Buying with a search mandate in France: how it works and what it saves (2026)

No French estate agency acts for anyone without a written mandate. Article 6 of the loi Hoguet of 2 January 1970 requires every agreement with an agency to be in writing and to state how the fee is set and which party pays it. Article 72 of the décret of 20 July 1972 adds that the agency must hold that mandate before it negotiates or commits on anyone’s behalf, and that every mandate is entered, in date order, in the agency’s register of mandates.

A seller signs a sale mandate. A buyer signs a search mandate. It describes the home you want (type, villages, budget, the features you will not give up), sets how long the mandate runs, states the agency fee and records that you pay it. Your copy carries its register number.

Some search mandates are exclusive. The exclusivity clause then has to appear in clearly visible type, and once three months have passed either side is free to end the mandate with 15 days’ notice by recorded letter (article 78 of the décret).

The mandate has to exist before the agency acts for you. The DGCCRF, the French consumer authority, puts it plainly: the agent must hold a written mandate before any introduction or negotiation. A mandate signed after an agency has shown you a home does not reach back to cover that home.

So the order matters. Sign the search mandate first, then book the viewings. It cannot be set up once you have found the home you want to buy. If you are planning a first trip to see homes in Valbonne, Mougins or Grasse, speak to us before you travel and we sign the mandate together before the first visit.

Under a search mandate you pay the agency fee. For houses and apartments our fee is 6% including VAT, the rate on our fees page. Nothing is due when you sign the mandate, nothing at the viewings and nothing at the offer.

Article 6 of the loi Hoguet forbids an agency to ask for or accept any sum before the sale is concluded and recorded in a single written document that binds both parties. Article 73 of the décret then states that the agency collects its fee once the sale is recorded by acte authentique. In practice the notaire pays the fee out of the funds you send for completion, on the day you sign the deed and receive the keys.

When the compromis contains conditions, such as your mortgage offer, the sale counts as concluded once those conditions are met (article 74 of the décret). The fee follows the completed sale.

Article 73 of the décret requires the amount of the fee and the party who pays it to appear in the agreement between buyer and seller. Under a search mandate, the compromis de vente and then the acte authentique show the price agreed with the seller, which is the net price the seller receives, and below it the agency fee as its own line, payable by you on completion. Both figures match the mandate.

The same rule shows in the adverts. When the buyer pays the fee, the arrêté of 10 January 2017 requires the listing to give the price with and without the fee, and the fee including VAT as a percentage of the price excluding fees, after the word “Honoraires”. When the seller pays it, the listing gives the sale price and states that the seller pays the fee.

On a resale home the notaire collects the transfer duties, the droits de mutation, on the price written in the deed plus any charges that add to it. For the Alpes-Maritimes, the DGFiP table applying from 1 June 2026 sets the departmental rate at 4.50%. With the communal tax of 1.20% and the 2.37% collection charge on the departmental part, the total comes to 5.80665%, which notaires round to 5.81%. Most French departments moved to 5%, about 6.32% in total. The Alpes-Maritimes kept 4.50%.

The question is whether the agency fee belongs in that base. The tax administration answers it in its official doctrine, BOFiP BOI-ENR-DMTOI-10-10-20-20, paragraph 30: the fee paid to the intermediary stays outside the base for transfer duties when the mandate states that the buyer pays it, whether the seller or the buyer signed the mandate. Paragraph 40 covers the opposite case. A fee the contract puts on the seller, which the buyer pays in the seller’s place, counts as a charge that increases the price and is taxed.

A search mandate puts the fee on you from the first day, in writing. The deed then shows a net price and a separate fee payable by you, and the duties apply to the net price only.

The notaire’s own scale fee follows the same base. Article A444-91 of the Code de commerce sets the émoluments for a sale as a percentage of the price, by bracket: 3.870% up to €6,500, 1.596% from €6,500 to €17,000, 1.064% from €17,000 to €60,000 and 0.799% above, plus VAT at 20%. The arrêté of 25 February 2026 kept that scale until 29 February 2028. Each euro of fee kept out of the price saves 0.799% plus VAT, about 0.96%, at the full scale rate and before any discount the notaire applies to the part of the price above €100,000.

