To allow you to understand the many terms used in the field of the French real estate, we propose to you this little dictionary. For any question, contact us.

DICTIONARY  REAL ESTATE

Acompte - Installment

amount of money (5 to 10% of the property price) poured by the purchaser at the time of the signature of a synallagmatic sale contract. The installment engages definitively and will be withdrawn price selling if the transaction is carried out

If the purchaser gives up the purchase for simple personal suitabilities (except suspensive clause), the salesman will have the right to force it to buy, with the requirement by calling upon justice. If it is the salesman who gives up, the purchaser will be able to make in the same way. When the versed sum is qualified down payment (instead of installment), the purchaser can give up the purchase for simple personal suitabilities, but by losing his down payments; if it is the salesman who gives up, it will have to twice pay with the purchaser the amount of these down payments.

Acte authentique - Notarial act

authenticated sale contract defining the rights and obligations of the parts, in particular for a real estate sale. It is written obligatorily by a notary, to be able to be published and to make the act opposable. The original "the minute" remains by the notary. The copy called "grosse" is given to the contractors.

Acte sous seing privé - Informal agreement

used as regards hiring or of sale, this act is written and signed by the parts without intervention of a notary.

Administrateur de biens – Real estate manager

professional of the real estate, he carries out as agent for all operations of buildings management for the account of the owners : search for tenants, drafting of the beams, perception of the rents, payments, maintenance and repairs. Within the framework of condominium, this professional acts as quality of syndic. He acts of a profession regulated by the law Hoguet from January 2, 1970 and by the decree of July 20, 1972.

Agent immobilier - Real estate agent

professional of hiring and real estate sale. A contract (mandate of sale or hiring), signed by the owner, determines the exact mission of the real estate agent and its remuneration. He must subscribe a professional responsibility insurance and a financial guarantee intended to cover his activity. He must obligatorily be holder of a professional card delivered by the prefecture of the place of exercise. Like the manager, the real estate agent is subjected to the law Hoguet.

Amiante – Asbestos

Resistant material to fire and acids, made up of magnesium and calcium silicate. Asbestos proved to be carcinogenic, its research and its removal is made compulsory in the buildings and offices (Decree N° 96-97 of February 7, 1996).

Apport personnel - Personal capital contribution

amount of money available to the purchaser to finance a part of its real purchase. More the contribution is high, better will be the conditions of the real loan.

Architecte – Architect

professional recognized by the state and registered in the order of the architects. It has as a function to conceive and establish a plan of construction or restoration, of to prepare, direct and control the implementation and the costs. To call upon an architect is obligatory for any construction or transformation project which request a building permit and whose square meters exceeds 170.

Assemblée générale - General meeting

in each condominium, the members (called joint owners) must meet at least once time a year in a general assembly. During that meeting, are evoked and put to vote, the questions on the agenda (e.g. renewal of the manager mandate, improvement or maintenance works, annual budget...). The answers brought are the subject of a lawsuit.

Bail d'habitation - Lease of dwelling

leasing agreement relating to an apartment or house, and binding the fowner for a minimum 3 years duration. The tenant can stop it constantly, while respecting a 3 months notice (1 month in certain cases).

Bail commercial - Commercial lease

leasing agreement relating to a local in which a commercial activity is carried on. The commercial lease engages the owner for 9 years at least, the tenant can cancel every 3 years, except contrary provisions.

Bail professionnel - Professional lease

leasing agreement concluded for buildings exclusively of professional use, the tenant exerting a liberal profession there (doctor, dentist, lawyer...). This type of contract takes the owner three or six years, the tenant can cancel with a 3 months notice. The lease can be known as "mix" in the case of professional and dwelling use.

Bouquet

amount of money poured by the purchaser at the signature of an act of purchase in life annuity, the balance being versed in the form of life annuity. This amount is fixed according to needs' of the owner and his age.

Cadastre – Register

official register available in town hall and allowing to identify the properties (surface, land rental value...) of a city.

Caution – Guarantee

engagement by which someone agrees to guaranty for the payment of a debt. It can be asked in case of a loan on real property or a hiring. The person who goes guarantee engages to pay to the creditor the balance sums which had by the faulty debtor.

Certificat de conformité - ompliance certificate

administrative document given after the passage of a controller of the town hall, which attests that the realization is in conformity with the permit building.

Certificat d'urbanisme - Certificate of town planning

administrative document delivered by the mayor or the prefect at the request of the owner of the ground or of another person. It specifies the applicable provisions of town planning, the administrative limitations with the right of ownership, the service road of the ground by the public equipment, the constructibility of the ground.

Charges de copropriété - Loads of joint ownership

loads representing the whole of the expenditure relating to maintenance, repairs of the common parts, and more generally to the operation of the building. The joint owners must take part in the payment of these loads according to the attribution of percentages. The loads are known as recoverable for the part falling to the tenant.

