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View property for sale at auction in France

2. Types of Property Auctions in France

There are two types of property auctions in France:

Voluntary Auctions
Judicial Auctions

2.1. Voluntary Auctions

Voluntary auctions are public auctions held through the auspices of a notaire.

They are called ajudications volontaires but also more informally, ventes à la bougie.

Those selling at a voluntary auction may be either private owners, executors of an estate, or public bodies who wish to dispose of surplus property. The latter are called ventes des domaines.

They may also arise as a result of the inheritance laws in France, when family members decide to sell in a completely transparent manner through an auction in order to avoid disputes.

2.2. Judicial Auctions

These are auctions held in a Tribunal de Grande Instance where the public can only bid through the use of an avocat acting as intermediary.

As a result they are called adjudications judiciaires,

They occur as a result of liquidation (saisie immobilière), or sometimes arising from a contested inheritance.

Whilst the rules and procedures of judicial auctions are not entirely dissimilar to those of voluntary auctions our focus in these pages is with voluntary auctions.

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