The CdV Sales Agreement
Published: 3rd August 2025. By: Mark Deverill. @Francofilestory
This Post: Following our previous article on DDT diagnostics, I share how we came to sign our Comprimis de Vente (CdV) - that critical step where the home sale becomes legally binding (well, almost!).
The CdV Timescale
The CdV is the Comprimis de Vente. We briefly dicussed that already here
After making an offer to purchase a property, it generally takes 6-8 weeks to get to a signed CdV. It can be quicker if the sellers have already got the DDT reports or if the buyer does not need to get mortgage approval and the admin team and notaire are ready to move quickly. For us this took just under 8 weeks, our offer agreement was signed 4-June and our CdV was signed 28 July.
CdV Contents
The CdV incorporates:
DDT diagnostic reports (electrical systems, termites, asbestos, radon)
SPANC report (septic compliance)
Land registry references, paired with a Geoportal extract confirming the plot location
The CdV, for us atleast, was prepared by the admin team of the immobilier (estate agent) that we are using.
We used Beaux Villages Immobilier and have had a very good experience with them so far. Both our agent Katerina and the admin team member Marion have been extremely helpful, explained everything clearly, with updates when there are delays. Plus of course they specialise in helping English speaking buyers in France.
In our earlier blog we mentioned issues raised from the DDT reports and our agreed outcomes were reflected in the CdV. It did however require careful reading and checking.
Translating the CdV
The CdV contract was sent in French, which seems fair given it’s a french contract, but we needed it translated to English to check it ourselves. For that we used deepl. Deepl has limited free use but because we’ve have had so many documents to translate we have signed up for the paid service, atleast for the period of our house purchase. Neither Google translate nor ChatGpT could handle translating such a large document.
I found the deepl translation to be fairly good, comparing it with translations of early documents and reports, the only problem was we had an inventory of items being sold along with the house and the prices for each item were not copied correctly in the translated version.
Reviewing and Editing the CdV.
A thorough review of the CdV is needed.
It is human nature to miss small things in large documents, plus the small print details are always the things that you should check in agreements. Personally spending such a large amount of money scares me and I checked the CdV very carefully. This review resulted in a few changes being requested as listed below.
The Septic Tank. We were concerned about non compliance of the Septic tank and that a possible fault had been identified in the SPANC report. As mentioned in our previous blog, the seller agreed to pay for the repair. We were advised that is quite common for septic tanks to be reported as non compliant because the regulations are continually evolving. We agreed to take on responsibility for making it compliant, while the Seller agreed to fix the problem identified in the inspection. It was this section that required the most iterations of the agreement.
Residency terms. Our draft CdV stated that the sellers agreed to make the house their primary residence for a minimum of 5 years. While we would love that, we have to make it a 2nd home for the first few years, given our employment and pension setup. This was a simple oversight as everyone knew our situation. An easy fix.
The CdV noted a well on the property that wasn’t registered—which felt odd. However, both our agent and other sources confirmed that unregistered, unused wells are common and usually not problematic unless actively used.
There was mention that seller takes responsibility for the heat pump and wood burner despite them not being guaranteed to be functional. That seemed strange, but it is normal to buy houses as is. We know the heat pump is only 4 years old and the wood burner chimney was cleaned last winter, The costs if repairs are needed would not be so high, so it seemed reasonable to accept this. To be fair to the seller the house appears very well looked after and they included in the CdV document pack invoices for everything done in the last 4 years, including the heat pump installation and warranty information for that.
Appendix of Documents
Accompanying the CdV was an appendix of handy documents, which for us included the following:
Invoice for renovation of the kitchen and new tiling.
Invoice for cleaning of the chinmey
Invoice for taxes fonciere, the local property tax
Servitude annexe, showing previous ownership of the property
Plan servitude confirming that there are no restrictions or easements against the sale of the property.
Cadastrale plan, showing the registered plot of land being sold.
Reunion des parcelles cadastrales, showing the previous unification of several plots into the single plot being sold.
Geoportail de l’urbanisme report, confirming the public register of the land plot.
Inventaire, inventory of non fixed items being sold additional to the house.
Guarantee for kitchen renovation work.
Invoice for water filter installation
Water supplier most recent invoice.
Receipt for most recent chimney sweeping.
From the appendix, the invoices are helpful to show how recent each addition was made and to provide guarantees for the work. Building work and installations seem to have mandatory 10 year guarantee periods and the invoices and supplier details provide information required should claims need to be made for faults within the 10 year period.
Budget Reminders
The appendix also reveals running costs: property tax, water bills, and energy estimates from the DPE report—essentials when forecasting your home ownership expenses in France.
Signing the CdV
From first draft to final version took about a week: we received the first draft on a Friday and signed off the final revisions on the following Friday. The admin team circulated each version between buyer, seller, and both notaires for approval after each revision.
Once signed you then receive a secure link by email to download the signed copies.
That’s it, we now have a signed sales contract.
Things start to get very real financially going forward.
Next will be the preparations for the AdV, the Appointment of Sale.
We will explain that soon.
