A French notarial office’s seller checklist asks for a furniture list with a breakdown of each item’s value. That unglamorous request, published by Office Notarial du Levant, is a useful starting point for buying a furnished ski apartment. The sofa in the photograph and the sofa you acquire should be the same sofa. Preferably with its cushions.
For a buyer living abroad, an equipped resale can remove a considerable amount of organising: deliveries, assembly, access arrangements and the first evening’s hunt for a saucepan. But “sold furnished” needs translating into identifiable objects, agreed condition and a workable handover. This is a purchasing exercise before it is a decorating exercise. Here is how to make the contents of an Alpine home as intelligible as the address, using official and notarial guidance checked on 11 October 2026.
Start with the objects, not the adjective
Ask for the proposed inventory before you settle the practical details of your offer. Walk through it room by room. A dining table, chairs, bedside lamps and washing machine deserve separate entries; “living-room furniture” is too elastic to be much help when memories diverge. Give each substantial item a description, quantity, photograph reference and condition note. For an appliance, add its make and model where readable.
The purpose is identification. A photograph of a closed wardrobe says little about its contents, and a wide-angle room photograph may conceal a damaged chair. Ask the seller to mark excluded possessions clearly: artwork, heirlooms, sports equipment, the television or the coffee machine they intend to take. An attractive photograph is evidence of how a room looked on one day, not a substitute for an agreed list.
Take a hypothetical apartment advertised for six guests. Count six usable dining places, the intended beds and the available storage. This is a practical capacity check, not a claim about authorised rental occupancy. A sofa bed may provide sleeping space while removing the only comfortable sitting area. If it must be opened nightly, try the mechanism with the dining furniture in its ordinary position. The apartment should work when people are inside it.
Separate loose furniture from the building
A freestanding chair and a fitted cupboard raise different questions. Some items are legally part of the property rather than movable furniture, even when a buyer thinks of them as furnishings. Avoid deciding their treatment from whether a screwdriver appears sufficient to remove them. Send photographs and descriptions of fitted kitchens, fitted storage and attached equipment to the notaire.
Duchange & Associés’ guidance on furniture sold with property explains the distinction between genuine movable items and immeubles par destination. It also warns against artificially increasing furniture values. The document contains historical tax references; it is useful here for those principles, not as a source of current tax rates.
Keep the commercial question separate from the classification question. First establish exactly what stays. Then let the notaire determine how the agreed transaction should record it. If a seller wishes to remove a fitted item, ask how the contract will address removal and the resulting condition of the room. A wall with holes where a cupboard stood is a different proposition from the finished room you inspected.
Value what exists, then budget what you need
Used furniture value and your replacement budget are different numbers. A perfectly serviceable table may have modest resale value while replacing it would involve purchase, delivery and someone waiting in the apartment. Conversely, an expensive original purchase may have little value to you if its dimensions or condition make it unsuitable. Ask for invoices where available, but do not treat the original receipt as today’s valuation.
The Duchange guidance calls for realistic, item-by-item values. Ask your notaire to approve the proposed allocation and explain the consequences for your purchase. There is no reason to build an offer around an assumed percentage deduction or an advertised saving. Confirm separately with your lender which elements of the transaction its offer will finance.
Here is an explicitly fictional budgeting example, not a furniture valuation or a quotation. Suppose your own provisional replacement allowance is €4,800, with €900 for delivery and assembly and €600 for removal of unwanted pieces. That creates a planning envelope of €6,300. Obtain actual local quotations before relying on it. The exercise reveals why a useful existing inventory can matter even when its second-hand value is modest.
Do not add that hypothetical envelope to a property valuation or use it as evidence of Alpine prices. It is simply a way of exposing costs that a comparison between two asking prices might miss.
Inspect the furniture you will actually use
During a viewing, give function the attention normally reserved for the balcony. With the seller’s permission, open the sofa bed, sit on the dining chairs, inspect mattress condition and check that drawers run properly. Look behind movable furniture where access is safe. Record visible damage rather than relying on a vague assurance that everything is in good order.