Commission

remuneration paid to a real estate agent for the exercise of its activity (sale, hiring, management...). The rate of commission varies according to the type of operation carried out. It is freely fixed by each real estate agent, but its calculation scale have to be visible in the agency..

Compromis de vente – Sale Compromise

preliminary contract (bilateral contract) signed by the owner and the purchaser of a real estate. This document engages the two parts and comprises reciprocal obligations. If the payment is carried out by the use of a loan, the act must contain, under penalty of nullity, a suspensive clause specifying that if the loan is not secured, the purchaser is not held to buy and recovers its installment. In any case, the purchaser (not professional) has a time of 7 days retractation.

Congé – Leave

act which means the end of the leasing agreement. For the beams of dwelling, the tenant can give leave since it respects the notice. The owner can give leave only to certain conditions : to sell housing or to live it, or for valid and serious reasons (notice to be respected).

Contrat de réservation - Contract of reservation

contract which makes it possible to reserve a housing on plan before the beginning of work.

C.O.S.

percentage occupied time of the grounds, quantifies indicating, for each piece of ground, the authorized density of construction in comparison with the rules of town planning in the zones defined by a P.O.S.

Copropriété - Joint ownership

legal statute of a building divided into common parts, pertaining to the unit, and in privative parts (apartments, buildings, garages) pertaining to several people. The payment of joint ownership fixes the rules of the joint life.

Crédit-relais - Intermediate credit

short-term credit (maximum 2 years) allowing to finance a real purchase before to have sold another real in its possession.

Crédit immobilier - Loan on real property

loan granted in the long run for a real purchase.  The loan on real property is known as redeemable when the paid monthly payment refunds at the same time the capital and the interests. It is known as " in fine " if the borrower pays only the interests for all his length of time, and refunds the capital in his term.

Délai de rétractation - Time of retractation

7 days deadline from which the purchaser profits to give up the operation (without any penalty for him) within the framework of the purchase of a new housing (or in the course of construction) or old (apartment or house). This faculty relates to the commitments to sell or compromises of sale signed for an existing housing, the contracts of reservation signed for a sale in the future state of completion, or the sale contract itself if it were not preceded by a contract by reservation or preliminary contract.

Dépôt de garantie – Deposit

amount of money entrusted in the other hand of the fulfilment of a contract. For a sale, the deposit (installment) is poured by the purchaser at the time of the signature of the preliminary contract of sale. Within the framework of a hiring, the deposit is poured by the tenant with the signature of the lease. It covers the owner against the risks related to the hiring.

Donation

legal document by which a person gives, of alive sound, a good with another person. It acts, generally, of an advance on heritage and is the subject of the payment of the transfer taxes.

Droit de préemption - Right of pre-emption

must of priority purchase which allows a person or public administration to become purchaser of a real estate before any other person. The conditions and the price fixed at the time of its setting on sale by its owner must be respected.

Droits de mutation - Transfer taxes

called improperly " notary fees ", they are the rights and taxes perceived by the notary on behalf of the State and of the local communities, at the time of the sale of a real estate.

Foncière – Layer

real estate company having for activity the purchase and the lease of hotels, warehouses, industrial and commercial buildings, offices, residential buildings... and sale of these real estate.

Frais de notaire – Notary fees : together expenses (taxes, emoluments of the notary and outlay) paid at the time of a real estate transaction. They account for approximately 7.50% of the price.

Garantie décennale - Decennial guarantee

guarantee subscribed by the constructor of a building or a house, in order to protect the purchaser against all defects from construction during ten years as from reception. That relate to the foundations, the walls and partitions, the floors, the roof, the drains, the heating installations ...

Hypothèque – Mortgage

right reality with which a real estate is burdened with the profit with a creditor (banks, credit institution) to guarantee the payment of its credit.

Impôts locaux – Rates

together taxes perceived by the local communities (common, departments, areas). The land tax due by any owner of a real estate; the tax of dwelling which had by any person who occupies housing at January 1 of the year ...

Indice du coût de la construction - Index of the construction cost

quarterly index worked out by INSEE (French statistic and economic institute), used for the indexing of rental contracts. Replaced since the 1^er January 2006 by the index of reference of the rents.

Investissement locatif - Rental investment

when the acquired real estate is intended to be put in hiring to obtain rental incomes from them.

Location – Hiring

provision of a real estate to an occupant against the payment of a rent. The owner and the tenant are bound by a leasing agreement. The hiring can be done furnished or not. It can also be seasonal (hiring for a short period or holidays rental).

Loi Carrez – Carrez Law

legislation making compulsory for a real estate sale, the mention in any preliminary contract or act, of the livable surface of the sold batch. This law makes it possible to the purchaser to require the nullity of the sale if no mention of the surface were indicated, and has for that of a one month deadline as from the signature the notarial act. If the announced surface is lower of more than five percent than reality, the purchaser can bring proceedings in restitution of a part of the price within one year as from the sale contract, and the salesman will see himself constrained to refund an amount in proportion to the missing square meters to him.

