The waiting game...

Still no news about our mortgage - though we did hear on Monday that we would definitely have a decision by the end of the week. But then we were told (several weeks ago) that we would have a decision in a week. Its all very frustrating. And no signed compromis yet either - and no word from the notaire - who promised to chase up the last of the parties to sign. (As mentioned before - receipt, by recorded delivery, of the compromis signed by all parties, triggers the seven day cooling off period). In France, things happen slowly - very slowly!

We have, however, had a lovely email from the vendors (our first direct contact with them). They are still deciding which items of furniture they wish to sell (we thought this had been discussed and agreed - but clearly not!) They did give us some useful information about the village and our neighbours. Apparently there is a gentlemen who used to work for the commune who mows the grass at the house and generally keeps an eye on things - so we are just hoping that he will be happy to continue.

At the moment we just want to sign, move in and get on with the jobs but it seems like the waiting game will carry on for a while yet....

Mortgage application

We decided to borrow in France for a number of reasons. Firstly the Euribor rates are much lower then LIBOR rates. This means it is possible to borrow in France at 3,8% fixed for ten years - much lower than the equivalent LIBOR (Sterling) rates. Further by having a mortgage denominated in Euros we have a natural 'hedge' against our Euro property investment. If the Euro strengthens then the value of our house (in sterling) falls - but so does our mortgage. This still leaves us vulnerable to exchange rate movements for our monthly mortage repayments but we decided to fix those using a forward contract.

So on to the paperwork. Sheesh we had to provide copy bills, bank statements, marraige certificates, birth certificates, loan statements, payslips and P60's going back...well it seemed forever, letters from our employer - you name it they wanted it. The envelope weighed a tonne.

This all went off about two weeks ago and we were told it would take a week to make a decision. But this is a week in French time ;). We have to learn to chill and take things slowly... and buying a house is a very good learning curve!

Moving on

Having heard that our offer had been accepted, the next stage in the process is to sign the 'compromis de vente'. This is a preliminary contract which is a promise to buy / sell respectively. Once signed by the vendor it is immediately binding. The purchaser on the other hand has a seven day cooling off period. After that, if either party default, they have to pay the other party damages equal to 10% of the purchase price of the property. The cooling off period starts when the contract has been signed by all parties and the purchaser has received the signed contract by registered post.

The French have a very different approach to buying and selling property to the British. In the UK there is no contractual obligation until the final contracts are signed. It is also the 'norm' to have structural survey on any property that you are considering buying - indeed most banks require one. Not so in France. In France it is 'buyer beware'. Properties are sold as seen with few, if any, structural surveys being done prior to purchase. Further, you cannot get a formal mortgage offer until your bank has a copy of the signed 'compromis de vente'. As a consequence the 'compromis de vente' has to include a clause to the effect that if the mortgage application is unsuccessful then the buyer remains entitled to recover his deposit. Given our concerns about the roof, the electrics, the fosse septique (septic tank - few rural properties have mains drains) we thought it prudent to commission a surveyors report as soon as practical. Whilst we could include a clause regarding the mortgage (or absence of one) we cannot, apparently, include a clause on defects identified by a surveyor.

The surveyor completed the report within a week. Whilst not perfect the report was a lot better than we anticipated and so we happily signed the compromis - though not until we had spent an entire weekend translating the derned thing!

A little history...

After many months (read several years!) of subscribing to immobilier websites, subscribing to mailing lists and generally reading up on the whole process of buying a property in France we planned a house hunting trip last November. We thought we had found a perfect place until the surveyors report arrived. The house had slippage, probably caused by the last few hot dry summers and not helped by the new extension that had been added to the house and the removal of a large tree. Further, the vendors had not taken out insurance for the renovation works - which we are told is a fairly typical practice in France. Fortunately we were still inside the seven day 'cooling off' period. We withdrew our offer and went back to the drawing board several hundred pounds lighter for the experience.

February, this year, we returned to look again. We saw over twenty properties in an exhausting five days and managed to clock up 2500km! However we did find a lovely house.

It was rather a peculiar set of circumstances that led to us buying the house. MOH lost his passport on route from Bordeaux airport to the B&B. We had stopped several times 'en route' and so had absolutely no idea where it could be. After many telephone calls to the UK and to the French embassy in Paris we discovered that he would have to visit the British Consulate in Bordeaux to get an emergency passport. It was now Tuesday and we had already visited 'our' house on the Monday and although we instantly fell in love with the house we had been relectant to make an offer so early in our trip - especially as the roof seemed a little suspect. It was when I was stuck in another agents office waiting for MOH to return from Bordeaux that I realised the agent had removed 'our house'from the listing particulars. The only reason an agent removes a property from their particulars is when an offer has been made or the house has been withdrawn from sale.

We were so upset at the thought it had been sold that it galvanised us into action- we decided to make an offer. Not knowing whether there was another buyer we called the Notaire the following morning and offered less than the asking price. The Notaire promised to call the vendor and later that day we discovered that we had summised correctly - another offer had been made - not at the full asking price but at more than we had offered. Fortunately, the other offer hadn't been accepted. After a little discussion we called back and offered the asking price. Although our previous visit to France hadn't been successful we had learned that, once the asking price was offered, the vendor was obligated to accept.

The Notaire called us back and told us that our offer was acceptable to the vendor. Home and dry we thought - until the folowing day when we received another call to say that the other party had offered 1,000 euro more than the asking price - and had asked our Notaire to ask us what we were prepared to do about it. Neither we nor the Notaire were very happy at this point. The Notaire kindly offered to waive 1,000 euro of his fees so that we could match the other offer and still pay the same price. The Notaire wrote a wonderful email, reminding the vendor of the Mandat de Vente they had signed and requested that he confirm by fax his acceptance of the offer on the following Monday. Hence we travelled back to the UK not knowing if we had a house or not - and spent a nail biting weekend waiting for Monday.

On Monday I called - to hear our offer had been accepted... in writing!!