Jump to content

Tieman

Members
  • Posts

    43
  • Joined

  • Last visited

    Never

Everything posted by Tieman

  1. I'm on the 8.30 am Pourtsmouth to Caen ferry on Friday the 24 August with an empty car, so if someone (or two) would like a free lift down to Lucon from the ferry just contact me. I'm a non smoker, my car is a 2 year old series 3 BMW and  driving down to our 2nd home in L'Aiguillon I would be happy to have some company for the 5+ hour drive. David
  2. It's a while since my last site visit/post so I may well have missed out but while the "correct use" of day return tickets i.e. only as day return tickets rather than out on one, back on a second is covered in BF T&C's, has anyone ever actually been contacted about or charged for using a day return ticket (i.e. the current Bournemouth Daily Echo offer?) on the way out then a separate single ticket to return at a later date or even not returning with BF at all? T&C's say if the day return ticket isn't used correctly both bays that the outward journey would retrospectively be treated as a single journey and the difference be charged to the CC or debit card that had been used to make day trip booking. While making the booking might per the T&C's give BF the right/authority to charge your C/card, if a pre loaded d/card was used to make the booking and subsequently didn't have funds to cover the extra charge I'm not sure what they can do? Let’s be honest with each other, any BF pricing structure will be set up to maximize the revenue for BF and minimize any “way rounds” by the customers to obtain lowest prices! Tieman
  3. We've built up a fair collection (50-60+) over the last 5-6 years of recent English fiction books and wonder if a charity might be able to raise funds from them rather than us just re cycling them? We'll be at our house near the coast beyond Lucon for the first 8-9 days of October, so if you'd be interested in coming to collect them, please e mail me.
  4. With us the agency will do everything, marketing via their web site, taking all payments, together with checkins/outs and post rental inspections, though no cleaning or laundry is involved. For the above on an exclusive basis, they would take a total of apprx 38% of what the renters pay. We don't know if that size of take by the agency is normal and will ask round other agents when we're down in early Oct before we sign up. Anyone else with experience on an agents fees/take for seasonal rentals?
  5. We are about to sign up with a rental agency to do our 2011 Summer season rentals and just want to check what % of the actual rental cost received by the agency would be standard for us to end up with? Thanks.
  6. Thanks to all who have replied and we’ve now sorted out our confusion and the 7.48% fee is all they deduct.... We’d seen a draft rental contract which hadn't had the correct rental price details put in, hence us thinking we were being charged 30% of the rental price that they'd given us verbally! Looking forward to our next hit of Vendee in late September as it has to be warmer than here in England at the moment.
  7. I hope I can benefit from the Forums combined wisdom? We are looking at renting out our home in Vendee via a well established local property sales/rental agency and see the following clause in their contract: Honoraires de gestion. Les honoraires se rapportant à votre gestion s'élèveront à 7.48% T.T.C. et seront prélevés sur chaque relevé de compte. To us, charging 7.48% (over and above their 30% cut/fee on rental receipts) to pay rental money into our French bank account sounds a lot for not a lot of work. Are we simply misunderstanding this deduction or is it just a standard charge/fee in the rental sector that we have to accept? Thanks in advance for all the words of wisdom. David
  8. Will Thanks for your as always knowledgeable reply. Major problem for us and many others I suspect, is checking the notice board if we have long/longish gaps between visits. I only hope that we can extract details from la mairie of what exactly has been applied for when we're over in 3 weeks time. One last thought Will, you wouldn't happen to have a fine formal/official sounding phrase we can use when we ask for the application details at la mairie would you? Regards David    
  9. I gather that depending on the scale/size of proposed work, that there are two levels of building permission which have to be applied for/are needed from la Mairie before work can be started? If so, can someone please tell me the correct titles in French of the two different levels and provide at least an idea of each ones parameters? The reason I ask, is that our neighbour has told us several times in writing, that he wants to put up a premier etage on his single story house (an L shaped building attached at ground floor level to our 2 story house, with the external wall of the longer leg of the L being only 1.8-2.2 m. from our boundary fence) but may have only applied for the lower level of permission having told la Mairie that he is building a "veranda" of less than 20 m sq. but may not have told them it is to be built on top of his existing walls rather than at ground level! Also, do I correctly understand, that as direct neighbours, by right, we should have been/be sent details by la mairie of any application for works made by our neighbour? So far we've received nothing from la mairie and they haven't done so even after being specifically asked, so how can we ensure that we are kept informed about what is really going on? The joys of having neighbours! Thanks David    
