the heart of rural
France ; this is just to wet your appetite. We are fully registered French estate agents working in the departments of Vienne (Poitou Charentes) and Haute Vienne (
Limousin ) to help you locate the property of your dreams from an ever changing portfolio. We have seen every property on our books ourselves and are happy to answer any questions you may have about them. We ensure complete veracity in our descriptions of properties and we can guarantee that you will know about the pig farm next door or the cracks caused by subsidence long before you ever arrive at the property. Please do not hesitate to drop us an email or give us a call if you would like more information about any of the properties that you see on our site - or just to discuss the feasibility of your plans and requirements with regard to the reality of buying in France.
Once you have arranged your trip to
France - and we are more than happy to help organise travel arrangements, hire car and accommodation - we will make appointments for you to view the properties that are of interest. We would suggest that you allow at least one day with us as new properties are coming onto the books all the time it would be a shame to miss the perfect house just through lack of time! We aim to always accompany you personally on your visit to a selection of properties. Therefore, as we are a small company do please give us as much notice as you can of your trip (particularly in school holiday periods) so that we can be sure to able to fit in an appointment for you. Please note that under French law you are not allowed to visit properties unless you are accompanied by a registered French estate agent or are at the very least carrying signed paperwork from us stating you are visiting a property with our permission. If we do not have a member of staff available to take you out we will provide you with this, along with maps and directions to look at the locations of your chosen properties. When you have found your favourites we will do our utmost to ensure that you are able to view the interior as quickly as possible in order to make your decision.
When it comes to the decision making process we want you to feel relaxed and under no pressure. It is our company policy to eschew any form of 'hard sell' so while we will be on hand for second viewings of your short list and to answer any questions you may have, we will leave you to make your decision in your own time.
Once you have found your dream house (with no illusions) and have decided to make it a reality we will deal with all the negotiation for you. In some cases it is not possible to negotiate the price of a property but we will always try! This is also the time to request any conditions to the purchase with regard to finance, planning etc. and we will be on hand to discuss this with you and to ensure that all necessary conditions are included in the first contract in order to avoid any pitfalls in the future. These conditions are in addition to the standard conditions precedent to which every sale is subject (local authority search, search of clear title, purging of rights of preemption etc.). These conditions are for your protection, and the notaire (the French equivalent of a solicitor) will complete the necessary searches in order to check that there is no obstacle to their fulfillment prior to completion.
On the acceptance of your offer we will arrange for the first contract to be drawn up for you. However, various diagnostic tests on the property being sold are now compulsory prior to this document being signed. These check out the presence of termites, asbestos and lead in the property, the energy consumption of the heating system, the state of any gas installation and the proximity of the property to any natural or technological risk (flood zones, power stations etc.) and will be annexed to the first contract for your information. These tests are paid for by the vendor. This first contract can either be signed in
France , if you are still in the area, or can be sent to you for signing on your return home. The contract we use is a completely bi-lingual document to ensure that you understand exactly what you are signing. We will also be on hand to answer any questions that you may have.
On the acceptance of your offer we will arrange for the first contract to be drawn up for you. However, various diagnostic tests on the property being sold are now compulsory prior to this document being signed. These check out the presence of termites, asbestos and lead in the property, the energy consumption of the heating system, the state of any gas installation and the proximity of the property to any natural or technological risk (flood zones, power stations etc.) and will be annexed to the first contract for your information. These tests are paid for by the vendor. This first contract can either be signed in
Once the first contract has been signed by both yourselves and the vendor, the property is secured for you, and you can now sit back and relax!
However, this is no longer so for the vendors, as since June 2001 you, the purchaser, now have the right to benefit from a seven day 'cooling off' period to ensure that you have made the right decision, during which time you are entitled to withdraw from the purchase without being required to give a reason. The seven days start only after you have received your signed copy of the contract back by registered post - this will come to you with paperwork for you to sign either to retract from the purchase or to acknowledge that you do wish to proceed having benefited from your period of reflection. When the seven days have expired and you have decided you definitely don't want to change your mind, you will be required to pay a 10% deposit to the notaire as a guarantee of your commitment. This deposit is fully refundable should the purchase be aborted due to the non-fulfillment of one of the conditions precedent or one of your specific conditions, however, if you simply change your mind the deposit will be handed over to the vendor!
