French General Tax Code
In forceNotaries, bailiffs, registrars and other public officers, lawyers and administrative authorities may not make or draw up a deed by virtue of or as a consequence of a deed compulsorily subject to registration or to the merged formality, annex it to their minutes, receive it for deposit or issue it as a patent, extract, copy or expedition, before one or other formality has been carried out, even if the time limit for doing so has not yet expired.
Excepted are documents of this nature that are served on parties or by posters and proclamations as well as enforceable copies of divorce judgments rendered pursuant to article 232 of the Civil Code.
Notaries may, however, make deeds by virtue of or as a consequence of deeds in respect of which the time limit for registration or performance of the merged formality has not yet expired, but on condition that they are personally liable, not only for registration duties and land registration tax, but also for any penalties to which that deed may be subject.
The provisions of the first paragraph do not prevent the drawing up of extracts, copies or expéditions intended for the completion of the land registration formality or the merged formality. However, for deeds excluded from the latter formality, public or ministerial officers, lawyers and administrative authorities may not give these documents to the parties before having reproduced on them the receipt for registration duties or, where applicable, the statement that replaces it.
The clerks of the commercial courts and the judicial courts with commercial jurisdiction as well as the Institut national de la propriété industrielle are only subject to the provisions of the first and penultimate paragraphs of this article in respect of the documents mentioned in 5°, 7° and 7° bis of 2 of article 635.