  10. Hi! I'm hoping someone might be able to help with B&B or CDH vacency for my Brother in Law? He is looking for 2 nights accommodation in the Avranches-Mnt St Michel area on their way back to C/bourg from our home in Vendee? For the nights of Aug 12 & 13, for 2 parents and 3 (vEry well behaved) young people (12 year old girl, 15 & 17 year old boys). Please e mail me  [email protected]    or via the forum. Thanks in advance for all responses. Regards David PS. I'm also posting in the B&B/Gite section as well.
  11. Hi! I'm hoping someone might be able to help with B&B or CDH vacency for my Brother in Law? He is looking for 2 nights accommodation in the Avranches-Mnt St Michel area on their way back to C/bourg from our home in Vendee? For the nights of Aug 12 & 13, for 2 parents and 3 (vry well behaved) young people (12 year old girl, 15 & 17 year old boys). Please e mail me  [email protected]    or via the forum Thanks in advance for all responses. Regards David PS. I'm also posting in the NW section as well  
  12. While we are now using an avocat via our (French) house insurance, we were just wondering if anyone had words of wisdom, solice or help about the problems we are having with our new neighbours?   Not living full time in France or being fully fluent, we really feel at a big disadvantage and it's now diffcult to look forward to being in our house when we know that they will be around!   I have re done the recent introductary e mail we sent to the avocat which gives a brief idea of what has been going on.   We understand that our house was the farmhouse for a small holding/farm. The farm yard/courtyard was eventually split up into 4 plots between the family and various homes built, 3 of which are now outside the family. it is very likly that many many changes, building works etc. etc. were agreed between the family with no written records being kept and now those directly involved are dead!   Our neighbours the B's bought their house in April 03 and after doing much work are now living full time there.   When we bought our house in June 02, we specifically asked our English based lawyer to check with the Notaire about the ownership of the fence boundary between our house and plot 761/419. Our ownership of the fence was confirmed to be as shown on the Plan Cadastral. We have subsequently checked again with the Notaire and he confirmed this.   In Dec 03 when I came down to the house, I found that our neighbours the B’s had built a large shed, the eave's of which were overhanging the fence. I talked to them about it and showed them the plan Cadastral which they said was wrong.   After several further discussions about the fence ownership and still stating that the plan Cadastral was wrong, the B's asked us for permission to replace the fence with a wall. We gave our permission but only if the wall was replaced in the same position.   The B's then started to say that they would build the wall approx. 30 cm. into our property, not in the same position at the edge of our house, as they had decided it was a mitoyen wall (is there something like a "party wall agreement" to look after our interests as it would in England?) and the fence position should reflect that because their property area was smaller than it should be!   We approached our insurer at Easter '05 to resolve the problem using our legal cover. Unfortunately we were not aware that because of staffing changes, no action was taken by them, so the wall was built some 6 months later in September '05, about 45 cm. X 5m into our property. This 5 m. strip widens a choke point in their outside space from 1.85m. to 2.2m., so a big gain for them!   The B's have been contesting for more than 2 years that the plan cadastral is wrong in both fence position and ownership, though they accept that the fence had been in position for over 35 years! Because the fence has been in position for more than 35 years, our English lawyer says that under condition 2262 of the Code Civil, that they can't now contest the position of the fence?   At no stage have the B's shown us any official documents or any form of proof or evidence to back up their claims (though after building the wall, they say they have shown it to Le Marie), so against the instructions of Le Marie and without our permission, they have built the wall, with us loosing about 45 cm x 5 m.   Together with the fence problems, we now understand that they are also looking to try and change the outer wall of our house (so they can add an upper floor to their present single story house), which we gather was probably built about 50 years ago (when the upper floor was built onto our house). Our exterior upper wall was possibly built even before their "house" was anything more than farm outbuildings or storage sheds in what was then the farmyard/courtyard to our house!   As the B's seem to do what they want with our house, we would need our concerns about possible damage to our house, loss of privacy by being overlooked, new windows being able to look directly into our bedroom, loss of natural light, over development of a very small site, no parking for any extra cars, loss of value to our house by becoming
