Selling real estate : the Statement of Natural and Technological Risks (ERNT)

Risk Prevention Plan

For all real estate transactions, all rentals (empty, furnished, seasonal, professional, business, etc.), and for all sales, the owner must provide a statement of natural and technological risks (ERNT) at the same time as the contract.
Valid for 6 months, this document lists the natural (flood, drought, earthquake, etc.) and the technological risks (industrial, chemical, biological, etc.) to which the property is exposed.
A complete statement of risks includes:

• the prefectural order
• maps of the commune
• a regional view
• the list of risks to which your property is exposed

It concerns all the property situated in the communes :

• subject to a natural risk prevention plan
• subject to a technological risk prevention plan
• located in a seismic area, or still yet, all the goods indemnified within the scope of natural disasters since 1982

Only certain contracts are concerned by this statement :

• unilateral undertaking to sell or purchase
• sales contracts
• written rental contracts for properties, constructed or not, including all types of contracts subject to a “3, 6, or 9-year” lease.
• seasonal or vacation rental agreements
• furnished rental contracts
• contracts of sale off plan / for future completion (VEFA)

Be careful, it is essential for this document to be provided to the tenant or buyer, otherwise, a judge could decide to reduce the rent, the price of the sale, or event its cancellation.
For the sake of civil protection and to have the citizen take control of his/her own security, the French government has, since 1st June 2006, made it mandatory to provide information within the scope of any sales transaction or rental of a property on the risks incurred by this property due to its location.
This information concerns the risks considered in the Natural or Technological Risk Prevention Plant (RPP) in which the property is situated.
This mandatory information also includes known natural or technological disasters, that have been indemnified for a part of the property or its totality. This information, mandatory since 1st June 2006, is provided by the seller or the landlord of the property and is presented like a document that includes:

• an official form to fill out: The E.R.N.T. (Statement of Natural and Technological Risks)
• a fact sheet with instructions for the commune concerned, called D.C.I. (Record of Communal Information)
• a map of the Risk Prevention Plans with the location of the property, on these plans

Order your Statement of Natural and Technological Risks on-line by clicking on : www.dimexbat.com/ernt.php