Now our work begins in earnest, because in France the signing of the first contract is just the beginning, the completion of the sale does not happen until the signing of the final documents takes place in the notaire's office and the transfer of ownership is made, normally 8-12 weeks from signing first contract, but extending to as much as 16 weeks if you require outline planning permission for any works you may intend to do. Throughout this time we will keep in regular contact with you and the notaire, acting as intermediary to ensure that the purchase goes as smoothly as possible for you.
We will make the application for you if any outline planning permissions (for renovation works, installation of a swimming pool etc.) are required, however, due to changes in planning authority regulations over the last year we do need you to be able to be very specific about the work that you intend to do. You will be asked to provide plans and measurements of your intentions too, so it is worth bearing this in mind when you are visiting the property during the decision making process.
We will make the application for you if any outline planning permissions (for renovation works, installation of a swimming pool etc.) are required, however, due to changes in planning authority regulations over the last year we do need you to be able to be very specific about the work that you intend to do. You will be asked to provide plans and measurements of your intentions too, so it is worth bearing this in mind when you are visiting the property during the decision making process.
For those clients intending to purchase with a Euro mortgage we can help with the arrangement of this, act as intermediary with the bank and provide translations or full explanations of the documents you will receive relating to this. We charge no extra fees for the arrangement of your mortgage, however, please note that the bank will charge a fee for arranging the loan of approximately 350 euros. In addition to this there are also supplementary taxes to be paid to the notaire for the registration of the charge against the property - this is worked out on a sliding scale according to the value of the property and the amount you are borrowing. We are always happy to give you details of these costs relating to your own personal situation to ensure that there are no nasty surprises.
Just prior to completion, once all the searches have been carried out and you have been informed of the results, we will let you know the final balance to be transferred and help you make your arrangements for the signing of the final contract. Inheritance laws in
France are at best complicated, at worst labyrinthine, with the aid of the notaire we will guide you through to the best solution for your personal circumstances whatever they may be. It is essential to ensure that the correct form of final contract with regard to inheritance law is used at the time of completion as it can be costly to amend this at a later date. This is an issue that we will discuss with you at length and once we are agreed on a 'best fit' we will inform the notaire of your decision and ensure that this is carried through to the final documents.
If you are unable to go to
France for the final signing we can do this for you by power of attorney, which we will organise and translate for you. If you can travel to
France for the completion, we will accompany you to the notaire's office to act as interpreter for you. It is definitely worth trying to make it to
France for the final signing as this is usually quite an event! You get the keys in your hand and vacant possession (unless agreed otherwise) from the moment you put your signature on the deed and the vendor comes away with his cheque in hand, so everyone is usually very happy!!
On the day you complete we will accompany you and the vendors to the property to read the meters and arrange for the transfer of the services into your name. We can arrange for the bills to be sent to your home address if you are not making a permanent move to
France .
We can also arrange for your house insurance to be in place, as this is a legal obligation in
France , and for you to open a bank account as you will definitely need one to facilitate the payment of bills. The notaire will arrange for the taxe foncière and taxe d'habitation (the French equivalent of local authority taxes) to be changed into your name. For the current year you will not be liable for taxe d'habitation and only for a pro-rata of the taxe foncière, you will then receive the bills in your own right in the September / October of the year FOLLOWING your purchase.
Once completion has taken place we will not disappear!
We will be on hand to assist you with the numerous questions that occur when you are moving to a foreign country and settling in. All those little bits of assistance that cost us nothing to do, we are very happy to do for nothing as part of our commitment to you! If you are unsure whether the kind of help which you require is chargeable or not - please always check with us.
We also offer a full translation and interpretation service for all the other things that you may find you need help with - We will organize estimates for building works and liaise with tradesmen, from jobs as simple as changing a bathroom suite to a full barn conversion. We can also help with additional legal work, trips to prefectures and schools etc., sorting out paperwork for health cover, benefits and car registration, setting up small businesses and anything else where the language barrier just gets in the way!
Our charge for these services is 75 euros an hour - we keep a detailed time sheet, so you know exactly what we have done for you and when. We can also give you an estimate in advance of how much a certain task is likely to cost you in our time.
We are here to ensure that purchasing your property in
France is a pleasurable experience, not an exercise fraught with tension and worry! With the benefit of many years of experience of the French property market and the French legal system we can provide help and support for you throughout the purchasing procedure, leaving you with only the fun part of owning a property in France - we hope you enjoy it!