JohnBoyW

Thank you. Our move will depend on when we sell our house here in the uk. We are planning to put it on the market around May next year. Depending on when we actually exchange contracts it may be that we will have to remain in the UK for a few months before renting an out of season gite - which does quite appeal. So many ifs and buts!!

Thank you for this very helpful response. We were in fact hoping to rent unfurnished so that we could move all of our belongings with us as the cost of storage is likely to be prohibitive and eat into our capital. We fully intend to set up a French bank account some while before we move especially as we have several holidays a year in France and it woul;d be useful for that alone.

My wife and I plan to move to France next year(2012). We plan to rent a house in our chosen area and use this as a base from which we can look for a property to buy as our permanent home. My question is this - it seems to be the case that in order to rent a property we will require, among other things, a guarantor for our rental payments - Who or what constitutes an acceptable guarantor - can we use a relative who does not reside in France or does the guarantor need to be resident/based in France?