Must a carp lake be cleaned before I can buy it?

I am thinking about buying a property with three lakes in the Mont De Blond area of France. The current owner says that it’s French law that the lakes have to be cleaned at a cost of 20,000 euros before he can sell the property.

Can you confirm if this is the case and how often would I as the purchaser be required to have the lakes cleaned?

Regards, James

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Hi James,

I have never come across such a law. Please don’t assume this means that it’s not true though as French law can be complicated and rules can be different in each Department.

I suggest that your best course of action would be to make an appointment with your local water police (La Police de L’eau). They are part of the Department of Agriculture and can normally be found at the Prefecture.

Find out if the lakes are registered, whether they are considered open or closed waters and what category they are classed as. You could ask your Notaire to do this for you but don’t sign any Compromis until you are 100% sure how the rules will affect these particular lakes.

Whether you get the information yourself or via the Notaire, make sure it’s in writing from the Department and that you understand it fully.

Hope that this helps, Martin Barker

Comments

One thought on “Must a carp lake be cleaned before I can buy it?

  1. Marco says:

    Hi all,

    That law exists, but is only on some particular lakes. A mate of mine has a lake in France, and he told me that he has to empty it every 3 years, due to the layers of silt that builts up. This lake in particular is next to a small river, and acts like a waterstorage for when the river floods. So you can say it’s part of a system.

    If the lake is disclosed from a system like that, or you just cannot empty it (like a lot of gravelpits), other rules aply.

    Indeed, just make sure you got things sorted out properly.

    I will mention this topic to my friend, and maybe he can tell you more.

    Regards,

    Marco

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