I'm in the process of finalizing the purchase of an apartment in Île-de-France and my notary just handed me the fees. I've got the impression they're pretty high compared to what I'd seen on forums a few years back. Have the rates changed recently or is it still the same?
have you compared the fees you're being asked to pay against the notary's official rate schedule? honestly, notaries' rates are regulated and haven't really gone down recently, they're pretty much stable. what can make a difference is that depending on your apartment's price and the region, the fees vary (they work on a sliding percentage scale). if it's Île-de-France you're also going to have higher registration rights than elsewhere. my advice is to ask your notary for a detailed breakdown of each line item to check there's no error, but basically it's not that they've gone up, it's just that it's always cost quite a bit 😅
Notary fees are set by a national scale called emoluments, and there hasn't actually been a significant drop for years - it's pretty much stayed stable. What might give you the impression it's more expensive than before is mainly that property prices have shot up, so the fees calculated on top of them look heavier in raw euros, even though the percentage stays the same.
When I bought an apartment a few years ago, I also thought the fees were huge until I understood they always represented about 7-8% of the sale price (it varies a bit depending on the region and type of purchase). The notary has to clearly break down their bill with the scale applied - it's mandatory - so you can check that you're not paying more than what's legal.
Unfortunately it's really stayed the same, the fee schedules are set by the government and there's been no decrease in ages! What's going up instead is the price of the properties themselves, so obviously the fees go up with it since they're calculated as a percentage - that's why it seems more expensive to you than before, even though the rate itself hasn't changed.
Ask your notary explicitly to break down every line of the fees for you, because sometimes there's stuff that can be negotiated or that are optional extras - like certain file fees. The notary's own fees are set by the State, that's true, but everything around that (agency fees, various disbursements) can vary quite a bit depending on how the file is structured.
What's the exact amount they're asking you for, as a percentage of the purchase price? Because you need to figure out if we're talking "normal" fees or if you got ripped off.
Okay, the others told you right: the fee schedule is set by the State and hasn't changed in years. It's actually heavily regulated, so no notary can really give you a discount on their base fees. But what's probably changed since you were looking at forums a few years ago is mainly the price of properties going up (especially in Île-de-France, ouch), so the fees in absolute value are higher even though the percentage stays the same.
What nobody really tells you enough is that on your invoice you're going to have stuff that's really fixed (the notary's fees), but also disbursements - file fees, formality fees, cadastral registration, etc. Some of these disbursements can vary a bit from one notary to another or depend on how complicated your file is. Before you sign, ask your notary to give you a detailed breakdown and also ask if there are any fees that could be reduced or eliminated if you do some things yourself (like searching for legal history). It's not always worth it in terms of time saved, but it's worth checking.
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