Tasha

We are having trouble with insurance company AGF.  They insist we have a policy with them.  We have owned our home for two years now and in January 2004 they wrote to say that they had insured the previous owner and would we like to continue, we wrote back and said no and heard no more until January this year when we had a reminder to say we hadn't paid our bill for 2005.  We contacted them to say we didn't have a policy with them and that we had not recieved a bill from them.  They insisted that we had a policy and that we had paid in Jan 04.  They were unable to show us that we had paid and couldn't explain why we didn't have a policy document.  This went back and forth for some weeks during which time the the man at AGF was getting more and more unhelpful every time we called.  In the end for the sake of 60 euro we just paid to stop anymore letters coming.  We then had a letter to say we still hadn't paid and they added another 31 euros to the bill for not paying on time.  We paid this although the chq had been cashed from our bank account for the 60 euros.  I have now had a letter this morning claiming that nothing has been paid and that they are going to take further action.  When we speak with the man at AGF he just keeps saying its the law and wont say anything else and refuses to comment on the fact that we do not have a policy with them.  We dont know what to do now. Any suggestions.

Hi looking for some information.  We were pulled over just after we had got off at the Jarnages junction on N145.  The police had a van parked in a lay by from which you CANT see the junction.  They told us we had failed to stop at the junction (we had stopped you have to if you are in a right hand drive car to see if there is anything coming over the bridge) the fine was 90 euros.  We explained that we had stopped the one officer disagreed then checked with the other who was sat in the back of the van dealing with another British driver pulled over for the same thing.  As they were talking to us, again not watching the road another foreign driver came by and was pulled for the same thing.  We were all told fine of 90 euro's but when came to pay it was 135 euro's.  Is this normal?  Is there a website that explains the charges? Can we do anything to dispute this fine.  The police admitted that they pull in far more drivers from UK than anywhere else.  I wouldn't mind paying if we had done something wrong, but sticks in throat to have to pay when had stopped at the junction.  Would be interested to hear from those of you living in France, should we just clock it down to expereince and forget it or do something about it?

Hi We are in area covered by Gloucestershire LEA and are just starting the 6 term year from September. This year the summer holidays are 5 1/2 weeks. Hope this helps.

It's coming up to the end of the first year of owning our French house and I'm not sure what I need to do about the insurance. I want to stay with the company I'm with at the moment. Do I need to contact them to re-insurance the property for another year or will I automatically get a renewal like we do in the UK. Your advise would be very helpful.

We have a telepeage gadget in the front of our car, does anybody know if you can pull them off the windscreen to use on another car (ours is being replaced soon) or do we need to register again for a replacement??

We own our french property outright, is it possible to raise a mortgage on it? I did post a question in the finance section but havent had the question answered so if anybody knows the answer it would be very helpful.

With the equity from our UK home we have purchased a property in France, now the work on this property is nearly completed we would like to raise a mortgage on it so that we can use the equity for a deposit on another property, however our IFA is having trouble finding a company who can do this on a French property. Do any of you know if it is possible? Have any of you done this? Any advice would be helpful. Tasha