REAL ESTATE AND FIGHT AGAINST MONEY LAUNDERING
In the context of the purchase or sale of a property, the real estate professional is subject to preventive obligations against money laundering, terrorist financing and tax and administrative fraud that obliges him to demand certain information of its customers on pain of being accused of complicity.
What is money laundering ?
"It is to facilitate by any means, the false justification of the origin of the property or income of the perpetrator of a crime or offense which has given him a direct or indirect profit and to assist in the placement, concealment or conversion of the direct or indirect proceeds of a crime or offense ".
Tracfin is the French unit fighting against money laundering and terrorist financing.
The professionals’ obligations
All professions involved in financial exchanges (real estate agents, lawyers, banks, notaries, accountants, gambling operators, etc.) are specifically involved in the fight against money laundering.
As such, they must comply with a number of legal obligations defined by the Monetary and Financial Code, to ensure the effectiveness of the approach.
That is why before entering into a business relationship or assisting a client in the preparation or completion of a transaction, your real estate agency has an obligation to ask questions and ask for certain documents that will better serve you, know your motives and raise doubts about the conditions under which you perform this or any other operation.
As a seller or buyer, you will be asked to provide the following information and documents :
a- Private Individual:
- copy of one or more valid identity documents, including photo and signature ;
- recent proof of residence ;
- Information about your profession ;
- Information on your income and wealth (tax notice) or source of committed funds.
b- Legal entity:
- Commercial Registry or foreign equivalent of less than 3 months ;
- Updated company by-laws ;
- Audited accounts for the last financial year ;
- Recent list of shareholders / associates holding more than 25% of the shares or shares of the company, copy of their identity document and proof of address ;
- Copy of the identity document of the legal or statutory representative.
For more information you can consult the following link :
Lignes directrices de la dgccrf
Or send us an email to [email protected]
Personal Data Protection
It is important to specify that as part of the General Data protection regulation, your personal information will be saved on protected mediums, only accessible by authorized individuals who are involved in the transaction for the length of time permitted by law.
By law, you are allowed to access and modify your information which means that you can ask for them to be modified, completed, updated or erased.
CNIL is the french authority for the data protection. The link below allow you to access a presentation done by CNIL on the europeen protection regulation. www.cnil.fr
You can contact us on this topic by email [email protected]