We recently got a first time call from a surprised French property buyer because they were shocked what they found out when they asked an electrician to inspect their home after they had moved in.
As you may know sellers are currently required by French law to supply certain diagnostic reports to buyers as part of the documents of sale.
However, sometimes the reports don’t tell important details that can be a potential financial disaster for the French real estate buyer.
This particular buyer had received reports on the old French home they had bought that the electricity in the home was not connected to the ‘earth (ground)‘ inside some of the plug receptacles.
In fact, the prior owner installed some ‘plug receptacles with the earth’ like this
Why! Because the home had ‘no earth’, yes, there was not an ‘earth’ attached to the electrical panel like this
Unfortunately, when the new owners purchased the property they relied on the diagnostics and as the notary typically declares in the sales documents the new owners accept the property in the condition it is, ‘earth or no earth’ installed.
Lesson learned: Do not rely on the electrical diagnostics for a French property, get a trained electrician to check out the home before you make an offer.
Expensive Lesson: French electrical repairs can be expensive. This couple found out that connecting the earth and fixing all the other electrical problems in the French property were 4800 euros instead of the original estimate of 1700 euros they got for the items noted in the diagnostic reports.