You have just finalized your real estate project by signing a sales agreement, but an unforeseen event occurs, forcing you to cancel the purchase of the property.You have the option to terminate the acquisition process without financial penalty, under certain conditions.
Once the sales agreement is signed by all parties, your real estate agent or notary will notify you of the possibility to retract via registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt.
The withdrawal period, also known as the SRU Law, is governed by Article L271-1 of the Construction Code. It grants you a period of 10 days from the day after receiving the notification to retract.
At the signing of the sales agreement, in the presence of your real estate agent, they can notify you of the retraction against acknowledgment. The period starts from the day after this handover.
If you wish to retract, it will then be necessary to send a registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt to your seller before the expiration of the 10-day period. However, if the tenth day of the period is a public holiday, the end of the period is automatically postponed to the next working day. On the other hand, public holidays included in the 10-day period are counted as normal.
Once the period has passed, you are no longer able to stop the purchase without financial indemnity. The seller will be within their rights to ask you for compensation corresponding to the amount of the penalty clause written in the sales agreement.
Note: The withdrawal period is only available to buyers who are individuals. Professional real estate entities such as SCI cannot benefit from it. It also does not apply to land purchases.
