The Gazette 1967/71

secondly to the Bureau des Hypotheques. The object of the first proceeding is largely fiscal; the droits d'enregistrement payable are roughly the equivalent of stamp duty, on a scale based on the value of the property, although the registering authority takes a copy of the document which can be referred to later to prove its existence and contants. The Bureau des Hypotheques also re– quires a copy of the document, and it is this copy which constitutes notice to third parties of the transaction. The most characteristic aspect of French procedure is, however, the ultimate fate of the original document; this is always retained by the notary, and the parties are supplied only with copies, called expeditions, and one master copy, called the grosse. The importance of the grosse is that it bears the formulae executoire, a direction by the notary, in the name of the French Republic, to all public officers, gendarmes, etc., to enforce the contents of the document at the request of the bearer. Thus a creditor whose debt is secured by a notarial act can put in motion seizure of the debtor's property without having to obtain a court order. When the practice of a notary changes hands, all the original documents, called minutes, are passed on, and can in Theory be referred to more or less indefinitely. The prob– lem of lost deeds is not entirely unknown in France, but this system does keep it to a minimum. It is arguable that this system led to the early- development of a country-wide system of local registries of deeds, the Bureaux des Hypotheques. In England, the notion that the deeds represented the property soon led to the idea of mortgage by, or coupled with, deposit of deeds. Such an arrange– ment would have been, broadly speaking, impos– sible in France, since all original "deeds" remained with the notary. The only other obvious system of protection of lenders is that of registration; al– though today all documents affecting land are registrable, the office is still called the Bureau des Hypotheques, the hypotheque being the equiv– alent of a mortgage. The Bureaux des Hypotheques today are local deeds registries, which suffer from the disadvantage that their indexes are by names of proprietors, not by properties. This disadvan– tage is tempered by the rule that all registrations lapse unless renewed every five years; would that the Land Charges Act had contained a similar provision ! At the present time, a change-over to registration by properties is being effected, partly for convenience, and partly in imitation of the system of the hvrie fonder (a sort of land certi– ficate) instituted in Alsace-Lorraine during its incorporation into Germany. 30

of the levelling effect of war-time bombing, refer– ence to the cadastre is compulsory. Account of title for thirty years There follows the origine de propriete, a con– densed, but often very lengthy, account of the title for the last thirty years. This is the part of the document which really calls for skill in its preparation; in the writer's opinion, investigation of title in France is probably even trickier than it is in England. The main reason is that the title is affected by interests of the proprietor's family, in particular his wife's interest under her marriage contract, and there is no equivalent of the 1925 legislation to keep these matters off the title. For this reason every party to the deed states whether he is married, and if so under what regime, i.e., community of property, separation of property, or some other of the standard regimes. The document usually contains a reference to les conditions ordinaircs ct de droit, which, like the celebrated words "beneficial owner", invoke the standard conditions implied by law, in this case the Civil Code. The price is named, and it is stated whether or not it is all paid on com– pletion (paye comptant) or whether some of it is to be paid off by instalments. The latter practice is far more common in France than in England, and is facilitated by the legal machinery of the privilege du vendeur, or vendor's lien, which gives the unpaid vendor in effect an automatic first mortgage on the property, coupled with powers of easy realisation of the security. This may have something to do with the fact that French notaries seem to be hardly troubled at all with the problems of chain transactions and co-ordination of com– pletions which bedevil English conveyancers; a more important reason for this happy situation may be the different concept of the notary's role already referred to, whereby such problems are the parties' own affair. Easements All easements known to the vendor are mentioned, and express reference is made to the result of the enquiry made by the notary of the local office of the Ministere de la Construction as to planning matters; the certificate issued by this body is usually annexed to the deed itself. At the end of the document appear the signatures of the parties, affixed in the presence of the notary, and the notary's own signature. Registration of Documents The document now goes first to be enregistre, and