We've all heard the stories of poor Brits unsuspectingly buying a house in France, and then discovering lots of problems. My personal favourite was the couple who discovered their sewer was linked to the local stream. Shortly after the sales was concluded, their local council told them they had to pay to get it connected to the waste water network. Now, anyone believing in conspiracies might be tempted to think that the local council knew full well that the sewer was like this before, but either through fea, or family ties waited until a new owner was in place. I've heard of similar stories concerning 'rights of passage' that only materialised when a new owner brought the house.
You'd think that I, knowing these stories, would have been more cautious when buying my house. Sadly, I wasn't and we find ourselves in a situation that has lasted four years, and doesn't seem ready to be resolved. When we brought the house, four years ago, the estate agent showed us around the house and garden. In view of the house prices at the time, and the state of some of the properties we had seen, we were ready to say yes. However, at the end of our visit, in a throw away fashion, the estate agent pointed out a large barn and two small pieces of land that were included in the sale, he also mentioned that we were co-owners of the water source behind the house. These were unexpected bonuses and while they didn't clinch the deal certainly helped. It was only later once everything was signed and sealed that we discovered the full complexity of the situation.
There are in fact 15 co-owners of the source. Of these only three seem to use the source. Two are very old and live in retirement homes miles from here. Finally, one of the owners believes that the 'cadastre', plan which shows who owns what, is wrong. It seems that just before we bought or house, this neighbour was able to convince the town hall and drew up a new 'cadastre'. This new cadastre gives her a much larger piece of land. Land is everything here, as the size of the house you can build depends on the size of the land you own. More land equals a bigger house. Now, the only problem is that we own a small piece of land bang in the middle of their land. So, as they own a piece of approximately the same size next to our house we offered to swap. Good for both of us as we increase our land area, and therefore the possibility to extend our house or build a bigger one. This seemingly simple exchange has hit a wall. The new cadastre has to be accepted by the 15 co-owners of the source. Some legal reason justifies or demands this. Unfortunately, as our two pieces of land are also concerned, we cannot exchange until everyone agrees, and here is where the real fun begins. Our neighbours don't get on! A mixture of jealous, ancient feuds, and plain bloody mindedness are stopping certain of our co-owners from signing.
So here we are at deadlock, a four year deadlock that looks to drag on and on. Our last ditch hope is that the Mayor, who agreed to the original change, can act as referee between the parties and get agreement. Otherwise, the situation will remain unchanged, and if we ever sell we'll keep quiet about this poisoned gift. I haven't even talked about the problems of paying for the upkeep of this source!
