Registration duties are

This decision provides important insight into your property law. Here is what it changes for you.

The situation

Registration duties are acquired to the beneficiary as they result from the stipulations of the deeds, without being able to be subordinated to external facts or provisions foreign to the contract. The tax authorities having issued a notice of assessment for the duties and penalties estimated due following the sale of real property described as a forest, the price of which appeared insufficient to them, it cannot be reproached to the trial judges for having rejected the objection of the taxpayer who argued that the object of the sale should be determined taking into account the clause of the authentic deed relating to the agreements that had been concluded with third parties and the transfer of the timber products by a private deed prior to the contract, since they held that the word "forest" implies the existence of land planted with trees, that no restriction was made in the deed on the nature and extent of the transfer and that the clause obliging the purchaser to personally deal with the execution or termination of all agreements that may have been contracted in relation to the sold property is not sufficiently explicit to be applied to the prior private deed.

What the law says

This decision confirms the fundamental principles of property law.

Key points

• Strictly observe the statutory time limits for appeals
• Keep all your supporting documents (title deeds, contracts, correspondence)
• Anticipate: preventive advice always costs less than litigation

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