Changes to the "cooling off" period when buying a house in France

The Macron Law of August 6, 2015 has changed the buyer's cooling off period on a Compromis de Vente (CdV) to 10 days from 8 August 2015, when the required period was 7 days previously.

Quite what benefit there is in this extension is questionable. Will 3 extra days really change anything? Often, because of delays in getting reports completed, and the paperwork done, the buyers have already had at least a week, often much longer, to think things through.

Fairly typical of President Hollande’s Governments tinkering around the edges of policy, (rather as they have done with CGT, or Plus Value). Just to add the cherry to the cake, if the 10th day is a bank holiday, then the period is extended further!

As a reminder also, when a vendor signs a mandat at their house, the cooling off period for a mandat de vente is 14 days. So before too long, it would not surprise me to see the new 10 day period extended to 14 days for the CdV as well.

Consumer Protection is good, but sometimes there is overkill! Peter Elias at 09:04 Filed Under: property laws, Selling in France