Notarial property negotiation

This is a little known area of their activity: notaries can negotiate property assets. This makes them professionals who work with their client from the planned sale through to publication of the authentic deed.

The Superior Council of French Notariat [Conseil supérieur du notariat] wanted to develop this area of expertise through a network, a joint website (immobilier.notaires.fr) and a single brand (immobilier.notaires®). This pro-vides easy access in digital format to all of the profession's tools related to property. The goal is to ensure that French people finally identify notaries as representatives for buying or selling their house or apartment.

The notary profession is relying on its comprehensive coverage of France and innovations such as immo-interactif®, an online sales room that can be used to sell your property to the highest bidder within 45 days with all the guarantees of a notarial service.

All of the services provided by the notary profession can be accessed at www.immobilier.notaires.fr.

Note that since 1 March 2016, a notarial property negotiation is no longer subject to a national fee schedule. The notary is free to set fees based on the type of property and the terms of the property listing, but remains governed by the profession's code of ethics.
The expenses payable during any property transfer remain subject to a regulated rate. They include, in particular, the duties and taxes payable to the State as well as the notary's remuneration for drawing up the authentic sales deed.

A notary will bring you the benefit of knowledge of the local property market and access to notarial databases. This allows the notary to suggest a reliable estimate of the property's worth, thereby limiting the sales timeframe.

More generally, a notary will advise you on the legal aspects of the transaction, in relation to your situation and your personal assets (sale of a jointly owned property, constitution of a non-trading property company [SCI], joint purchase by two or more persons, family donations to assist the financing, etc.).

To accelerate the sale, the notary may offer to organise an auction or to sell the property through Immo-Interactif, an online sales package offered by the notary profession.

The notarial office will help the seller, when he or she decides to sell, to put together the sales file, which has become more onerous these past few years with the SRU and ALUR laws. The notary can conduct all verifications well in advance, to ensure the sales file is reliable and thus save time.

The notary will draft the pre-contract (preliminary contract of sale or provisional sales agreement) based on this verified sales file, which is not necessarily the case when sellers deal directly between private individuals.