'Gazumping' is the term used to refer to when a house seller accepts an offer from one potential buyer, but then accepts a higher offer from someone else. The first buyer is left in the lurch, and either has to offer a higher price or accept that they have lost that home and continue looking. This practice tends to occur in a market when house prices are rising as there are more buyers around than sellers.

If you’ve recently bought a property with a plot of land, whether large or small, more often than not the boundaries of that property will be marked out either by a fence or a hedgerow.

In order to avoid potential problems and disputes further down the line, it is highly recommended to officially define the borders of your property (borner le terrain).

When you buy a house in France, the notaire will quite possibly have mentioned a servitude - ‘easement’ in English - that is due to your neighbour, or that is due to you. An easement is the right to use someone else’s property for a specified purpose. Perhaps you are in disagreement with a neighbour over a matter of easement or have read your deeds and not understood the paragraph entitled “servitudes”.

The French land registry plans are known as the « cadastre ».The French Cadastre derives from the napoleonian Cadastre and applies to all urban and rural properties (built or not). The literal information is strictly linked to the geographical one.

A plot is defined as an entity linked to an owner and to a fiscal division, following the napoleonian concept. Basically, the cadastre has a fiscal function evoluting to an informative function and having, additionally, a certain probative function. The "Conservation des Hypothèques" Bureau keeps and manages the Land Register. In the Creuse it is located in Guéret (centre des impots fonciers).