For appliances, ask for a demonstration and the available instructions, service records and warranty documents. A machine lighting up is not proof that every programme works. If an appliance matters to your purchase, agree what can reasonably be checked and have any promised remedy recorded through the agent and notaire. Do not assume that buying the apartment creates a fresh manufacturer’s warranty for its contents.
Think about maintenance from abroad. Can cushion covers be cleaned? Are bulbs and filters identifiable? Does a replacement mattress fit the bed’s actual dimensions? A handsome oversized sofa becomes less appealing if nobody can explain how it passes through the stairwell. Ask the future property manager which items would be awkward to maintain, and distinguish their operational advice from a technical inspection.
If you intend to let, the sale inventory is also only a starting point for equipping the home. Have the manager assess the requirements applicable to your intended letting arrangement. A seller’s list does not certify rental compliance, safety or guest suitability.
Put the agreement into the purchase paperwork
Service Public’s guide to the sale of an existing home states that the final deed includes a detailed description of the property, its equipment and annexes. It also identifies the property’s availability date among the information recorded. Use the preparation of that paperwork to settle the contents and handover arrangements with the notaire, rather than leaving a separate trail of informal messages.
Ask how the agreed inventory will be incorporated into your transaction documents, who must approve it and what should happen if an item changes or fails before completion. Share the same dated version with the seller, agent and notaire. If you work in English, make sure you understand the French wording that will govern the agreement; an informal translation should not introduce promises absent from the signed version.
For your own administration, keep one agreed inventory as the working reference. This is a recommendation, not a statutory number. Label later amendments clearly, retain the earlier correspondence and avoid circulating several nearly identical spreadsheets called “final”. The smallest administrative error can produce a surprisingly long discussion about a washing machine.
Check ownership too. Ask whether any equipment is rented, supplied by a management company or owned by another party. Do not presume that an object physically present belongs to the seller or that a related service agreement will transfer with it.
Arrange a handover that works from abroad
Organise a final inspection close to completion, with timing agreed by the parties. If you cannot attend, arrange a suitable representative and give them the inventory, photographs and a clear remit. A video call can help you see a room; it does not open every drawer or check every missing remote control. Agree in advance who will report discrepancies to the agent and notaire.
Use that visit to compare the actual contents with the agreed list, record any new damage and confirm that excluded possessions have been removed as arranged. Count keys and access devices separately from furniture. Ask for appliance manuals and any agreed maintenance information. Make sure the person receiving them knows where they will be stored.
If something material differs, raise it before signing and ask the notaire how to proceed. Do not improvise a deduction from completion funds or assume a later email will alter the contract. The remedy depends on the documents and circumstances. For a non-resident buyer, having a named person responsible for this last inspection is often more valuable than another round of photographs taken several weeks earlier.
A furnished resale and a new-build package are different purchases
A resale inventory records identifiable existing items and their agreed condition. A new-build furnishing package may instead describe products to be supplied later. Check its specification, supplier, substitutions, delivery window, installation, payment terms and responsibility for defects. Ask whether it is part of the property contract or a separate purchase. A furnished show apartment illustrates a possible result; check every inclusion against your own documents.
Service Public distinguishes the sale process from delivery in its VEFA guidance: delivery is the key-handover stage when the buyer checks the completed home and can identify defects. Coordinate any separate furniture installation with the developer’s access arrangements. Do not book deliveries on the assumption that a provisional construction timetable gives a carrier permission to enter.
Across both routes, ask one final question: what must be done before your first usable stay? The answer may be very little, or it may include replacements, cleaning, assembly and a local person to manage them. A furnished home earns its convenience through a clear inventory and an organised handover. The photographs can then go back to doing their proper job: helping you decide whether you like the place.
If you are comparing Alpine homes from abroad, tell DOMOSNO how you plan to use the property. We can help you ask the right questions about what is included before you commit to an address.
