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The only reason an agent removes a property from their particulars is when an offer has been made or the house has been withdrawn from sale.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!!
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!!
posted by Me at
5:52 pm
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