Building surveys in France

by André Goddard

André Goddard is a Chartered Building Surveyor with 40 years in private practice.

As a British born half-French professional Building Surveyor residing in France I am surprised at just how many of you are looking for a full-time move, holiday home or investment property. The reasons behind a desire to move to France provides a ringing endorsement of French life and the interest in France as a location for a new life shows no sign of flagging.

How to choose a Surveyor ? The term “Surveyor” is not protected. Therefore, when you are seeking to arrange a survey, check for academic qualifications. Unfortunately many advertisers are not professionals and those that are Chartered may not be specialist Building Surveyors. Beware of advertisers we call “Channel–hoppers”, with UK telephone numbers and UK email addresses. They are not registered with RICS France, not tax residents in France and unlikely to have knowledge of local adverse conditions such as flooding and subsidence.

The RICS are concerned (Guidance Note 2004 Bldg Svys) to ensure that their members should only hold themselves out to be competent in fields for which their training is appropriate and relevant. Of the 280 surveyors registered with RICS France the majority are quantity surveyors and the rest mostly general and rural agricultural practitioners. 189 are in Paris and of the 91 members in the rest of France only twelve are specialist Chartered Building Surveyors.

My experience has been that prospective British purchasers coming here are wary buyers and they do seem to instruct surveys. For in their viewings they realise they are looking with rose-tinted glasses at quite a different property animal, as it were, than in the UK.

What can you expect from a property report ?

A building survey is a detailed investigation of the construction and an assessment of its condition. Any major defects revealed will provide a bargaining power for negotiating a price. A survey report may stop a buyer proceeding with a particular property – or conversely give factual support to a good buy. You may decide to go ahead and buy a place with some defects you didn’t know about previously, and there may be underlying problems even the vendor didn’t know of, but you’ll know where you stand in relation to your budget limits.

If you sign the compromis unconditionally you are purchasing the property “as seen” with the price fixed and without any recourse against the vendor. You should be making any offer conditionally (clauses suspensives) as applicable, (mortgage, planning, any covenant, right of way and a satisfactory building survey).

Building surveys are still something of an unknown concept to most Europeans and some vendors are not very accepting of their property being subject to inspection. However, immobiliers are now knowledgeable of the British custom and explain satisfactorily to vendors, thereby paving the way for entente cordiale.

Before the survey, talk to your Surveyor about any specific concerns you would like investigated and reported upon.

A survey report must balance the good news and the bad news. It requires a Building Surveyor with specialist qualifications in building defect analysis and high quality technical knowledge coupled with an analytical brain and an ability to communicate technical information to someone who may have no idea of what you are talking about. Technical expressions should be kept to a minimum and where necessary explained in lay terms. I have seen some reports that have sentences and paragraphs that can match an EU directive for their convoluted, repetitive and meaningless content.

What I am saying is that in my professional opinion giving you the information you need to make an informed and sensible decision on a property certainly need not be a problematic process with the skill and care reasonably to be expected of an experienced and competent Chartered Building Surveyor.

All Properties have defects, but most do not have major defects sufficient to deter a purchaser and sometimes it's difficult to fault a property thus giving support to a good purchase.

I hope this overview presents a positive prospect to those Brits that are coming to France to participate in a different way of life than in the UK. France is just like it was once upon a time in the UK, with unpretentious villages and towns quietly basking in the sun as they have done for centuries.

For where else could you buy a home for a hundred or two thou euros,with space, charm and terraces with views to die for; not forgetting a great adventure to boot.

Vive la Différence !

Copyright 2006 André Goddard BSc Hons MRICS FCIOB .

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