Sellers in France must be honest about ongoing issues

Failure to do so could result in a sale being cancelled, as happened in two cases in the south east and in the Pau area in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques.

In the first, the Cour de Cassation top appeal court confirmed a ruling from Grenoble that a woman who refused to sign the final sale deed after discovering serious “neighbour problems” in the block of flats should face no penalty.

This is despite the usual buyer’s cooling-off period having expired.

The court also ordered the seller to pay the woman €3,000.

The woman had stated that calm was essential to her decision to buy and security was “primordial” due to childhood abuse.

However, the final sale deed referred to a court case under way against the owner of the adjoining flat for “diverse and repeated nuisance”, including allegations of drug use and damaging the building.

The seller claimed the buyer should have known because problems with the neighbour were mentioned in minutes among the pre-sale documents.

The court said this was not enough as the pre-sale contract did not draw attention to this. It said the seller “had reassured [the buyer] during visits there was no problem with neighbours and had deliberately omitted to enlighten her”.

In the Pau case, a buyer was not told about a planned bypass that was to be built less than 50m away. The 2010 dispute concerned a sale that had been completed when the buyer discovered the plan and sought to have the sale annulled.

The buyer won in court and the sale was cancelled.

The sellers then sued the estate agency, saying it was its fault for not telling them to warn the buyer.

The Pau appeal court said they had not needed advice from the estate agents to know that “their deliberate silence was deceitful to the buyers”.

However, the Cour de Cassation found fault with this ruling. It said it was the agency’s obligation to advise and it should have told the sellers it was necessary.

For would-be buyers seeking to check on problems that may not have been drawn to their attention, chatting to neighbours is one avenue if your French is sufficient.

It is also possible to do research via the mairie or intercommunal body about issues such as plans for new roads.