Understanding 'the system' in France

First a disclaimer: As I write these blog posts it is all in the past - the house is bought -a moving date is set. We hit the point of no return sometime over the summer and I am just recounting the past 6 - 8 months....

So starting the summer we weren't sure how much 'the dream house' was worth, how much it would cost, or how much the bank would loan us for the house. We weren't sure if, as Americans, we could live in France and work in Switzerland. We weren't sure about some sort of land dispute with a neighbor. We were sure that the mayor liked us, we liked the house and most importantly we could afford it.

We decided to use the summer to tackle all of our issues. Oh. That's right. Summer + France = nothing gets done. Where was Vinny from the bank? Provence. Mrs. R - where was she? Tractor competition in Germany. The mayor? Nice. OK - we spent some time in Gascony and a weekend Burgundy... Just so everyone is aware - nothing - I mean zero - gets done in France over the summer. Except for tanning, Pastis drinking, and relaxing. Everyone is on holiday or just back or is going or has visitors. Forget coordinating a real estate transaction. 

We (ok Aimee) dove into the dirty task of hammering out a price with the seller. It took weeks - but we finally came to an agreement.  So now we had a price. Vinny liked it - we liked it. All was good with the purchase. Except the issue of living in France...time to get serious.

So we contacted the French authorities. There is one man in Switzerland who issues visas to live in France - Didier. Didier seemed happy to help - but we needed an address in France to qualify for the visa. We asked 'How do we do that?'  'Buy a house!' he says... So we agree to buy Mrs. R's house and set a date for signing for the house.

Purchasing a house in France is interesting - the buyer and seller meet with a Notaire (roughly a Notary with a bit more real estate knowledge) and sign a Compromis de Vente. This is basically an agreement to buy the house with a seven day period to back out (just enough time to get to apply for the visa and find out if we are worthy enough). The agreement also has plenty of details on furniture and fixtures that are staying in the house (to reduce the value so the tax/fee is a bit lower) and sets a date for the handover of the keys among other things...all sorts of fun details.  So why not?

The meeting with the Notaire was set - September 2 - we were all back from holiday refreshed and ready to get to work.  Oh - but wait. What about that little issue with the neighbors? The land dispute. Probably something to be discussed at the meeting...

So we arrive at the Notaire's office ready to go. We met Mrs. R in the lobby - she really is a nice woman - no hard feelings about the negotiations or what happened in the past. She basically wants to move on and we are willing to buy the house. Ben shows up a bit later and we start the transaction.

This is the first of many crazy meetings over the past month that we have held in a mixture of French, English and German.

Here is the language breakdown for this meeting:

Ben: French and German (but a Swiss/Alsatian variety)

Mrs. R: German, basic English, and basic French

Aimee: English, basic German

Me: English, basic French, basic German

You do the venn diagram. It wasn't easy. But if you ever need a fully tri-lingual Notaire in the Southern Alsace I can help you out. Basically (if you drew the diagram) - everything had to be stated in French, then German and then in English. Looking back at the diagram you just drew German was probably the best language to use BUTwe were Americans in France buying a house from an English speaking German woman and her French boyfriend. Language is such a situational thing here - it is all about where you are, how much of what language each person speaks and the legal language a contact is written in. It was a fun three hours of signing papers and debating the best words to use in each language....

Then we got to a word that nobody wanted to translate into English. Tribunal. The Notaire says 'What is this word? Um.. I do not know zis in English. Zer was a decision at the tribunal about ze land.' I may not sprechen the französisch so well but I can understand it pretty well. And the tribunal would be 'the court' to us englische sprecherers. 

So the alarms went off.  Crap. But as it turns out the decision was in our favor...

Here is the story. There is a great garage on the property we are buying. Mrs. R and Ben built it for his tractors - three bays with tons of space upstairs. We don't have too many tractors and since there are two other garage bays we decided that it would make a great garage/guest house if we finished it off. A major selling point for us as we have guests who might want to stay for a while - and eventually we could put the kids out there a la Mike Seaver. Looked great when we saw it but then Mrs. R told the story of the garage.

Way back when Mrs. R was in her thirties and Ben was in his twenties (early twenties) they built the garage. The neighbors took notice and complained that it was too close to their plot line (the lots are real narrow). So the neighbors forced Mrs. R to move the garage 10cm away from the plot line... That is how it started.

A few years later the neighbors decided to build a garage close to the plot line... The did it within 5 cm. Bad move. Mrs. R (being German and all) told them to stop and then had surveyors come out to check the plot lines. Well the French surveyors were a bit late and the garage was built. BUT Mrs. R discovered that the assumed plot lines were WRONG and that the neighbors had actually built their garage 3cm over  onto her property. So now there is a 10m x 3cm piece of the neighbor's garage that is on Mrs. R's property. Uh-oh. From there it goes to court.

Of course in the days leading up to the house purchase Mrs. R gets the order from a high court that she can demolish the neighbor's garage...or sell them the land.

Fun stuff - and so this is September 2. Our meeting with the French consulate is set for September 3 - the next day. So we really needed the Compromis de Vente to proceed. That is is IF we were actually allowed to live in France. Still no official response to the question at this point....

Comments

[Neil & Sue OLeary]

wow ..... waiting for next installment!