Prices charged by the firm

The costs of deeds, improperly referred to as “notary fees”, mainly comprise taxes paid to the Treasury, the cost of certain administrative documents and the payment of the notary public’s services. Some fees are regulated by law and others are set by the notary public.

• Breakdown of fees you pay to the notary firm
• Regulated tariffs for notarial services
• Documents not subject to regulated tariffs
• Price list for our firm
  

 

Breakdown of fees you pay to the notary firm

• Taxes and duties account for approximately 8/10ths of these fees. The notary public pays them to the State and local authorities. They vary depending on the type of document and the property.
• Disbursements and necessary formalities represent less than 1/10th of the provision for expenses and are subject to adjustment based on supporting documents: town planning documents, mortgage statement, civil status, formalities and verification with the Commercial Court Registry, where applicable.
• The payment of the notary public’s services in the form of fees represents approximately 1/10th.

Document costs (taxes, duties, fees payable to the notary public) are set by decree, ensuring that the same document costs the same price, regardless of which notary public is involved. This ensures equal access to the services provided by notaries public throughout France. When each party to a document chooses their own notary public, the fee remains the same and is shared between the two notaries public. Therefore, regardless of how many notaries public are involved in a case, the cost remains the same.

Regulated tariffs for notarial services

These regulated tariffs are set by the French decree of 8 March 1978. This has been amended several times since then, notably by French decrees of 16 May 2006, 21 March 2007, 17 February 2011 and finally by French decree of 26 February 2016 and the French order of 26 February 2016:

• Notary fees – Article A444-53
• French Decree No. 2016-230 of 26 February 2016 on the fees of certain legal professionals and the inter-professional fund for access to law and justice.
• French Order of 26 February 2016 setting the regulated tariffs of notaries

 

The charge includes the billing of various types of services:

• Document fees cover the preparation, drafting and execution of the notarial document itself. Some fees are referred to as proportional fees, and are calculated by applying decreasing percentages to the sale price of a property, the amount of a loan, or the valuation of a property that has been gifted, etc. Others are referred to as fixed fees, which are applied on a flat-rate basis.
• Formality fees cover the notary public’s completion of the formalities necessary to prepare the document (request for civil status documents, town planning documents, pre-emptive rights, questionnaire to the co-ownership property manger, etc.).

Furthermore, to prevent the payment of the notary public from being disproportionately high in relation to the low value of the property concerned, the 2016 reform introduced a rule known as “capping” of the notary public’s remuneration (Art. A 444-175 of the French Commercial Code). This only applies to “real estate transactions” for valuable consideration (property sales, auctions, exchanges, etc.). For these documents, the total remuneration perceived by the notary public may not exceed 10% of the value of the property or rights involved in the transaction, but may not be less than €90 excluding tax.

Documents not subject to regulated tariffs

For activities that are not subject to a tariff imposed by decree, the notary public is free to set their own fees. These fees primarily concern: legal consultations that are “”separable”” from the services inherent to the completion of a tariff-based transaction; in-depth asset studies; real estate negotiations; transactions; commercial leases; rental management; the sale of business assets or companies; corporate documents (articles of association, transfer of shares, etc.) or association documents.

These fees are set out in a proposal by the notary public, prior to taking on the case, in the form of a preliminary fee agreement in accordance with Article L 444-1 of the French Commercial Code , which lays down the scope of intervention and which, depending on the type of case, may provide for a flat-rate fee or time-based remuneration.

Price list for our firm

Fees are inclusive of all taxes (VAT at 20%) and will be specified in the preliminary fee agreement, according to the particulars of your project and the scope of our assignment.
(N.B.: taxes and duties owed on top of VAT, and disbursements (sums owed to third parties: trade and companies register, administrative charges, legal notices, etc.) are not included.

Prices as of 01/19/2024.