Buyer who changed mind on French property purchase handed €37,000 bill
The final sum owed was decided in court
The man ended up with a large bill due to the last-minute nature of his U-turn decision
RaffMaster/Shutterstock
A man in France was required to pay almost €37,000 due to cancelling a property purchase.
The man had signed a promesse de vente (sale/buy promise) on a property for €207,000. He cancelled the purchase at the last minute but found he still owed tens of thousands of euros, reports Le Figaro.
Property lawyer Gabriel Neu-Janicki wrote about the case and detailed the specific laws in question on a blogpost on his website.
The lawyer explained that the man was legally required to pay the €37,000 fees because the ‘cooling off’ period on the contract which would have allowed him to withdraw from the purchase without charge had passed, and because the contract did not have a ‘suspensive’ clause that would have allowed him to change his mind.
Under such terms anyone who promises to buy but does not risks having to pay not only 10% of the property price but also agent and legal fees.
“The refusal of the buyer (to complete the purchase) is a fault justifying the application of the penalty clause provided for in the contract,” said Mr Neu-Janicki.
Read also: Buying property in France: Two key steps
Read more: 12 key Q&As for anyone selling a property in France
Court decision
In this case, the potential buyer was sued by both the seller and the estate agent. The Nancy High Court ruled that the man must pay €20,700 (10% of the total transaction value) to the seller. The Nancy Court of Appeal upheld the ruling.
A further €12,000 in fees was added, payable to the estate agency whose agents had ultimately done their job despite no final sale going through, plus a further €4,000 in legal fees payable to both the seller and the agency.
This added up to a total of €36,700, some 18% of the total sale price.
