Sale of a property located in a pre-emption zone

Verified 23 December 2025 - Public Service / Directorate of Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)

If you wish sell your property and that it is located in a pre-emption zone defined by the town hall, the sale cannot not to be done freely. Before concluding the sale with a buyer, you must first offer the property to the municipality. This is what is called the right of pre-emption. We present you the information to know.

The right of pre-emption allows a community, most often the town hall, to buy as a priority real estate put up for sale when it is located in a predetermined area.

This mechanism is put in place to respond to objectives ofgeneral interestl, such as the creation of housing, the development of economic activities, the construction of public facilities or the improvement of the urban environment.

In practice, if you want to sell a property located in a pre-emption zone, you cannot immediately sell it to the buyer of your choice. You must first inform the town hall of your sales project. This approach allows the municipality to examine the advisability of buying the property in place of the initially planned buyer. The municipality can then decide either to renounce its right, allowing the sale to continue normally, or to buy the property as a priority. In this case, it replaces the prospective buyer and becomes the purchaser of the property.

The right of pre-emption therefore limits your freedom in choosing the buyer.

The right of pre-emption cannot be applied in general throughout the territory.

The areas concerned are precisely defined by a deliberation from the town hall. This deliberation must be brought to the knowledge of the inhabitants: poster in the town hall for 2 months and in the local newspapers.

The town hall can exercise its right of pre-emption on property (house, building, land) belonging to a particular or a legal person.

Before any sale in an area subject to a right of first refusal, the owner shall inform the public authority concerned with its intention to sell.

This formality takes the form of a Declaration of Intent to Dispose (DIA).

The DIA must be established exclusively by the owner good stuff. Indeed, the DIA signed by another person (buyer, real estate agent, third party) is not valid.

The owner must fill in a form :

Declaration of intent to dispose or application to acquire property subject to a right of first refusal

This form can be completed with a descriptive annex or a plan of the land with indication of the area.

The DIA should be addressed to the town hall of the municipality where the property is located.

Who shall I contact

It can be sent by registered mail with acknowledgement of receipt or by electronic means where the municipality so permits.

FYI  

You can sign a promise to sell with a buyer of your choice. That act must, however, include suspensive condition non-exercise of the right of pre-emption by the municipality. By contrast, theauthentic act The sale agreement cannot be signed until the municipality has waived its right of first refusal.

The town hall has a deadline of 2 months from the DIA reception for:

  • Give up expressly to pre-empt the good
  • To be silent, silence worth renunciation tacit to pre-empt the good
  • Decide to pre-empt on your terms or by renegotiating the terms of sale.

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Renunciation of the town hall

The town hall may decide to renounce the purchase of your property. This waiver may be explicit (the town hall notifies its response within 2 months) or tacit (the town hall allows the deadline of 2 months to expire without replying).

In this case, you can then sell your property to the buyer of your choice, at the prices and conditions indicated in the DIA.

Acceptance

The town hall can decide to buy your property. Either she buys it or on your terms (acceptance without reservation), or she decides to negotiate the price (acceptance with reservation).

Unqualified

The town hall can decide to buy the property on your terms. The decision to pre-empt must be published.

You then sign one authentic act closing the sale with the town hall. This act is performed by the notary.

With reservations

The town hall may decide to buy your property at a different price than the one you offer.

In that case, she'll tell you notified its offer to acquire the property at a lower price, specifying that in the absence of an agreement, it will ask the expropriation judge to fix the price.

Then you have 2 months from the offer of the town hall to make known your answer: either you accept the price proposed by the town hall, or you maintain your 1re price and accept that the price is set by a judge.

In this case, the town hall must refer the expropriation to the expropriation judge within a period of 15 days from your refusal, by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt.

Please note

The judge intervenes only to determine the sales price amount. It does not examine the legality (validity) of the decision to pre-empt.

Once the price set by the competent court, you and the town hall, a period of 2 months to decide if you accept this price or if you give up the sale. If you or the City Hall do not renounce the sale within this period, the decision becomes final and the sale is considered concluded.

FYI  

The silence of either party during these 2 months is acceptance of the fixed price, and the transfer of ownership occurs automatically to the benefit of the town hall at the end of this period.

When the right holder chooses to purchase your property after judicial price fixing, he must deposit 15% the selling price, within 3 months from the referral of the court, in order to guarantee the seriousness of the proceedings.

If a sale is made without a declaration of intent to dispose, or on the basis of an incomplete declaration, the City Hall may request the cancelation of the sale.

Such a request must be made within 5 years from the publication of the deed of sale.

FYI  

The seller or private buyer cannot invoke this irregularity. Thus, a sale made without complying with the pre-emption procedure cannot be called into question at their initiative, but only by the community concerned.

When you sell a property located in a pre-emption zone, several checks and precautions are essential to secure the sale.

1Check whether the goods are covered by a right of first refusal

Before any procedure, it is important to check the exact location of the property. This verification confirms the existence or absence of a right of pre-emption and identifies the type of area concerned.

2Ensuring that the declaration of intent to dispose is properly established

The declaration of intent to dispose must be completed by the owner of the property. It must be drawn up on the appropriate form and contain all the necessary information, in particular the sale price, the conditions of the transaction, the precise description of the property (area, outbuildings), the possible existence of easements or particular constraints, as well as the agency costs when they are borne by the purchaser.

3Respect the deadlines of the procedure

The authentic instrument must never be signed until the pre-emption procedure is fully completed. The sale may only take place after:

  • the sending of the sales declaration to the municipality and its receipt
  • the expiry of the period left to the community to decide (2 months), or its explicit waiver
  • or, in the case of pre-emption, the full outcome of the procedure, including the fixing of the price and the final decision of the municipality to buy or give up.

Declaration of intent to dispose or application to acquire property subject to a right of first refusal

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