The Carrez surface corresponds to the surface of the floors of the buildings closed and covered, after deduction of the surfaces occupied by the walls, partitions, steps and stair-wells, sheaths, embrasures of doors and windows. It is not held account of the floors of the buildings a height lower than 1,80 meter, as well as batches or fractions of batches of a surface lower than 8 meters.

Loi Hoguet – Hoguet Law

law regulating the activity of the professionals of the real estate (real estate agent, manager, administrator of goods, syndic of joint ownership, merchant of lists...) as well as the conditions of access and exercise of these professions.

Loi Scrivener – Scrivener Law

law n° 79-596 of the Trade Code, voted on July 13, 1979 to protect the borrowers as regards real loans. It regulates advertising on the appropriations, the contents of the offer of loan, and makes the trust deed depend on the act of purchase of a good (and conversely).

Mandat - Mandate

act by which a person gives her agreement to rent or sale a real estate by an estate agency. It can be exclusive (only one agency), simple (many agencies), or semi-exclusive. The real estate agent has the obligation to act under the terms of a valid mandate.

Marchand de biens - Realtor

professional who buys real goods for his own account then resells them, in general after having carried out work, in order to carry out a fiancial profit.

Millièmes – Thousandth

units of as a basis value being used to quantify the quota of the common parts assigned to each batch of a joint ownership.

Multipropriété - Timeshare

divide of a real estate between several people. The purchaser has the use of the good only for a given period of the year.

Mutation – Property transfer

it can be on a purely free basis (donation, succession), nonsubjugated with the capital gains tax; or subject to payment (transfer of the property of a real estate within the framework of a real transaction), and in this case, subjected to the capital gains tax real.

Notaire - Notary

member of the legal profession, titular of a load and profiting from a monopoly for the establishment and the conservation of the acts on which the parts want or must to confer the authenticity (real sale, marriage contract, will ...). It also has a role of council and exerts his functions under the control of the magistrates.

Note d'urbanisme – Note of town planning

administrative document necessary to any succession or sale contract. It indicates the applicable town-planning, possible alignment to be respected, the situation of the good in comparison with the right of pre-emption, the reserves, constraints, public operations of installation existing or to come, the particular observations and regulations.

Permis de construire – Permit building

obligatory administrative authorisation to build, renovate or increase a building. The request is carried out at the town hall.

P.O.S.

It’s the plan of occupation of the grounds. A document of town planning which fixes the general rules and the constraints of commune land use.

Promesse d'achat – Undertaking to purchase

document called also offers purchase. It is a preliminary contract by which the candidate with the purchase commits himself acquiring a real estate at a given price. Any undertaking to purchase accompanied by a payment by the purchaser is invalid.

Promesse de vente – Commitment to sell

preliminary contract by which a salesman commits himself selling a real estate to a person. She is known as unilateral if engages only the salesman, and bilateral (or synallagmatic) if she engages the two protagonists.

Promoteur - Promoter

professional carrying out a new real estate program (purchase of the ground, requires permit building, management of the building work and marketing).

Quittance - Receipt

document in proof of payment of rent and loads, given free by the financial backer (or his agent) to the tenant (on its request).

Règlement de copropriété – Joint ownership code

together rules of management and common life between the joint owners, this document defines the destination of the building, the description of the privative parts and the common parts, as well as the burden-sharing.

S.C.I.

real civil company whose object is to acquire and to manage real estate properties.

Tableau d'amortissement – Amortization table

document drawn up by the financial organization lender, it indicates for the period of loan, the amount of the monthly payments, the deadened capital, the amount of the interests and the expiry of refunding.

Taux d'intérêt – Interest rate

it is the remuneration of the financial institution granting a loan. It is different according to the markets, of the praetors and the duration of the credit. It can be fixed or revisable.

Termites

insects of the xylophagous type which generate degradations in the houses. They attacked in particular the wood. The search for termites is obligatory in certain classified risk zones (see Decret n° 2000-873 of July 3, 2000).

VEFA

sale in the future state of completion or sale on plan. The purchaser progressively becomes owner of the real estate with his construction. The sale contract, in general preceded by a contract of reservation, is concluded in front of notary and specifies the description of the building and its design features, the price and the modes of payment, the delivery period.

Vente par adjudication - Sale by auction

auction sale

Viager - Life annuity

particular mode of sale, in which the salesman yields a real estate (free or occupied) and receives a bouquet (initial payment) and a revenue until the moment of his death.

Vice – Constructional defect

apparent or hidden constructional defect. It’s known as hidden when it is not seen at the time of the work reception.

provided on a purely informative basis