purples

Could any one help with this? We have decided to exchange one of our houses in France for a cafe/bar in France.  Does anyone know if this is going to be  as straight forward as it seems? We have two properties in France so we are aware that we may need to pay a higher rate of TAX. We do have a notaire who dealt with both of our house purchases.  Should this notaire be able to carry out this type of transaction? If not, can anyone recommend a good notaire with a good reputation that speaks a little English that would be fully conversant with this type of transaction? Both properties are valued the same so there will be no money passed over at all. Thank you so much in advance for any advise you give!  

Thank you for your response. Would English bills be good enough?  Most of the work has been carried out by my husband who is a self employed plumber in England, could he write a bill to himself?

We have two houses in France and may decide to sell one of them some time in the future.  We have carried out extensive renovation work on both properties and kept hold of all receipts for the work carried out and materials.  If we sell one of the properties we believe that we may have a huge tax bill as it is a second property we are selling.  Someone told us that if we keep hold of all of the receipts showing how much money we have spent on the property and also say that we are spending the rest of the money to upgrade the property that we will be left with, this may help avoid the heavy tax bill.  Can anyone shed any light on this subject please? Many thanks in advance   - The Purple's 

Hi, my husband has just fitted two IKEA kitchens to the two houses that we have in France.  To be perfectly honest, the price of the kitchens was no different to the price that we would have paid for them in England, they most certainly were not half price! Be very careful with the wooden work surfaces.  They look wonderful but, in the property that we are renting out, they have used the wooden work surface to dry their pots and we are now left with a bumpy work surface and a dark line from where the water sat.  This happened despite the wood treatment!  This has not happened in the other house where the wooden surfaces have been treated with respect. The kitchens from IKEA are quite modern but have a traditional feel and are very practical and doors, knobs, draws etc can be easily replaced and are quite cheap. We searched in France for weeks to find a kitchen and ended up going for an IKEA kitchen mainly on price and availability. If you go to IKEA in France to buy your kitchen, they will do all that they can to help you.  We used IKEA in Bordeaux and always spoke to the same lady - Sophie.  She was excellent and spoke brilliant English, which really did help.  They will advise you on all of the plumbing connections that you will need and will supply them as standard with any sink, dishwasher that you buy from IKEA.  For us the service was second to none. We do suggest though that if you are ordering a large kitchen with say 200 separate flat packed pieces, I know it is a pain but, do take your time to check off that you have exactly what you should have against your receipt (codes).  This could save a few trips back to IKEA to get the correct pieces, it's worth the hour or so it takes if you live a couple of hours from IKEA!  We made the mistake of not doing this and had to return to IKEA and hire their van a second time to get pieces home that should have come with the first order!! My husband said that he would be more than happy to fit the kitchen for you if he had some more details from you regarding the room that the kitchen was going in to and the type of kitchen that you had selected.  Please send a PM to discuss this further! Good luck!! The Purples