I wish I'd thought of that.....?

[annedab]

In the happy position of being off house/gite hunting in France soon. We are no strangers to the house buying process there as we already have a place in Normandy, but this trip might be the big leap to living on-site. I have my checklist of questions all prepared, but I know there is bound to be one question, apart from the obvious, sensible ones, that I only think of in hindsight on the long drive back. From the vast pool of knowledge among all you old hands (hope that doesn't sound rude? - thought it was slightly better than veterans ) , - what's the main thing wish you'd asked (but didn't!) when viewing properties? (They are all run as existing gite rental businesses)

[barbersdrove]

Are there any foundations and where does the waste water go? both questions we should have asked when we bought our current home. Mind you if they had told us the truth we would still have bought it:)

[Nemo]

That sounds familiar BD.........I found that my waste water was soaking into the ground last year and had been doing that for 40 plus years! Sorted now but it's not a question I would have ever thought of asking.

[annedab]

Foundations! Thank you - that wasn't on the list. Waste water/septic tanks are very much at the forefront of questions having been on the receiving end as guests in a property where the waste water all came up on the front lawn, and as owners - unfortunate blockage incident on Saturday night ............

[aasta]

and how old are the pipes and the electric systems....

[katz]

That's a difficult one Anne, as what might be obvious to you might not be to others so we can only guess at the ones on your checklist. I have our checklist on our website so people house hunting in France can use it as as guide if they so desire

One question that didn't occur to us immediately when we were looking for our place is - is there a right of access over the property? We thought of that one when we realised that the local farmer could only access his barn via the driveway of the property we were viewing

Bonne chance!

Maria

[Normandy Cow]

Are there any plans to build a motorway nearby?

When we were looking 10 years ago, we found what we thought was the perfect house. While chatting to the current owners (elderly couple), I asked them how quick it was to get to the nearest big towns, and the lady, bless her, gushed: "Oh it's only about 20 minutes, and it'll be even quicker with the new motorway!"
Er, hello? what new motorway? At that point the I could see the estate agent who was also there visibly cringing...

It turned out that a whole motorway was going to be built the following year, passing very close to the house, and for the 2 or so years it was going to take to build it, we would have been battling with HGVs etc just to get into the local small town, never mind the fact that once built, it is very likely that the motorway would be within earshot.
She thought it was a positive "feature", and I guess it is if you live there the whole time and want to be able to get to work quicker, but probably not as a holidaymake hoping to get away from it all and "live the dream" of rural France.

Needless to say, we didn't buy it.

[French Cricket]

NC has led me right into what I was going to say: don't expect anyone to tell you anything if you haven't asked the right question!

Although there are local searches which will cover things like earthquake and flooding risks and radon gas and other such stuff, you're not going to get presented with a list of things that are up on the planning lists, or potential future changes in the PLU (land use and how the land around you is categorised) and so on. It really is caveat emptor, and you have to become a bit of a detective, keep your ears open, ask specific questions in the mairie, and sniff around a lot.

[Giddy Goat]

We didn't dig down enough regarding the mandatory termite/Capricorne/Death Watch beetle etc inspection when we bought our present property. To our knowledge it's fine, but it would be handy to have a piece of paper which tells us when it was last sprayed ....

[Normandie]

Are there any plans to build a motorway nearby?

Good one! Also: are there plans for runs of electricity pylons in the commune or in adjacent communes? Are there plans for a landfill site / high speed rail connection / bypass or re-zoning for commercial use?

As you're from Normandy, annedab, you're probably aware of the furore the new run of pylons from the nuclear parc at Flamanville, down the Cotentin and into Brittany / Mayenne.

We had househunters staying with us and viewing a property we knew would be in the general area of the path of the pylons. Primed by us, they asked the immo who, they told us later, was absolutely furious that they knew and demanded to know who had told them. She tried to deny it - until our househunters produced the map of the route that I'd printed off for them. They bought elsewhere with a different estate agent.

As well as rights of way, check that there are no... can't remember the word - rights of neighbours to pick your apples (for eg) or take a hay crop. Also - if you have nice trees in hedgerows or anywhere else - make sure that they aren't viewed as a crop which will be harvested (felled) by the vendor the week before you sign the Acte.

Check that any fencing owned by the vendor isn't going to be removed prior to them leaving and taken with them.

All of these odds and sodds have happened to friends and acquaintances. In sort, anything you see that you like and adds character and isn't an intrinsic part of the house, have it included in the compromis.

[la vache!]

Wind turbines are the latest thing to check for. They are springing up all over France. And the LHT (Lignes Haute Tension) although if you already have a house in Normandy you are probably aware of this!
I'd ask copies of the accounts too, or if there are no accounts (microbic) copies of the bills just to make sure you know what overheads you will have. And guarantees for all purchases made and work carried out by registered artisans. Unfortunately a cowboy had been hired to do some of the work here and it cost me a lot of money to get everything re-done properly and to conforming standards.

[wallypott]

Plans of any and all buried pipe work and electrics. Seriously this is a massive money saver long term. We found 2 old septic tanks when we put in our latest system. We also didn't know that the system we had when we bought the house went under our neighbours barn and into his slurry pit. It got blocked by plastic sheeting in the open drains in his yard. A discovery I would have preferred not to have to make.

And, who did the work and when. Artisans, in general, will remember where it goes.

[Giddy Goat]

If there have been any additions or alterations to an old building, the vendors will have needed a permis de construire and subsequent to that, after the alterations are completed ie, a certificat (ie an inspection to check that all was in order....)

[annedab]

Thanks everyone! - a couple of interesting ones here to add to the list - particularly wind turbines, rights of way and beetles! Of course I had already factored in spiders - I shall require a cast iron guarantee that there is not a single spider within a 10 mile radius of the property - that won't be a problem will it? When we bought our Normandy house, we were very perturbed by the talk of the "new motorway" and thought this might be a real deal breaker, but luckily for us it is far enough away not to be a problem, but, conversely, near enough to have cut about 45 minutes off the journey I also wished we had asked "you don't by any chance have incoming mains water that is shared between three properties all now owned by different people do you?" - can't believe we didn't have that on the list, how remiss - ahh happy days!

[annedab]

...and thanks Katz for pointing me to your website - that's my evening reading sorted............