poshtotty

Hello there. I'm sorry this happened to you and hope you are all sorted now. [:)] I wanted to add our experience in case it helps someone. We've been travelling to France and back for nearly 5 years with our dog and thought we understood the system. Yesterday, we checked in at Eurotunnel in Calais and the man told us that the UK vet's stamp on the passport wasn't valid. We'd travelled before and it wasn't picked up, but the guy showed me the 2012 rules from DEFRA and we didn't have the right one. It needs to show that the treatment was carried out by an LVI, local veterinary inspector or an OV, official vet, with an SP reference number. Our first vaccination had the correct stamp, which is a circle that says Official Veterinarian and United Kingdom around the outside and SP xxxxxx across the middle. The booster had the vet's office stamp with the name, address and phone number. The guys at the terminal were actually quite helpful. They told us we needed a fax from our UK vet with various details and once that arrived, we would need to see a French vet. Luckily the vet's emergency number was answered and that there was an LVI vet on duty yesterday. The French vet was called out and we met him at his surgery 5 minutes from the tunnel. He checked the faxed information, re-entered it on the passport and stamped and signed it. We had to pay 10€ for the passport to be altered and 50€ Sunday call out charge, or not travel. We know what to look for and will be double-checking everything again next time we go. The other thing the terminal guys told us was that a fairly common problem is the microchip not working, which is harder to resolve than a wrong stamp in the passport. They recommended making sure the vet checks it when the dog goes in for its booster because sometimes they seem to stop working. I hope this helps someone to avoid what we went through.

Lou, you're right, it's the DPE. The agent is also talking about Carrez and the square metreage of the house being measured by an 'expert'. We finally got something in writing from the agency yesterday. They have their own pet expert of course, and are offering both these expertises to be done for 100 euros. Whoever said it's a nice little earner is spot on. I looked at some websites for organisations offering expertises and they have sections for employment and training as an expert. So if I understand what's being said, a house can't be advertised after 1st January unless it's had these expertises done? Thank you for the replies. My best, posh

Thank you pachpapa. Sounds painful :). I'll have a read. HB

Hello again. I have another query now and have searched these forums and online, but can't find very much about it and I'm not sure why. The agent is saying that we need to have expertises done before the 1st January because of a new law came into effect recently. We knew they would have to be done, but don't understand if it should be as the house goes on the market or when there's an offer, say. I've read that some of them expire after a few months. Also, if we move to a mandat simply at the end of our exclusivity, some of the other agents include expertises in the fees, so this could end up being a duplication. Does anyone know if this is right please, because the agent is pushing us to do the expertises now. Thank you for any help. My best, posh

I agree five weeks isn't very long, but other agents here are pretty busy up to the end of this month, and especially over the public holidays recently. They all tell us our place should sell pretty quickly. But we don't stand any chance of selling if all we have is an A4 notice on the board outside an agency in a holiday resort. As I think I said, the agent committed to carry out maximum publicity and especially the FNAIM website, and we can't find the property advertised anywhere at the moment. We shall do what Judie suggested and then go over to a mandat simple with this agent and the others, once the exclusivite runs out. Thank you, posh

Thank you Quillan and Judie for the replies. Judie, that's pretty much what we'd thought about doing, so it's good to know you think the same. As the agent doesn't answer the majority of our emails, I think I'll just keep radio silence for the short time we're still here and then quietly leave with the keys. And then we can sign with the other agents we've found as of the day after the excusivite expires. My best, posh.

[quote user="Chezstevens"]Probably have helped you if you had researched through a forum like this, I see it is your first post, before signing with an estate agent. "Poshtotty" may be your moniker ... There you go ... Polite[/quote] You're absolutely right, and thank you for being polite. I broke my own rules and should have done what you say before. This agent sold us the house in the first place a while ago and we had high hopes, but there you go. The agents have all contradicted each other and we got confused. It's the 'brains on the runway' syndrome. I hope to atone for my lack of research by doing research on the forum here now I've found it, and helping out in the future if I can, over French property and with the language depending on what the query is. I'm not posh, and too old to be totty, but it's a nickname I have :). My best.

Hello everyone. I hope this is the right place to post and that someone may be able to advise us. We're trying to sell a house and have signed up with a firm of estate agents for an exclusive deal for 3 months, that allows us a reduction in fees if we find a buyer. A few weeks ago when we signed, the agent was talking a good story [don't they all], but five weeks on, we have heard nothing except for a couple of emails with no particular news. We signed the standard FNAIM mandat, which has clauses in it saying that the agent will arrange for the maximum publicity for our property, especially on the FNAIM website. So far, we've seen the details outside the agency and are told that it's on the internet, but are unable to find it under any permutation of the property type, number of rooms, location and price. The agent has told us a couple of times that people are interested and will be making a special trip to come and have a look, but they would need to contact us for viewings because they don't have keys. We are having trouble believing that these people are real now. The market here is still active, but not with our agent it seems. I did contact FNAIM, but got a standard email reply that didn't really seem to cover our problem. We are losing faith and patience in the agent and are fed up with being patronised and possibly being lied to. Can we get out of the agreement early because they haven't kept to their side of the bargain, or do we have to hang on in there until the 3 months are up please? I understand we can become non-exclusive if we send a registered/recorded delivery letter 2 weeks before the end of the exclusive period to tell them this, am I right? My other question is that having lost confidence in the agency, are we obliged to leave them a set of keys when we come back to the UK? When we leave, there will be about 5 weeks of the exclusive restriction left. Sorry if these questions sound naive, this is new to us and we would just like to stay out of trouble. If we signed up with the wrong agent, we're prepared to live with it, but consumer protection here doesn't seem as advanced as in the UK. I would be very grateful for any help or comments [nice ones, even if you think we're idiots] please. My best, poshtotty