First port of call was a viewing of yet another apartment with yet another real estate agent. This place was much smaller, had been mostly renovated, new kitchen and bathroom and got a fair bit of sun and light into the living/kitchen areas. However, it still needed major work, had bedrooms which hardly fitted a bed, scummy entrance/stairs and just unappealing. Its purchase price was 7000€ dearer than the place we are looking at.
We have decided to go ahead and buy the apartment we viewed on our first day here. Yes, we are making the commitment to France!
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| Our mate Denis Ribas at work in Ceret |
Next back to our real estate agent to pick up the termite etc report. Got everything downloaded onto a stick. They assured us that all the info would also be sent to the notaire forthwith and a time set for a meeting with him (after supposedly already talking with his office yesterday to sort this). We didn’t give much credence to this, so we went to the notaire’s office when he opened up (4pm after lunchtime siesta) and found they were totally unaware of our offer conditions, hadn’t received info that we now held on our stick, were not aware of any supposed meeting etc. The notaire’s office was brilliant. “Our” notaire was out but we were welcomed by another partner and then received by his partner/son who spoke English and could answer some of our questions. Our notaire then arrived and spent the next ½ hour checking the info we gave him on our memory stick (which he should have already received from the agent), declared that despite the assurances we had received for the past 3 days from the agent we did NOT have any agreement with the vendor and another offer could be put in at any time. Further, the vendor was a friend of his and he is a notorious drunk, i.e. alternates between whisky and wine all day, starting at 8am. The notaire had had a meal in a restaurant last night where the vendor was drinking, and mentioned the proposed sale of the vendor’s apartment. Apparently the vendor said “yes, he was selling, maybe, he didn’t know, well perhaps……”.
All in all the notaire is aware the vendor is very wavery, but his mother is very keen for the notaire, in person, to sort the sale. The notaire was also aware that two other offers are on the table for our apartment. He pulled out all stops for us and set up a meeting with the vendor in his office for 4pm tomorrow and will have all the paperwork done, including the power-of-attorney we need to sign for him to complete the deal at the time of settlement in 3 months’ time. So, where are we? It is clear that nothing is in place giving us a guarantee of buying, although we are clearly first in the queue. Everything is on the line at 4pm tomorrow. We trust the vendor will turn up, will still be of a mind to sell, will be sober enough to sign his name and will sign to us and not anyone else. Talk about stress!
We reeled out of the notaire’s office. Now 5pm so headed out to our friend’s Valerie and Lorcan’s home and are now sitting down and trying to relax. Easy pizza for dinner. V and L leave for Dublin tomorrow, we will stay here probably for the next 10 days until they return. Hopefully, if all goes well tomorrow, we will have a wonderful week looking in second hand shops and thinking about how we will furnish our new pad. We have not heard back from our home exchange people in northern Italy and it may be that our stay there (planned to begin on 17 May) may fall over. We are not too concerned if it does because we would no longer be looking for real estate in Italy, and could happily work our way up through France till we meet Alastair in Lucca, Tuscany in early June. Staying here for 10 nights certainly helps the wallet as well.
