Bill of Sale of Existing Housing

Verified 21 April 2023 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)

You buy or sell one housing which you are about to sign the bill of sale. This is a authentic instrument must be written by a notary.

What is the content the bill of sale? Do you have a reflection period ? How and when is the payment ? When are you going to get your title to property ?

We are taking stock of the situation.

To prepare the bill of sale, the notary first checks the legal situation of the seller, the buyer and the property.

Legal status of persons

Before writing the bill of sale, the notary check obligatory next points :

  • Identity of the 2 parts, by requesting a birth certificate and a supporting document including a photo and the signature (national identity card or passport for example)
  • Capacity of the 2 parties to sign the deed (a minor or a protected major must be assisted or represented by an authorized person who will sign the document with or on behalf of him)
  • Compliance of power of attorney given to a third party by the buyer or seller absent on the day of signature of the deed
  • Buyer's criminal record to ensure that he is not prohibited from purchasing residential real estate

Legal status of the property

The notary check in particular the next points :

  • Mortgage Statement to attest to the seller's right to property and his ability to dispose freely of the goods and to know the mortgage registrations
  • City planning Rules city planning certificate applicable (request from a
  • Cadastral location
  • Right of pre-emption the Business for Land Management and Rural Settlement (Safer) for Agricultural Land
  • Right of pre-emption of local and regional authorities (urban, commercial, right of pre-emption of sensitive natural areas)
  • Right of pre-emption of joint-partners when there is division
  • Seller's ownership origin

The final act must contain the following information:

  • Seller and Buyer Contact Information
  • Address of the property
  • Origin of the property (datee of the previous bill of sale, name of the previous owner, notarial act...)
  • Detailed description of the property, its equipment and annexes
  • Existence of a mortgage and/or a bondage
  • Sales price
  • Methods of payment (with or without the help of a mortgage)
  • Amount of fees charged to the person responsible for the sale and to whom the payment is due
  • Date of availability of the property
  • Suspensive conditions where there are
  • Information on co-ownership
  • Information on the conditions for exercising the right of reflection where there has been no promise of sale 

Failure to provide information on the right of reflection shall be punishable by an administrative fine of a maximum amount €3,000 for a natural person and €15,000 for a legal person.

The technical real estate diagnostic file provided by the seller must must be annexed to the deed of sale.

It depends on whether a sales compromise was signed by the buyer and the seller before the final act of sale.

Répondez aux questions successives et les réponses s’afficheront automatiquement

Final act preceded by a sales compromise

The buyer was given a 10-day withdrawal period following the signature of the compromise. There's no reflection period left.

Other situation

If no compromise has been signed, the buyer has a reflection period of 10 calendar days before signing the bill of sale. He can renounce to buy the property by not signing the deed of sale.

The draft act and its annexes are submitted by the notary, by letter RAR: titleContent or by hand. The cooling-off period starts the day after the firstre presentation of the letter RAR: titleContent or hand-picking.

The authentic instrument cannot be signed during this period of 10 days. No amount of money cannot be claimed during the reflection period.

Please note

When the last day of the reflection period is a Saturday, Sunday, holiday or non-working day, the period is extended to 1er working day next.

The deed must be signed by the seller and the buyer before a notary.

When one of them cannot be present, he can be represented by giving a third party a power of attorney under private signature.

The representation of the absent person is indicated in the bill of sale.

The bill of sale is signed on paper or on electronic media. Whatever the medium, the notary reads the bill of sale aloud before the buyer and the seller sign it.

Act on paper

The notary shall be required to include the following information on the document:

  • Date in all letters and place where the document is signed
  • Name and place of establishment of the notary receiving the document
  • Names, forenames and domicile of the parties and of all the signatories to the act
  • Numbering of each page and total number indicated at the end of the act
  • Mention that the document has been read by the parties or that it has been read to them
  • Number of blanks crossed out and the words and numbers crossed out

The document must be written without overloading, line spacing, or addition.

The documents annexed to the deed must be signed by the notary.

If the parties declare that they do not know or cannot sign, the instrument must state that fact.

The notary who wrote the deed keeps one original called the minute. It is kept in the archives of the notarial study for 75 years, then transferred to the public archives.

Act in electronic form

The bill of sale can be signed in electronic form: we are talking about a authentic instrument electronic (PPA).

The notary shall be required to include the following information on the document:

  • Date in all letters and place where the document is signed
  • Name and place of establishment of the notary receiving the document
  • Names, forenames and domicile of the parties and of all the signatories to the act
  • Mention that the document has been read by the parties or that it has been read to them

The document must be written without overloading, line spacing, or addition.

The notary uses an information processing system approved by the Supreme Council of the notary (CSN). It guarantees the integrity and confidentiality of the content of the dematerialized act.

The EFA shall be sent to the central electronic minutier of notaries of France (MICEN) where the document, its annexes and the signatures of all parties are kept.

The notary may issue a copy of a dematerialized act in paper or electronic form. He shall include the date, his secure electronic signature and the image of his seal.

Dematerialized copies may be transmitted electronically by the notary.

At the end of the signing session, the notary provides the buyer with a proof of ownership. In principle, he also gives it to him the keys.

After the signature, the notary registers a copy of the bill of sale with the land advertising service and the land registry.

On the day of the signature of the deed of sale, the buyer must pay the full price of the sale and the notary's fees.

The selling price is paid by wire transfer if it is greater than or equal to €3,000.

The notary issues a receipt to the buyer. It transfers the amount of the transaction to the seller after the registration of the deed with the land advertising service.

In principle, the transfer period does not exceed 1 month.

If there are funds remaining to the buyer's credit after registration, the notary sends him a check or a transfer with the detailed statement of fees and fees.

If not, he shall request the additional provision before sending him his title.

Please note

If a promise of sale has been signed, a capital allowance has been paid by the buyer. It is paid in return for the seller's commitment to sell his real estate exclusively to the designated purchaser. This fixed asset allowance is deducted from the sale price.

The notarial fees are at the expense of the buyer. The seller and the buyer can decide otherwise.

These fees consist of:

  • Fees and taxes collected by the notary and remitted to the public treasury (registration fee, land advertising tax or value added tax)
  • Remuneration of the notary (drafting of the bill of sale, consultations, expertise...)
  • Costs incurred on behalf of the seller and the buyer (e.g. cadastre extract)

The amount of notarized fees remains the same when the seller and the buyer each have their notary. The costs are then shared between the 2 notaries.

The amount of these costs can be estimated using a simulator:

Calculate the amount of the costs of acquiring a property

The buyer becomes the owner of the land when the bill of sale is signed. This transfer of ownership becomes enforceable to third parties after publication of the act in land advertising service.

The notary must ensure the land advertising by recording the deed of sale in the real estate file of the land advertising service on which the land depends.

Who shall I contact

Please note

in the departments of Haut-Rhin, of Lower Rhine and the Moselle, the deed is published in the land register.

After registration at the land advertising service, the notary notify copy of the deed of ownership to the buyer by hand or by letter RAR: titleContent or by a Commissioner of Justice.

This copy, bearing the stamps of the tax authorities, shall constitute the title to property.

The time limit for receiving this copy is generallyapproximately 6 months after the signature of the bill of sale.

Who can help me?

Find who can answer your questions in your region