Debra

http://www.international-mortgage-network.com/france-tax.htm This site says 26% (16% plus 10% social contribution), but that may be the rate for tax residents of France.

Sure its not 33%?  From that French Tax document someone posted recently: * Capital gains from real property Capital gains derived in France by taxpayers having their domicile for tax purposes outside France from the sale of real property, whether improved or not, immovable property rights, stocks or shares in unlisted property companies the assets of which consist mainly of real property, are subject to a 33 1/3 % levy discharging income tax liability. However, methods for computing long-term capital gains allow for a significant limitation of the assessment basis. Currency erosion correctives are applied to the purchase price or to market value on acquisition, as the case may be. Moreover, long-term capital gains qualify for a notional relief of 5 % for every year the property is held after the second year, which means that they are tax exempt when sold after having been held for at least 22 years. I saved the document itself so I don't have the link but I'm sure I got it from this forum somewhere!  I can't see a way to attach it here, so if you can't find it, let me know and I'll email it to you.  

By the way, if you haven't found it already - this region map is a good starting point if you know nothing about areas or property prices.  Just trying to be helpful, despite being shouted at! http://www.frenchentree.com/fe-regions/

No, there is no need to shout - I find it rather rude actually.  The question is, to an agent is there any point in spending time (and therefore money) dealing with a request from you when you are not ready to buy until next year, whether this time/money is spent in preparing details for you or spending time with you in their office, explaining where properties are and having you sign a contract before you do a drive by.  As to research - yes we did lots, there, on the ground and on the net, but apart from a general tour of areas on holiday, not until we had the money to spend as prices can change a lot in a short time - both here in the UK (so one may have more or less money to spend than originally thought) or in France (so you might not be able to afford the same property next year as you can now).  If you visit the area and like it, you can check out prices in agents windows or on the net when you get home.  We never wasted an agents time until we had the money ready to spend.  Then signed up to spend it (a few times actually, since one fell through because we were unable to get a CU, another had some dodgy surveys so we changed our minds about it, and then we signed up to buy two other properties in quick succession, this time with no clause suspensives and no reason to worry about survey results, so its done).

Exactly - and a lot of agents might be used to that and so not always reply if they get the sort of email the original poster may have sent, because they are reallly only doing research and are not ready to buy somewhere.  As he said, come the time when they have the euros in their pockets.....which is obviusly not now.  How would you respond in that instance?  Is it really worth responding to such requests and being a 'tour guide'?

I think this is awful!  My daughter came home from school last year (aged 7) asking if she could change her bedroom from a Barbie theme to Bratz.  When I asked why, since I thought she loved Barbie (all presents for a couple of years have been Barbie and her room was only done out in Barbie stuff within the last few months prior to this) she said her friend at school, on hearing she had a Barbie bedroom said 'well you'd better get rid of that quick.  Barbie is out - Bratz is in'.  So I asked her if this meant she wanted to get rid of the 80 or so Barbie dolls and all the accessories and related toys (including two houses and various cars, jeeps, bikes etc) and she said yes, if she could have Bratz stuff as a replacement!  Have you seen the price of Bratz dolls?  Even more expensive than Barbie.  I told her they look strange anyway - big head, all out of proportion, and if she liked Barbie she should tell her friend she's just being silly and she liked Barbie and wasn't going to get rid of all her stuff just because someone else said she should.  It seemed to work, and a year later she still has a Barbie room - but I've vowed that when she really does outgrow it she's not getting another 'themed' room but just a pleasant, girlie type of room which she will just have to live with!  At least it won't be out of fashion before its had any use! I just hope I can manage to be as firm when she gets older and starts wanting certain clothes and shoes etc!  I also thought this sort of thing wasn't common in France.

Did you read the other thread on home ed?  There is quite a lot of information in there......... http://forums.livingfrance.com/shwmessage.aspx?ForumID=277&MessageID=204834

Sorry I can't help.  All I know is one house we went to see had parquet flooring (looked just like smaller floorboards to me!) and the guy had taken some of it up to lay pipes and said it was really difficult to get down again so it would be best to put another type of flooring over it - shame.  The house we've bought has parquet flooring downstairs and part of it needs repairing where a door has been taken out between the hall and living room so I'll be looking at it very carefully next week!

[quote]I have spoken to the Inland Revenue, and it is True, you dont have to pay CGT ON ANY PROPERTY OR BUSINESS if you are domiciled in France and dont spend much time inthe UK and stay away for the total o...[/quote] what did that bit about having moved at a certain time mean then?  I wasn't sure if it was relevant to you or meant one had to carefully time moving and selling........ "There is an important caveat: you must clearly have left the UK in the UK tax year (not the calendar year) preceding that in which the property is disposed of, and must not return to the UK within the next five tax years. The exact nature of what constitutes a 'return' to the UK is outside the scope of this article, but it is made clear by the double tax treaty." Note that this loophole is expected to be closed in the next couple of years, anyone looking at this who doesn't read the article! 

