Lizfjr

Thanks for your responses. Very helpful

Are there any nederlandaises reading here? I have a query about obtaining my E106 from the Dutch authorities. I am working in the nederlands as a funtionnaire. When I leave my current job in juli I will be wanting to apply to the Dutch authorities for my E106 so that I can go on the health system here. Can anyone advise me how to do this and what the qualifications are? Thank you Liz

I can answer the first question. The answer is yes definitely. I took an English person to court with a devis agreed in English (though I did translate it myself for ease of comunication). My case was successful. Good luck.

[quote user="Thebiga"] Lizfjr, Were you just lucky at the tax office in france on that day! Or did they really see that you had paid the vat and actually beleived it. Would I want to take the risk in buying it new in the uk with vat and then get here for them to say well the bike is only days old etc with small amount of miles on it as far as we are concerned its new so give us the money? I don't think I would want to risk it, I think everyone else seems to think that buying new in the uk without the vat is the only option really without running the risk of paying twice. I would have thought that once they can see that you have paid vat in the uk that it would be fine 'but' we are talking france here.... Anyway how would you go about buying one with vat etc in the uk without a uk address? [/quote] Well the whole thing was a well established procedure and not luck. She brought out a big ledger, checked my bill of sale and gave me a certificate to say I had paid VAT so that I could go to the prefecture. We actually brought over two GTR1400s that were just weeks old and a KLE 500 that we had owned from new for couple of years. Oh, and to answer your second question, we were living in the UK when we bought tem, but just about to move over. We bought in the UK because we got a good trade - deal on the FJRs. Actually the risk wasn;t in the VAT, it was in the 145 bhp.

I bought a bike in the UK and paid VAT in 2007. Within 6 weeks I imported it. Just had to prove that I had paid UK VAT at the tax office and popped over the road to the prefecture for carte grise.

I successfully took a rogue company through the courts in 2005. They owed us 1500. In the end they settled the day before the case came to court, but they had also to pay 1500 legal fees and 1500 damages to us.

If you have the certificate of conformity there is no problem. Take your documents to the prefecture. The CoC will enable your bike to be registered. And yes. I've done it.

Thank you for the replies and the suggestions. Anton, I understand their use now.

Hi Our property has a very narrow, raised(about 1m), walkway around half the house. I would like to create more sitting out space and am considering a raised decking area. I would like it to be about 2.5m X 5m and would be 1m high. I was considering concreting the supporting legs into the ground but have noticed  you can buy galvanised 'ground spikes' that are about 75cm long and the legs could be fixed to the top of these once the spikes are driven into the ground. Does anyone know if these spikes are upto this sort of job?. If so how many supports would I need (frequency) to make the deck stable. By the way we have clay soil. Many thanks

Oops. Email to you was bounced, so I've pmd you, Big Mac.

SD: thanks for the info. Big Mac: you have email

I've liked the look of the Norge since I first saw one in a Guzzi dealership in the UK. I looked at a secondhand one for sale in a bike shop in Den Haag, a 2006 model, but they were asking over 10,000 euros for it (gulp). On a recent trip to the UK to see our daughters we spotted a 2007 model, 6000 mile example, for sale in a dealers. It was spotless and the price was a lot less than here on the mainland. So we haggled on the price and eventually got it for around £6000 (bargain). Brought it over a couple of weeks ago and am now waiting for the COC to register it here. If you get a chance I would suggest buying one from the UK as it works out a lot cheaper than here in France.

SD, many thanks for the information. I just wanted to make sure I did not miss anything. mark224 - Having just added a Moto Guzzi Norge to the stable we have a Kawasaki KLE 500 which is surplus to requirements. The GTRs are NOT going! (to much fun). Liz

I need to sell one of my bikes as the garage is getting rather full[:)] . Having never done this before in France could someone let me know what I have to do with regards to the legal side (documents, registration number etc). The bike is a UK bike but registered in France. Liz

Just out of interest ... what region are you in?

Thanks, very clear answer.

[quote user="Sunday Driver"] I suppose things started going downhill when the welfare state was introduced in the middle of the last century to accommodate all those scroungers and spawning females who breed without discrimination.[8-)][/quote] Or help, apparently... And let's not forget the introduction of the old age pension which singlehandedly cost tax payers their hard earned cash AND allowed feckless oldsters to be a burden on the state by not actually starving to death. What sort of society is that?

That looks good. Can anyone tell me what the approximate price difference is between installing a velux and installing a dormer?

[quote user="Frederick"] Who is supposed to enforce these dog and beach regulations anyway ?....Dogs on beaches ..... they are a 8loody nuisance ..  [/quote] When our kids were young, we used to seek out dog free beaches. We also challenged people who took their dogs on these beaches and often faced abuse because of this. I have often wondered why dogs aren't trained to sh@t at home.

I pick up people here. Good way to have a conversation. I haven't picked up anyone in the UK for 20 years, since I managed to load up a God Botherer who though I might be converted. Terrifying. A couple of years ago at my home in England, someone knocked on my front door having run out of petrol. I was just about to nip into the village, so offered him a lift. When I handed him a crash helmet, his face changed, but faced with the choice of a half hour walk or two minute bike ride, he was quickly on the pillion. Media and paranoia have killed it in the UK.

I nearly always buy a 24 hour return when using eurotunnel rather than a single (I usually come back via Hull).  It is much much cheaper and I just drop the return portion and never had any comeback.

We were down your way a couple of weeks ago from the frozen north (89). We took our daughter, who is also a divvy owner, (and known on other sites as Bekidivi) down to Spain and back. We've got GTR 1400s which we imported when we moved here earlier this year. Hope you find some buddies down there.

Hi, Mark. I'll say. My back wheel got well and truly bogged down today. We've no hardstanding at all and they slither like mad as we've got very clay soil too. Thanks for that suggestion. I'll check with the maire for a reccomendation. Trust all is well? Is it still raining there? Liz

Well all this rain has forced us to bring our plans for some hardstanding forward. Can anyone recommend a good company for laying driveways? I reckon it is about 40 metres to the lane and it will need to be about 3 metres wide. If you know of a good company, I'd be grateful to hear. We are on 89/58 border. Cheers Liz

All this is very interesting. Having read up on various sources, including info here, we went over to the mairie last week. We had been here just short of three months. We went over armed with pay slips, passports and various bits of paper to show that we were adequately catered for. Having read stuff on here, were feeling quite apprehensive. The maire (who we had met a few years ago when we got our PdeC) was there when we arrived. They were nice as anything. Filled in forms so that we are registered to vote and wrote our names in a little excercise book and gave us the latest version of the local bulletin and had a chat about bits and pieces. Nothing vey formal. No scrutiny of accounts. Just our passports used to verify our identity. Now we feel legit, which is quite nice, but really it wasn't a scary process.