Mrs Trellis

That seems to be a press release. It says the refunds of 2014 will be continued this year - but still doesn't explain why!

My letter, from Ministere des Finances et des Comptes Publics, says to get a refund before March we can go online, apply by post or by phone. It doesn't mention a deadline of November. I tried going online but didn't have our tax number handy (it wasn't on the letter).

I'm slightly worried that one day they'll decide they made a mistake and ask for it all back! So I hesitate to ask them why they refunded the tax. Similarly, our income tax letter said we should pay 400+ euros but they only wanted 50. We aren't usually asked to pay income tax here as OH has a teacher's pension so all tax is collected in UK except for my small state pension. It's all a mystery here - see my post re the driving licence saga!

Last year we got our bill - to be paid with 2--3 weeks - and when I asked if we could pay it monthly I was told it was for 2014 so I should pay it now. A few months later it was refunded. I didn't organise to get the taxe onto monthly instalments so this year again paid in full by cheque. We've just had a letter saying it will be refunded! I don't know why as, though our income isn't huge, it must be above the rate that qualifies for help. A friend who is 77 had the same experience. We are under 70. I paid before the deadline as I didn't want a penalty for late payment. Why didn't they send the letter saying we don't have to pay before the payment deadline? Silly me, it's France!

Well, would you Adam and Eve it? A year ago I had a right old moan about how difficult Tarn et Garonne made it for me to get a French driving licence. The saga ended when my application was refused because I hadn't had a medical - which wasn't required when I applied but 'they've changed the rules so you'll just have to keep your English licence'. I recently received a letter telling me I could collect my licence! Then another. So I went along suspecting it would be a waste of time but I now have my licence! It lasts 15 years. I went along with a friend who had waited 18 months for his licence. Insane bureaucracy but it seems to have worked in my favour at last.

All good points Mint. The agents don't ask us to be there when they have a viewing (the house in not lived in now) which might make people more honest in their opinions! But we would be more enthusiastic and able to answer all questions. You said 'The renewing of an advert does not necessarily mean that there has been interest. ' I didn't mean to suggest that; just meant that the agent who put the ad in Leboncoin has had more viewings than the others. I'm not sure how useful it would be to have our own ad online alongside the agent's. I guess we'd feel honour bound to make it the same price but we'd get a little more with no commission. But I'm going to put our ad back on the shutter and our price could be a bit lower (but not stated on the poster). The other agent's agent is linked to Agence Newton.

I was going to put an ad on Leboncoin but one of the agents got there first. I just checked and it was renewed two days ago so comes high on a search. It has 5 photos and the text is pretty comprehensive. This agent has had more viewings than the others so it seem to work. There are a lot of properties for sale in our village, but it's a popular one. We can only hope! A holiday home along the street took 4 years to sell. It was way overpriced at first and ours is nicer....

I looked at their site and they claim to have 153 properties in France, most of them holiday homes. I searched on my department - no results. They have property all over the world. There are similar sites just for France like the ones who advertise in The Connexion but they don't have many properties. We have our old house with a local agent, also Leggetts and two agent's agents, one of whom put the house on Leboncoin. We've had a few viewings. We also put our own ad on the shutter in case someone walks past and is interested (that's how next door sold!).

I now ignore all withheld numbers and numbers from outside the region. If they were genuine they'd leave a message - they never do. I just had one that just said 'calling' but someone started to leave a message so I picked up the phone. It seemed to be someone saying they had a delivery and giving a number to call back. I didn't get the number, beginning with 06, and I can't call back as it is 'unavailable'. We have not ordered anything and our birthdays are in June so I can't think of anything that would be sent. Is it a scam? I have to visit OH in hospital and hope we don't get burglars while I'm gone!

I did wonder this morning if there was a problem with the website, or were they just increasing all the prices. I tried to check on husband's computer but he was out and has a password. Would they be able to tell we are in the same house?

I've been trying to decide on going over to UK, Bergerac-Stansted. Last week I checked prices and the next day they had gone down. This week prices kept going up. Over 200 euros last time I checked. I decided it's too difficult for me at the moment anyway. Last night there were seats available 10th November, returning 17th. I thought I would check other dates, the flights are Tuesdays and Thursdays. This morning there are no flights available for the rest of the year! I wonder what's going on?

Gosh! Reading the comments on your post, I felt they were rather unsympathetic though probably factually correct. Perhaps you could speak to the Maire about the situation generally and the problems caused by the festival as well as your personal situation? There must be other people similarly inconvenienced, perhaps with limited mobility. Our village has an annual 3 evening event that means some streets are blocked off, but they do organise a navette from the supermarket carpark. Another has a very popular flower/plant event and does similar. A few years ago we had notification of a fine for parking on the pavement - from somewhere we'd never heard of 400 miles away. It didn't mention the colour of the car, but said it was a Renault. So I wrote pointing out our car is a Citroen. Maybe someone cloned our number, or the reporting officer made a mistake in writing the reg. number. They wrote saying they were not pursuing it. Not sure that would work in your case but you could write saying you didn't park on that street!

Thanks for the helpful replies. I didn't look at the video. We bought something from this person before, and I don't think she was deliberately lying. Maybe the person who used the saw also chopped up wood with nails in or something. The blade was damaged and some of the points were missing. Anyway, someone bought it! Have since checked out the shop, there is one left at 270 euros, (about 180 online + delivery) but OH said it looked faulty. We waited ages to ask someone if they stock the blades and how much, but gave up in the end. There was a new batch of wood saws that didn't look any more substantial, at 450. Reluctant to buy online in case of problems. We had that with a dehumidifier and the company never replied to us, or to the local shop that they supply with stock.

Not sure which topic to put this on! We went to look at a 2nd hand electric log saw today. OH thought the blade was very worn and would need replacing - he's looked online and blades can be 90 euros. The saw had been used for one season, 3 stare of wood. If blades have to be replaced every year, this seems an expensive option. OH has previously used a chainsaw but it's very messy and also we thought the electric saw machine would be less effort as he tires easily now. Has anyone any experience of these machines or could anyone recommend one? It was bought from an agricultural type place, usually has good stuff. There's no brand name or country of origin, the instructions were in English with no company name though it was bought in France. When I Googled the number on it, I got lots of Chinese websites supplying them 40 at a time.

OH has had 100% for 5 years for cancer; this finishes in mid September. The next hospital appointment is in early October. Will this be renewed automatically - he has had more problems recently - or do we have to do something? He will need to renew prescriptions before then.