Our family could inherit a holiday flat in the south of France. That all sounds very glamorous but it is proving a real nightmare as we are scattered around the globe and no one speaks French or has any knowledge of the legal or property system there.

Any advice or experience would be most welcome.

Regards

Veronica.

The legal side of property owning is usually fairly complex and dealing with property in a
foreign country makes it even more complicated regarding inheritances, taxation etc.
Many lawyers are members of international groupings and a local lawyer in SA might
have contacts in Europe who could advise on the basics.

I have a house in France, but I've never found myself in a situation where I've had to deal with inheritance issues. If it is in a place where there are lots of Brits (taking advantage of the great opportunities provided by the EU to migrate here to work, retire, etc. ) then there should be local avocats who speak English and can help you deal with this.

Hi Veronica.

I live in France. The key person in property transactions is the "notaire" - the notary.

He prepares all the documents for transfer of title. Presumably the person(s) you inherited from would already have been in contact with one. If so, perhaps you could use him.

If not, do a Google search "notaire + name of town".

Hopefully you would find one who speaks English, especially if the flat is in a tourist area.

Bonne chance !


Joe

we found the biggest problem with a holiday house is that you are tied to continually going back to it.     And if you don't pay for people to look after it then you spend a chunk of your holiday doing maintenance, closing it down for teh winter etc etc.

eventually we sold ours and used the profit to travel much more widely, would never do it agin. 

One relative who had a place in France and could speak good french still used to take a translator along when meeting the Notaire as it was pretty rural, he didn't speak and English and they didn't dare get anything wrong

Thanks to everyone for the replies. I think we will have to sell our flat as soon as we inherit it as we live thousands of miles away. It would be very expensive to fly to France for holidays. It also needs a lot of work doing to it before it could be used and needs furnishing too. The practicalities of running it even if it is through a letting agency are going to be difficult.

I was wondering how long the inheritance and transfer of property usually takes. We do have a French speaking solicitor in the UK but she is very non committal about time and costs. It may not be economically viable at all and we may have to walk away and leave it in the hands of the French state.

Quote from: joe cassidy on April 06, 2014, 04:05:08 PM

The key person in property transactions is the "notaire" - the notary.

Indeed, as Joe says, it is a notaire and not an avocat who would deal with this. If you UK solicitor is not being particularly helpful, you might want to try and English speaking French notary.

I think before you decide what to do you should get the flat valued.

A relatively modern 40m² flat 1 km from the coast in a popular holiday area could be worth around 150 000 Euro.

If it's 30 km from the coast it would be worth a lot less.

Best regards,


Joe

There can be a lot of pitfalls for the unwary - and even the wary. There was a documentary a couple of years ago about an English couple who acquired a French property and got into trouble when cannabis was found growing in the garden. I seem to remember that wasn't their only legal problem: the property laws in France are very unlike those in England.