Nope - read the article about the loophole.

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We're coming back to UK around 25/26th August from Poitou Charente with an empty people carrier (will have to check booking on ferry when hubby is awake) if that's any use.  Nowhere near Bristol tho as we're heading to North Yorks (and can't, sorry, but we have a child's birthday party to get back for) but could drop you at a convenient point on the way if you have no better offers ........

are you sure you haven't got some nails in the floorboards?  If so, replacing them with screws usually works.

[quote]Hayley, you, me and several other posters acknowledge the power of 'the look'. Please let's leave the belt and strap you refer to in the past, where they belong.[/quote] I agree totally, Tresco.  Never heard of the strap or belt but we had detention or the cane when we were at school (hubby who went to school in the NW had the slipper and the cane) and we used to get a letter to take home to our parents for them to sign to say it was OK - I used to forge my parent's signature rather than tell them!  The cane never frightened me but the LOOK from my Dad did!  Also, both parents would lecture me for hours if I behaved unacceptably!  The look worked more with my Dad - we took a lend of Mum a bit with her being around all day so we occasionally got a slap on the legs from her, but I don't do that with my kids.  Hubby threatens to smack ours a lot but never actually does (I mention quietly that he can't do that - its illegal, just in case he ever decides to follow through with the threat!) - they haven't clicked yet that he never actually does it (aged 8, 7 and 5 so it won't be long).  There are other ways of 'punishment' that weren't available in my parent's day because we never had so many things to be deprived of!  A chat about disapproval of behaviour really upsets my lot (my equivalent of the lectures from my Mum and Dad) and encourages them to conform.  If all else fails, to bed with no video or withdrawal of playstation privileges absolutely devastates them!  When these strategies stop working, we've still got the idea of losing pocket money in reserve or at least relating it positively to good behaviour (rather than the negative of deducting it for bad behaviour)!  Mind you - ours get 50p a week, but I know some kids who get £10 a week - madness! I don't understand this stuff about kids not sitting down with the family at mealtimes.  We've always sat at the table for at least one meal a day as a whole family (dinner, when Dad gets home) and lunch is at the table with Mum (apart from schooldays, when they used to go to school).  Family dinners with all generations used to happen on Sundays before my Mum moved to France (and obviously do at home since - we're too far away to invite the same crowd as my Mum used to), so our kids know how to behave at table.  Even when they were still in a high chair, they would be in it but at a place at the table.  When they didn't need the highchair tray it would be removed and they'd be at the table but strapped into the highchair - until they were big enough and stable enough to sit in a booster seat on a normal chair at the table.  Don't people generally do this?  Must be something to do with me being an 'older parent'!

[quote]Debra, as the original poster you have demonstrated that descriptions can be works of fiction - when it comes to the time to buy each time I shall look the agent in the eyes and tell them that if they...[/quote] Aha - but its all relative!  The recent renovation was recent in the agent's eyes, compared to other properties he had on his books.  You'd be amazed to see some of the places on the market and then find out that they are only recently empty because the owner has just died.  You wouldn't imagine and would find it hard to believe that people could live like that, but they do! We carried on, partly out of amazement and partly because it was a property we had flown out specially to see on an overnight trip and we had no other properties to view and it was like a compulsion to see just how bad it was.  We creased up laughing later (after a few hours to get over the shock).  Mainly because we'd both been polite and I'd been saying things like 'well, maybe you could just rip that out and start again....' and hubby had been saying things about how you could maybe improve the lake with vegetation and by ripping out the dead tree.... so we each thought the other was seriously contemplating it (he thought I liked the house and I thought he liked the lake) and so didn't like to run!  We were both so relieved when we realised we were both equally horrified by it all!  We now look back on that trip as an expensive night out or a long way to go for the lovely meal we had that night! It was a good experience in the end because we never did that again.  No matter how good something sounded, we were sure to make plenty of other appointments for the trip so it wouldn't be wasted (and no, it turned out not to be an exception to the rule).  Except for hubby's latest trip, to see 'his lakes' (one trip for one property but he was so excited I couldn't stop him - but I didn't go with him!), which turned out well because he loved the property and made an immediate offer.  We learned never to get too excited about a property, assume the worst - and enjoy the research, even though we were much more specific about our wants and areas than you are just now, we learned to treat it as research and lose that idea of 'this will be the one' even though the money was burning a hole in our pockets and we really wanted to find somewhere, quick!

