Diagnostics for selling a house in the Landes: termites, brush clearance and the risk report

To sell a house in the Landes, two diagnostics are required for almost every house: the DPE, France's energy performance certificate, and the termite report (état relatif à la présence de termites), required across the whole department since 2002. The risk report is added as soon as the address is affected by a listed risk, brush clearance included, and it must be handed over from the first viewing. Depending on the age and equipment of the house, asbestos, lead, electricity, gas and private sanitation follow. Here is which ones to order, when, and what they change for a sale in Mont-de-Marsan, Saint-Pierre-du-Mont, Dax or Saint-Sever.

Getting ready to sell your house? Send me its address and year of construction: in a first conversation, with no obligation, I will tell you which diagnostics to order, and in what order, before the house goes on the market.

Which diagnostics are needed to sell a house in the Landes?

The diagnostics are gathered in the technical diagnostic file (dossier de diagnostic technique, DDT), provided by the seller and annexed to the preliminary sale agreement (compromis or promesse de vente), then to the final deed signed at the notary's office. The table below sums up what applies to a house in the Landes. The criteria and validity periods are those set out by Notaires de France in their guide to technical property diagnostics (new tab).

The DPE and the energy audit have their own article: DPE 2027: selling an E, F or G rated house in the Landes, because the rating of an electrically heated house may improve on 1 January 2027. This article covers the other diagnostics, the ones that depend on the plot, the age of the house and its equipment.

Termites: a diagnostic required across the whole department

In the Landes, there is no need to ask whether your town is affected. The department was declared entirely infested by the prefectoral order of 26 June 2002 (new tab): selling all or part of a house requires a termite report, in Mont-de-Marsan as in the smallest village of the Chalosse or the Haute Lande.

This report is valid for only six months. It is annexed to the preliminary sale agreement and, for the seller to remain protected, it must still be valid on the day the deed is signed. A house inspected in March, under agreement in July and sold at the notary's office in October will therefore need a second termite report before signing.

A positive report does not prevent a sale. It describes the parts of the house where signs were found and becomes part of the negotiation, as does the invoice for a treatment already carried out, which is worth keeping.

Dry rot (mérule), a fungus that damages damp timber, only requires mandatory disclosure in zones defined by prefectoral order. The Landes prefecture states that there are none in the department: no information on dry rot is required to sell a house in the Landes.

Brush clearance: stated in the listing since 2025

In the heart of the Landes de Gascogne forest, the largest maritime pine forest in Europe, clearing the brush around houses is a legal obligation. According to the Landes prefecture (new tab), it applies across the whole department, within 200 metres of woods and forests, under the prefectoral orders of 22 August 2025 and 3 February 2026. The owner clears and keeps clear a 50-metre strip around the house, which the mayor can extend to 100 metres, as well as 6 metres on either side of the private access road. In urban zones within this perimeter, the whole plot must be cleared.

Since 1 January 2025, this obligation has been part of the information given to buyers. The seller of a house located in a brush-clearance zone must state it from the listing onwards and in the risk report handed over at the first viewing. At the time of the sale, the seller also certifies on their honour that the clearance has been carried out and maintained.

To find out whether your plot is affected, see the Géorisques page on the legal brush-clearance obligations (new tab), which gives access to the map. Do the work before the first viewings: a well-kept plot reassures buyers, who will take over the obligation after the sale. During the valuation of your house, I check with you whether the plot is affected and what the listing will need to state.

The risk report, handed over from the first viewing

Since 1 January 2023, the sale listing of an affected property must carry the statement, in French, that information on the risks to which the property is exposed is available on the Géorisques website: www.georisques.gouv.fr. The risk report (état des risques), drawn up less than six months earlier, is handed to the prospective buyer from the first viewing, then annexed to the preliminary agreement and to the deed.

You can draw it up yourself, free of charge, with the ERRIAL service of Géorisques (new tab), from the address or the land parcel. The document shows in particular the applicable risk prevention plans, the seismic zone, the radon potential, the brush-clearance obligation and polluted soil areas. You complete it by declaring any damage compensated as a natural or technological disaster that you are aware of.

Its content depends on the exact address. Dax is one of the Landes towns covered by a flood risk prevention plan published by the prefecture (new tab): a house within its boundary states this in the risk report. In Mont-de-Marsan, Saint-Pierre-du-Mont and Saint-Sever, as elsewhere, only the report drawn up for the address of the house is authoritative.

If the risk report was not provided, the buyer can go to court to have the sale cancelled or the price reduced. It can be drawn up free of charge, but its absence can prove costly.

