What Happens Between Signing the Compromis and Getting Your Keys in France
The compromis de vente is signed. The champagne moment has passed. And now begins the stretch of the French property purchase that almost nobody prepares international buyers for: the ten to twelve weeks between a binding contract and an actual set of keys. We covered what happens between offer acceptance and the final signing in a previous guide — this article picks up where that one ends, and deals strictly with the practical logistics: moving the money, insuring the property, transferring the utilities, and what the handover itself actually looks like.
The single most useful thing to understand about this period is that in France, nothing important travels by promise. Money travels through the notaire’s escrow account, insurance travels by attestation, and possession travels by a signature and a physical set of keys handed across a table. Buyers who internalize this early find the process almost soothing in its formality; buyers who expect American-style flexibility find it maddening.
Moving the Money — The Part That Takes Longer Than You Think
Every euro of the purchase must sit in the notaire’s escrow account before the acte authentique can be signed — the full price, the notaire’s fees and transfer taxes (now over 8% for existing property), and any agency commission payable at closing. The notaire will send a completion statement, typically two to three weeks before the signing date, showing the exact figure required.
For international buyers, this is where timelines quietly slip. Large international wire transfers trigger compliance reviews at both the sending and receiving banks; transfers from outside the EU can take five to ten business days to clear once anti-money-laundering checks are added, and the notaire cannot schedule the final signature until the funds have actually landed. In practice, the safe rule is to initiate the main transfer at least two weeks before completion, in tranches if your home bank imposes daily limits, and to keep a documented paper trail of the funds’ origin — the notaire is legally obligated to verify it.
Currency is the other lever. A movement of two cents in the exchange rate on a €1 million purchase is a €20,000 swing, which is why many buyers use a currency specialist with a forward contract to lock their rate the day the compromis is signed rather than gambling on the rate ten weeks later. If part of the purchase is financed, the bank releases its portion directly to the notaire — a sequence explained in more detail in our guide to how financing actually works when buying property in France.
Insurance — The Document Without Which Nothing Signs
France does not treat home insurance as an afterthought. For any apartment in a copropriété, buyer’s insurance covering the property from the moment of transfer is effectively mandatory, and the notaire will ask for an attestation d’assurance — proof of coverage — before or at the final signing. Arranging a French multirisque habitation policy typically takes a few days once you have the property details, and the policy is dated to begin at the exact hour of completion.
One detail many buyers discover late: if you are financing, the bank will separately require borrower’s insurance (assurance emprunteur) covering death and disability, and underwriting for non-residents can take several weeks, including possible medical questionnaires. This is frequently the true critical path of the whole transaction — not the notaire, not the money, but an insurer’s medical desk. Start it the week the compromis is signed.
Utilities, the Syndic, and the Administrative Handover
Utilities in France transfer by contract, not by address. Electricity and gas accounts are closed by the seller and opened fresh in your name — a process best initiated about two weeks before completion so that meter readings can be taken on the day itself. Water in Paris apartments generally runs through the building; internet, by contrast, can involve a two-to-three-week wait for an installation appointment, so buyers intending to occupy immediately should book it before they own the property.
A word on timing the move itself: do not book movers for completion day. French signings occasionally slip by twenty-four or forty-eight hours — a missing certificate, a delayed mortgage release, a seller’s proxy arriving late — and an international removal van idling outside an apartment you do not yet own is an expensive way to learn this. Experienced buyers schedule delivery for two or three days after the planned signature and treat any earlier availability as a bonus.
The building’s managing agent — the syndic — also needs formal notification, which the notaire handles, and will apportion the year’s service charges between seller and buyer at completion. Ask your representative to obtain the minutes of the last three general assemblies before this point: they reveal any voted works whose payments may fall to you as the new owner.
Completion Day — The Final Walk-Through and the Keys
On the morning of the acte authentique, insist on a final walk-through. The property must be in the condition the compromis promised — the same fixtures, the agreed furniture, and critically, vacant if vacant possession was specified. In France, what is attached to the walls on the day you visited is not automatically what remains on the day you complete, which is why an experienced buyer agent in France photographs and inventories the property at the compromis stage and verifies it again hours before signature.
The signing itself takes place at the notaire’s office — increasingly by electronic signature, sometimes by proxy if you cannot attend — and lasts about an hour while the notaire reads the deed aloud, an old formality that survives because it works. Then the keys cross the table. Ownership is yours from that instant, though the notaire’s stamped title deed (the attestation, then the full titre de propriété) follows by post over the subsequent months, after land registry formalities are complete.
Your First Week as an Owner
The transaction ends quietly. There is no closing dinner, no ceremonial folder — just an empty apartment, a set of keys that will each need identifying, and a building whose gardien is worth introducing yourself to within the first day or two. Change the locks (previous keys circulate more widely than sellers admit), photograph the meters on day one, and file the notaire’s attestation somewhere permanent: it is your proof of ownership until the title deed arrives. It is also the document your bank, your insurer and the tax office will each ask for at least once in your first year, so scan it before it disappears into a drawer.
Many buyers describe this stretch — compromis to keys — as the period when having representation mattered most, precisely because it is when the estate agent who sold the property has already moved on. If you want every one of these steps managed, verified, and sequenced by someone who answers only to you, Contact SHOKO and we will walk you from signature to keys without a single surprise.
Recommended Reads
The French Property Buying Process Explained — buyeragentfrance.com
Buying Property in Paris: One Clause You Should Not Overlook — buyeragentfrance.com
Understanding the Compromis de Vente — buypropertyfrance.com
How to Open a French Bank Account as a Non-Resident — homefrance.eu