The life annuity seller who no longer receives the annuity from the purchaser is exposed, if he requests the cancellation of the sale, to having to return the bouquet he originally received.
The seller in private life annuity of the purchaser’s annuity is exposed, if he requests the cancellation of the sale, to having to return the bouquet that he originally received. This is what the Court of Cassation ruled even though the bouquet had been paid thirty years earlier, when the notarial deed was signed. This deed of sale classically provided that in the event of default by the purchaser, in the event of non-payment of annuities, there could be “resolution of the sale”, that is to say cancellation, and that upon as a sanction for the buyer, the annuities paid would remain acquired by the seller.
The purchaser also had to pay unpaid installments and occupancy compensation until he left the premises.
But in ruling this way, the court of appeal forgot the “bouquet”, that is to say the first sum paid on the day of signing the deed, which represented a significant part of the value of the house, pointed out the Court of Cassation.
Either it had to judge that the bouquet remained acquired by the seller as damages owed by the buyer, or it had to order the seller to return this bouquet since a resolution of sale entails the erasure of everything that has been done and must return both parties to the state they were in before signing the contract.
The buyer therefore had to return the house and, unless the contract provided otherwise, the seller had to return the price received.
Bad deal ultimately for the seller because, instead of reaching an agreement with his defaulting buyer, he had to return the amount of the bouquet, in this case almost half the price of the building.
(Cass. Civ 3, 14.9.2023, N 22-13.209).
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