  13. Claire Where about are you wanting to be? Regards David  
  14. [quote]Oh I don't think I agree about this one, I think it has entered the language, we all know what comes next, the meaning isn't lost. It happens all the time with proverbs, it is just a sign of the lang...[/quote]   Thanks, you've voiced almost exactly my nearly but not posted thoughts. In the end I just couldn't be arrsed to try dragging a pedantic, anal retentive, linguistically into the early part of the 21st century! Tieman  
  15. [quote]I was still wondering what part of the rich tapestry of human existence was covered by the word 'ere'. Now I realise that it was a case of multiple irony.[/quote]   Dick Nothing as complex, more a case of big fingers, small keys and no proof reading! Tieman
  16. [quote]Please, when you write a quotation give it's fullness otherwise your purpose becomes meaningless. To err is human to forgive, divine. Alexander Pope (1688 - 1744). I'm not being a 'Smart Alec,...[/quote]   I think you may have wrongly posted to this thread, please try: www.I'mnotapedantbut.com  or www.Ishouldgetalife.com       
  17. [quote]Oops Tieman - I think you may have misspelt your name there - but maybe your true feelings came across instead! Valerie[/quote] A Freudian slip of the finger (honest!) which I've now edited and have added tieman to the spellcheck! To ere is human. Tieman
  18. While many of you may have looked up earlier, having just received their e mail "mail shot" I thought I'd price things up for 1/2 term in October. The £350 return fair I was given is more than £100 higher (excluding BF owners club discount of 5% on that offer) than the P/mth-chbrg return both ways on N/die Exprss I booked on Sep 20 (and I think still available?). LD Lines dress the wording up as a promotional fair for the new route! I think they may have to try a little harder? Tieman (3 weeks and counting!) http://www.aferry.to/LD-Lines-ferry-ferries.htm
  19. We've just signed and returned a devis for about €2,700 worth of work with a trustworthy (or at least as far as we know!) local painter, together with the requested cheque for approx. 20%. Was he just chancing his arm (with non resident Brits)? even though we will be seeing him days after the work is due to be finished or is it now generally required by the trades in France? Thanks David (85)      
  20. [quote]We are on the Route du Phare, La Trance sur mer. Anybody near by. Be down next week.[/quote] Hi! We have a house down the coast from you in in L'Aiguillon s/mer. Unfrtntly we won't be down 'til October 1/2 term. We have a 15 yo son and a 12 yo daughter. Send me an e mail to make contact. Regards David        
  21. [quote]This old chestnut comes up every year about the Brits coming to France and saying "we have Sky TV so why should we pay for a French licence" was blown out of the water many years ago when the Redevanc...[/quote]   "I simply cannot fathom out why people will not pay this fairly inexpensive tax" Do you pay a tax just because you are asked to pay it? or do you look to see if it's correct and how your liability can be legally minimised or avoided? If stating (correctly) that you only have the facility to watch SKY (i.e. you only have a UK transmission standard TV with a SKY box) means that particular tax is not applicable, what is wrong with asking the question? David            
  22. [quote]I don't watch the BBC in the UK, but as I have a TV I still have to pay the fee. Not a happy situation, but I doubt you can use the don't watch the French TV as an excuse.RegardsSimon[/quote] It's not just don't watch don't want to pay but can't watch so why should I pay? They are asking if you has a television aerial, not if you watch TV or have a TV set. So if you take down the aerial (even though you could still use a portable/indoors one), they can't then charge you? I think I remember a case a while ago in England, where the license people failed in prosecuting someone who had a TV but just used it to play videos!   David
  23. Whilst we've had our second home in Vendee since June '02, we've just received a "redevance audiovisuelle, demande de renseignements" letter from the local office of the ministry for economy, finance & industry. i.e. We are assuming that you have a television aerial and we'll charge you via tax d'habitation for television! Like many of us, whilst our house came with an aerial, we only have/use a SKY satellite set up and don't watch French TV (and don't really want to help finance more of their endless panel/game shows or badly dubbed old American TV shows!). What joy have people had with contesting the charge (how much is it now anyway?) if they don't or can't receive/watch French TV? Words of wisdom or (successful) template letters gladly received! Thanks David        
×
×
  • Create New...