Tony F Dordogne

Me too and nothing untoward with our CA accounts either, not any sign of the bank being unstable.

Alex, as gosyb says, that's not the way that Notaires work, they are tax collectors and are not biased either way.

Margaret, you will have to make sure that the British builders are fully registered in France, pay all their taxes and cotizations here and have the decennial insurance that they need, which I think are the building certificates that you're referring to.  If you use unregistered buiders there is every likelyhood that your plot may be visited by the gendarmes as there is a crackdown in the Dordogne across the board on unregistered builders and I can assure you that if they are caught it's something that neither you or they will want.  And then there will be the reaction of the locals against you if you do this on a long term basis, not a good way to start in your French commune. And no, it's very unlikely that you would be able to sell your house especially is the builders build to Uk rather than French specifications (wiring and plumbing) and remember that if you're building to sell on, CGT kicks in within the first ?five years for maison secondaire.

Look round for a local history group and find the Archives Departemental in Angouleme, that is the statutory home for all things of record in your Departement and they should be able to help.

We have a maison secondaire in our commune, owned by a British couple, and I noticed on Sunday that they are registered to vote in our commune for Municipales and European elections.  I know this couple are quite active politically in the UK and I would be amazed if they weren't on the electoral roll in the UK.  So theoretically, they could vote twice ib the Europeans if they felt so moved to do.  I've raised the issue with the Maire.

Well, just phones Wendy Kettle's extension and got the latest on my claim for reinstatement.  It was sent to the decision makers on 26 May and I will hear in due course, so no decision made yet.  But, the person I spoke to DID conform that the decision makers are using the Trubunal decision on past presence now to evaluate claims. Fingers crossed.

[quote user="ali-cat"]Sam, as far as I can remember there are at least two test cases dealing with the exportability of the mobility component going through the Upper Tribunal at present. Since the ruling of the ECJ case C-299/05 I think it is being argued that mobility component should be regarded as a sickness benefit, as the care component now is. Depending on when you left Northern Ireland & if, like me your case/appeal was never closed regarding the care component, it may become an exportable benefit. I will PM you shortly with my letter. Puzzled. I am in receipt of Long Term Incapacity Benefit – it's why I typed out the full paragraph as it struck me as a possible sticking point for others. I hope it's not another spanner the department is hoping to throw into the works. [/quote] Isn't the reason that Ali-cat's case has been dealt with is that her care component case hasn't been closed and wouldn't have been because of overlapping moving to France/ECJ dates?  Whereas for the rest of us, our cases have been long closed? Good on you Alicat!!

np Ernie, tho for sure, it couldn't have been much worse.

No Ernie, I offered them drinks, I don't ply people with drink, nor do I collude in getting them drunk, I expect adults to act responsibly especially where drinking and driving is concerned.  Prior to offering any drinks I had been assured that they had sorted out who the designated driver was, which proved not to be true.  It's far to complex to give all the details but I did whatever I could to get the keys off the guy short of punching him out but to no effect whatsoever.  He was 'only' about twice the limit when he was breathalized so drunk driving may be a loose term, he was clearly over the limit which, as you know, is lower than that of the UK.

Problem was Ron, it wasn't drink induced, it had been happening for the duration of the other family's visit but yes, you are right.

3 years ago this evening we had some friends round for drinks, accompanied by a family that were staying with them at the time.  About 10pm, they decided who was going to drive and despite protestations from J and I, they left by car - the walk would have been about 20 mins - tho none were fit to drive at all.  Within three-quarters of an hour I was at the scene of a single car accident in which the driver had hit one tree, bounced into another and four of the 8 people in the car were dead.  I had to identify the bodies at the side of the road and then deal with the fall-out of what had happened for months afterwards.  The driver was breathalized and was over the limit and has been charged with various counts of manslaughter because he had kids in the boot of the car, no seat belts, too fast etc etc. For a number of reasons, the Court case has been delayed and he is still waiting to go to Court, combination of defence stalling and French inertia, additionally the Inquest in the UK has also been delayed by the same combination of things.   We're now told that the case has a provisional slate for November and the Inquest is likely to be just before the Court case. Leaving aside all the other circumstances, I'm still horrified at how much people drink in France, including other friends, when they know they're going to drive.   It's really quite a concern to me now - I don't drink at all now, or if I ever do, it's at home and only one small glass, combination of the accident and health reasons. I'm not sure what I'm trying to say here but the distance from our home to the other people's home was under a kilometer.  If you don't want to deal with the appalling consequences as we had to - and still have to - please folks, don't drink and drive, I promise you, if it goes wrong, it can go horribly wrong.

