Our previous case study featured fictitious situations about fictitious characters buying a house in France. During the past years we have observed clients make mistakes and would like to recap some of those, so that future clients can learn and avoid the same problem. (Names have been removed to provide protection, anonymity and save embarrassment).

Clients A were determined to see as many houses as possible during their week in France. We had set aside a day with them to view 4-5 houses, but we received a call the day before their appointment to advise that they had one other property to fit in 1st thing in the morning and could we defer until 11.00 am. They then found that the other property was totally unsuited, had taken them over 100 miles out of their way and they couldn’t meet up until the afternoon. Having managed to get lost trying to short cut the journey, they arrived stressed out mid-afternoon, with only time to view 2 houses. In our opinion, a planned relaxed day giving you quality time viewing property is much more desirable and rewarding than a chase around the country of France.

Clients B were a couple who had a superb house in a very sought-after area in England, and would have no problem selling their house as they always had agents and friends asking for 1st option should they sell. Their visit to the area was fruitful and they found the house of their dreams only to find upon their return to England that the property took a lot longer to sell than they expected. You need to be in a position to proceed and sign a contract to secure a house. Don’t waste time looking if you can’t or won’t commit pen to paper.

One of the first things we do after you have made contact with us is recommend that you speak to our currency specialists FCD. It costs nothing; you can open a trading account and not be committed to anything. It does mean that you speak to an expert and receive advice upon whether the £ is likely to strengthen or weaken. Immediately that you find a property we will suggest that you fix your currency (both for your deposit and the balance to be paid in 3-4 months time). This then gives you the satisfaction and security of knowing that the exact price of the property is set in stone and cannot vary at the whim of a currency. Clients C didn’t follow this advice, we still don’t know why, but allowed things to drift and then we got a call out of the blue advising that they couldn’t proceed as the currency change meant that the house price had effectively gone up by several thousand £s. In actual fact, they had approached their bank, who gave them a near tourist rate as opposed to a commercial rate and the drop in the £ was nothing like as much as they had feared.

Locking into a forward contract once you have signed the contract makes common sense. It takes the stress and uncertainty out of the equation. Other snippets on banks’ involvement include an example where the bank took instructions from the Client D, only to forget to action this. (A minor oversight). Think about it... How often do you expect that your bank receive instructions to send international currency by telegraphic transfer to France? Just imagine their experience when measured against a currency dealer doing nothing else all day long.

Among the other services that we offer are insurances for our clients. Sometimes I think that buyers may be a bit sceptical about having one person looking after their affairs, and choose to do their own thing, or even worse inherit what the existing owner already has. This is one of the problems about reading articles and books on buying houses in France - you get misled and mis-advised quite often.

Clients E confidently arrived at the Notaire’s office for the final signing, knowing that their currency had arrived, so all they needed to do was sign on the dotted line. They planned to take over the vendors’ buildings insurance policy, to save ‘fussing about’. One slight problem emerged during the meeting with the Notaire - the vendor had cancelled the policy a year earlier and the buildings were not insured! Fortunately, through our contacts we were able to arrange immediate cover and an attestation was faxed to the Notaire allowing proceedings to progress to the desired conclusion.

We offer policies with schedules in English and support staff who can discuss your needs in English in the event of a claim. Rates are very competitive and we have a great relationship with the office concerned.

We also offer Title Insurance, a sort of peace of mind insurance, based on a competitive premium to give you initially 2 years worth of cover against potential title defects. The cost is very small in comparison to the overall cost of the property transaction, and we suggest that you consider it in this light. Client F of ours had taken out this cover, and purchased a holiday home. After his 1st visit to the property following completion, his neighbour moved the boundary fences, something we received a call about from another neighbour. Fortunately, all was resolved without resorting to making a claim on the policy, but in the event that the problem had remained, our client would have had the peace of mind that the insurer would have resolved the problem within 6 months.

Financing your purchase is something that should be prepared in advance of your visit. We offer an in-principle mortgage approval facility ahead of visits, and you need to bear in mind that a mortgage can take 2 months + to arrange here. Clients G had plenty of time to do this, with a relatively long completion date. We had arranged a mortgage in principle at the time that they made their accepted offer. Having returned to the UK, they were hell bent on getting the very best rate on both the mortgage and the currency. However, checking everything out cost them as the £ fell against the € and never recovered to it’s previous levels. But the most alarming situation came about with their mortgage. The “compromis de vente” had specified a date by which the mortgage had to be secured (offering them a get out clause). They were still talking to numerous advisers when this point passed and hadn’t submitted a complete application. The alarm bells were ringing and the completion date was now seriously in question. The clients opted to proceed with our original lender, via a 3rd party, who clearly had not got a very good relationship with this French bank. Despite our further interventions to assist, the completion was delayed by 2 weeks, and during this time the buyers had a stressful period not knowing what was happening. The lesson to be learned is by all means shop around but then make a decision. I think Winston Churchill once said “There are more bad decisions made through indecision, than poor decisions”, how very true.

Do also remember that we are intermediaries and not estate agents - this means that we are working for you and with you. If the owner is getting desperate to sell, we will often have such “inside knowledge” and we can alert you accordingly. Being in the know and having your finger on the pulse can save thousands of € / pounds on a transaction and secure for you a property that on the face of it may be out of your reach. We will accompany you to the Notaire for the completion and explain in detail the process after signing the compromis de vente. This reassurance is part of our normal service and welcomed by our many satisfied clients. Please bear in mind the experiences of our clients above and try not to fall into the same traps.