Near the Mont-de-Marsan air base: aircraft noise

Since 1 June 2020, a house located in a noise zone defined by the noise exposure plan (plan d'exposition au bruit) of an aerodrome is sold with an aircraft noise statement (état des nuisances sonores aériennes), included in the technical diagnostic file. This document, completed by the seller using an official template, shows the zone in which the house is located.

In Mont-de-Marsan, air base 118 has a noise exposure plan, approved by prefectoral order of 2 November 2017, which covers part of the town and neighbouring towns. If your house is within it, this document is part of the file: a buyer who did not receive it can go to court to have the sale cancelled, the price reduced or damages awarded. The plan can be consulted at the town hall.

Asbestos, lead, electricity, gas: depending on the age of the house

For asbestos, it is the date the building permit was issued that counts: a permit issued before 1 July 1997 requires an inspection, which is the case for any house built in the 1970s or 1980s. For lead, it is the construction date: a village house built before 1949 requires a lead exposure report. These dates often appear on your purchase deed.

For electricity and gas, it is the age of the indoor installation. An installation less than 15 years old does not require a diagnostic: keep the certificate of compliance or the invoices that prove it. A house heated with mains gas or fitted with a gas tank needs the gas diagnostic if its installation is more than 15 years old.

These diagnostics inform the buyer without preventing the sale. But if they are missing, or no longer valid on the day the deed is signed, the seller cannot be exempted from the warranty against hidden defects for the defects they should have revealed.

House not connected to the main sewer: the SPANC inspection

If your house has private sanitation, a septic tank or a micro treatment plant, the file must include the inspection report of the public service for non-collective sanitation (service public d'assainissement non collectif, SPANC), dated less than three years before the deed is signed. The town hall will tell you which service is responsible: it carries out this inspection, not a private assessor.

If the installation does not comply, the buyer must have the compliance work carried out within a year of the deed. The cost of this work weighs on the negotiation: it is better to know it before setting the price. The rules are set out on the ministry's portal on non-collective sanitation (new tab).

In what order should you order the diagnostics?

The timetable follows three stages: the listing, the first viewing, then the preliminary agreement and the deed.

1. Before publishing the listing: the DPE, because the listing must show the energy class, and the energy audit if the house is rated E, F or G, because it must be handed over from the first viewing. Also check on Géorisques whether the plot is subject to brush clearance, so that you can state it.
2. Before the first viewing: the risk report, drawn up less than six months earlier.
3. Before the preliminary agreement: the other diagnostics, termites, asbestos, lead, electricity, gas, the SPANC inspection and aircraft noise, gathered in the technical diagnostic file.
4. Until the deed: the validity dates, especially those of the termite report and the risk report, valid for six months.

In practice, a single visit from the assessor can cover most of them when the house goes on the market; only the termite report and the risk report will need renewing if the sale takes longer. The diagnostics are paid for by the seller and their prices are not regulated: ask for several quotes. The assessor must be certified, which you can check in the official directory of certified property assessors (new tab).

When you entrust me with the sale of your house, I go through the list with you before the listing, then I follow the validity dates until the signing at the notary's office. The full selling process is set out on the page selling your house in the Landes.

What the diagnostics change to the selling price

A diagnostic does not set the price, but it shifts the discussion. A positive termite report, an electrical installation with anomalies or sanitation that needs redoing, discovered after the offer, become arguments for renegotiation. Known before the valuation, they are reflected in the asking price, and the sale goes ahead without unpleasant surprises.

That is why I look at the available diagnostics during the free valuation of your house, alongside actual local sale prices. Town-by-town benchmarks are on the pages devoted to the Mont-de-Marsan property market, the Saint-Pierre-du-Mont property market, the Dax property market and the Saint-Sever property market. The article on selling a house in Saint-Pierre-du-Mont gives a detailed example.

For a house whose electrics, sanitation or insulation need work, I can also draw plans of the existing property and a 3D projection of the work, so that buyers can see the property's potential beyond the diagnostics. This is a separate service from the valuation and the sale mandate, on quotation: plans and renovation projections before a sale. I am a building draughtswoman; I am not registered with the French Order of Architects.

Buyers: what to read in the file before making an offer

If you are buying a house in the Landes, three documents shape what comes next. The risk report says whether the plot is subject to brush clearance, an obligation you will take over. The SPANC inspection sets, if the installation does not comply, work to be done within a year. The termite report describes the signs found in the house.

I read these documents with you before any offer, under a property search mandate in Mont-de-Marsan, Dax and the Landes. For a purchase in Dax, the checks specific to the town are set out in the article on buying property in Dax in 2026. I work with buyers in French, English and Spanish.