The three examples below use a 6% fee on the net price and the rounded duty rate of 5.81%. In each pair the home is the same and the seller receives the same net price. Only the place of the fee changes.

Take the €2,000,000 home. With the fee inside the seller’s price, the deed shows €2,120,000 and the duties come to €123,172. With the fee payable by you under a search mandate, the deed shows €2,000,000, the €120,000 fee sits on its own line, and the duties come to €116,200. You pay €2,120,000 for the home and the fee in both cases. The tax bill is €6,972 lower.

The notaire’s émoluments add a smaller saving on top. At 0.799% plus VAT on the fee kept out of the price, it comes to about €575 at €1,000,000, €1,151 at €2,000,000 and €1,726 at €3,000,000, at the full scale rate. Your notaire confirms the exact figures in the cost estimate sent before the signing.

As a rate, the saving is 5.81% of the fee on the duties, plus about 0.96% of the fee on the émoluments. With a 6% fee, the duty saving alone comes to about 0.35% of the net price.

The saving is the part you see in figures. The mandate also settles whose side your adviser is on: under a search mandate your La Reserve adviser is your representative from the first viewing.

• On your side. Your adviser searches, shortlists and negotiates the price and conditions on your behalf.
• Every property on the market. Your adviser has access to every home for sale that fits your brief, whichever agency lists it.
• Off-market homes. Our Private Collection and properties sold discreetly, without public advertising.
• One point of contact. One adviser plans all your viewings. No going from agency to agency and booking visits one by one.
• Advice at every step. Diagnostics, planning checks, SPANC, your lender and the notaire, followed through to the deed.
• Lower transfer duties. The fee stays outside the price in the deed, so the duties apply to the net price only.

The purchase itself follows the steps in our guide to buying from offer to keys: the offer, the compromis, the ten-day cooling-off period, then the deed two to three months later.

Your search mandate covers every home that fits your brief, the homes La Reserve lists for sale included. Whichever home you choose, your adviser stays your representative for the purchase. The compromis and the deed state the fee, its amount and who pays it, as article 73 of the décret requires, and the fee is paid once, on completion.

Every home we list shows its fee and who pays it in the advert, as French rules require of every listing. Your adviser takes you through those figures before you make an offer, so you know the price in the deed and the duties before you sign anything.

Three steps, in this order.

1. Speak to an adviser before your first viewing, through our contact page. Tell us the villages, the type of home, your budget and your timing.
2. Sign the search mandate. It records your brief, how long the mandate runs, the 6% fee including VAT and that you pay it on completion.
3. View, offer and sign the compromis with your adviser beside you. The notaire calculates the duties on the net price and settles the fee when the deed is signed.

For everything a purchase costs, read our guides to notaire fees and to the cost of buying in France. Our fee scale and the search mandate terms are on the fees page.

The rules and rates in this guide come from the following primary sources, checked on 20 October 2026:

• Loi n° 70-9 of 2 January 1970 (loi Hoguet), article 6, Légifrance: written mandate, the fee and the party who pays it, no sum before the sale is concluded.
• Décret n° 72-678 of 20 July 1972, Légifrance: articles 72 (mandate held before any negotiation, register of mandates), 73 (fee and paying party in the parties’ agreement, fee collected once the sale is recorded by acte authentique), 74 (conditions in the compromis) and 78 (exclusivity clauses).
• Arrêté of 10 January 2017, Légifrance: display of agency fees and of who pays them.
• BOFiP BOI-ENR-DMTOI-10-10-20-20, paragraphs 30 and 40: an agency fee the mandate puts on the buyer stays outside the base for transfer duties.
• DGFiP, transfer duty rates applying from 1 June 2026: Alpes-Maritimes at 4.50%.
• Code de commerce, articles A444-53 and A444-91, Légifrance: the notaire’s émoluments for a sale, scale applying until 29 February 2028.
• DGCCRF, the rules that govern estate agents: mandate held before any introduction or negotiation, fee paid after the deed.

Published by La Reserve Research. Editorial governance and correction policy: editorial standards. Corrections: contact@lareserve.co.