Probably worse!  Our kids are used to eating out in restaurants and also attending big 'family dinners' with mixed company, so maybe its partly the experience that helps, along with being given strong boundaries.  Our kids go to bed at 7 (stretching to 8pm just lately as they are starting to need less sleep) so we get our 'adult time'.  Staying up later than that would make their behaviour deteriorate anyway.  Maybe these kids don't get out much!  Only when they are on holiday, and then they stay up later and so behave worse than usual - so you poor guys get to cope with their excitement at being out, up late AND the results of their being allowed to run riot at home! Kids under 7 are/have been learning how to behave and constantly push their boundaries.  Its not their fault if they haven't been given clear guidance.  Its a shame too, because they enjoy being 'out' much more if they know how to behave nicely and therefore don't get told off all the time.  At this age they are still 'retrievable' as human beings, though!  We've had yet another little girl around to play and other parents looked at me, shook their heads as if to say 'you'll learn'.  After an initial wild 10 mins or so and a quiet word about how we do things in our house, she was fine for two hours.  That is, until her Mum turned up to pick her up and she suddenly turned into this obnoxious child, charging about, throwing things, winding my kids up - all while her Mum was trying to talk to me.  She was the kind who gave the ineffectual, tired, whine too 'oh come on x, behave....please?'.  It was clear who was the boss in their house!  The Mum was very apologetic and said 'this is why she doesn't get invited to people's houses much'.  I think she thought I was being polite when I told her she'd been fine up until she arrived!  Let's face it - kids will run riot at that age: if they can. Its awkward because I don't really feel you can discipline other people's children if the parents are there - its their job.  I wouldn't be happy if someone tried it with mine so I wouldn't expect to have to do it with theirs.  But what do you do if you're in Coco's situation and they are in your house and the parents do nothing?  I'd have to have a word with the parents and tell them its not acceptable and they would have to leave if they didn't sort it out (which, as a parent, I would be horrified if someone said that to me and they would be sorted out sharpish!) but when you're in a B&B business and it affects your living, it must be hard.  However, if you feel you can avoid bookings from children in future, can't you turn them away once you have them if the situation isn't acceptable?  I know its turning business away but you might lose all the other guests if you don't and then you lose money AND still have to put up with the brats from hell!

Yes, we have a little girl who visits often and gives her parents more of a runaround than we would ever allow.  Our favourite phrase is 'we don't do that in our house' - and to her Mum's amazement, it always works!

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There is a choice to display a pic from a web site or upload one from your pc.  In control panel, 'upload avatar' or 'upload photo' allows you to browse and load one up straight from your pc.  The photo is just displayed in your profile and the avatar is the one that displays under your name. 

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Just told hubby about this post and asked him what he would have done had he been the B&B owner.  His answer: he would have told the parents 'you get a grip of your kids or I'll get a grip of you AND your kids!'  Then changed the booking details from 'kids welcome' to 'well mannered and well behaved children welcome'! Perhaps we're of the wrong temperament to run a B&B?!

We have 3 kids under 8 and they always take their shoes off on entering anyone's house and wouldn't dream of acting like this.  If they did, I would fully expect you to throw us out of your B&B!  If they broke anything, I would be horrified and would expect to replace it - and feel awful it it was something that was irreplaceable.  If they misbehaved in any way I wouldn't expect you to do or say anything, but tell me if I wasn't already aware of it and I would deal with it and you would get an apology from them. On one of our recent trips an English owner of an Auberge commented that our children were very polite and well behaved - just like French children.  She explained how normally English children behaved awfully and just ran off into the garden and ran riot, and she was pleasantly surprised when our son politely asked if it was their garden and could they go and play in it?  She thought the difference was to do with them being homeschooled, but I explained they haven't been out of school that long - but they do have a strict (almost Victorian sometimes!) father and I'm quite firm with them too (tho not as firm as Dad!).  I was surprised to hear she perceived such a difference between French and English children but this thread seems to agree with her! It must be quite embarassing for you as English abroad when fellow English families behave in this way!  Its not fair to have to discipline other folks' children and I can't understand the parent's accepting it in any case!  Next time I'd tell them to wise up and deal with their kids or you'll evict them!

Probably because we were doing ok so they didn't need to worry or investigate!  Yep - my mum taught me the alphabet and used those readers to teach me to read before I went to school.  However, I also remember doing lots of spelling lessons at school - rote learning but it all sank in!  I think I was lucky to be in a school which taught 'the old fashioned way' - and eventually our schools will return to that tried and trusted way, boring or not: it worked.