Viager without the clichés: bouquet, annuity, and what actually transfers
An old mechanism, often misunderstood, whose element of chance is the very condition of its validity.
A viager sale transfers ownership immediately, against a capital sum paid at signature — the bouquet — and a periodic annuity due until the seller dies. Ownership changes hands on the day of the deed, which many do not realise.
The viager is called occupied where the seller keeps the use of the property, the commonest case, and free where the buyer takes possession at once. The discount applied in the first case corresponds to the value of the retained right of use.
The contract's validity rests on chance. If death occurs within twenty days of the deed from an illness the seller was suffering at signature, the sale is void — article 1975 of the French civil code. Without genuine uncertainty there is no viager.
Failure to pay the annuity can rescind the sale where a rescission clause was provided. That is the seller's main guarantee, and the main risk for a buyer who underestimates the length of the commitment.