[quote user="Maricopa"] As long as you are correctly registered to vote, then you don't have to have your card with you, just show official identification. The form to register for European elections is a seperate form from the Local elections. [/quote] No it isn't.  I've just done my two hours on election duty at the Mairie and worked through the count (I'm on the Bureau) and all the cards I saw today clearly state that they cover booth the Municipales and the European elections.  I also checked with the Secretary and the Maire and you only have to fill in one form.  This isn't just a local/24 thing, it's the law, the Maire looked up the Code which we had in the voring room and it clearly states that you only have to fill in one form, which it designates and that the Card covers both elections.  If you have to fill in two forms, it's a local and wholly unecessary thing. 

My bp is taken monthly because of the variations caused by my blood condition.  As Baypond says, it's only really meaningful if there are a series of readings taken so that a doctor has an idea of trends, persistantly high readings, swings etc.

[quote user="PaysansG"] Oliver Rowland, journalist at the Connexion France wants to put a piece together looking at the DLA issue from the perspective of those affected by the loss of benefit and their attempts to get reinstated. Anyone interested in putting their story up as a case study should contact Oliver direct at: [email protected] Oliver wants to include photographs of affected claimants, so if you are camera-shy then this might not be the right project for you to volunteer for :)) kind regards, Tina [/quote] Under normal circumstances I might be interested in this offer of a journalist getting involved but to be honest, Connexion have got SO much wrong about so many things over the past couple of years, I don't trust them enough. 

Hi, yes I did, sorry, been so busy, will send you details tomorrow.

I know several of the councillors in your area, if you need any direct advice (the senior guy there is seriously bi-lingual and his wife is British) from one of those, happy to put you in touch with him.  PM or email if you need contact details.

The property on one side of our place and the parcelle on the other side have recently been sold and I seem to recall being told that any sale now, if the bornage hasn't been done for ?two years, it has to be updated for the cadastre.  For some reason, October 07 comes to mind for the new law coming in. The bornage really helped us - effectively, two other people paid for our property to be clearly marked.  On the peoperty side we found we had acquired a strip 88 metres long by 3 metres wide, clearly marked by an ancient wall, which meant some of the overhanging trees were ours and we could get them cut down. On the parcelle side we also made a strip about 40 metres long and up to 6 metres wide in the wooded back of the garden, which again means we can have a chain saw party.  Interestingly, the 'developer' of this side has run  out of money and has sold on, met the new potential neighbours on Sunday who are going to build on it, all very amicable.  Our hedge on  that side actually has grown right over the boundary but as it's so well established and thick in places, they're cool about it because it serves their purpose also. Meriaulds, I'm sure that if you explain the position and unless the new owner is going to be completely difficult, you can organise some form of document with a noraire which gives you rights of access over the land without being able to claim ownership so he maintains his ownership, you just get the use, the same for the new bit of the property that you have acquired. Edie:  You don't say where you are or how long you've lived in the house, may be helpful.  And have you signed the new papers yet which marks out the new boundaries.  If you haven't, that can strengthen your hand somewhat tho your new neighbour may regard not signing as a bit provocative but it does give you some bargaining power.  

Jon, the fact that the Chinon and other restaurants may have had both a Michelin and 3 rosette AA does not mean that every other restaurant with 3 AA rosettes met the standards of the Michelin people.  You're trying to bask in the reflected glory of other restaurants, unless of course you worked in those that had both.

Statement of fact Ron, not a personal insult to him, like his web site saying he's a 'noted' chef - by whom, the Health Protection Agency, noted by whom and for what?  Popular locally may not actually mean 'noted'.  Jon obviously has challenges in his written work for which once known, people may want to cut his some slack and perhaps his comments about the status of the hotel and being 'noted' reflect those challenges.

Surely Jon has made his point, some people may agree and some people will disagree with it. Jon, stop banging on, you're not doing anything other than to get people fed up with reading the same thing over and over again.  As somebody else said, sometimes Jon, less is more or to paraphrase Oscar Wilde, sometimes it's better to keep your mouth shut and let people think you're a fool that to open it (read, keep banging on) and prove that you are. But there's no need to be so downright rude to Jon either, he has his point of view, others have theirs, it's what makes the world go round but there's no need to be downright abusive to him, just accept him for the sort of guy that he is and perhaps ignore his posts if they get you so hacked off at him. BTW, I spoke to a chum who manages an AA starred hotel a few evening back and asked him about the AA 3 star hotel being close to a one star Michelin - his response was, yeap, in his dreams!

And you queried whether Jay was being rude? Jon, some of us are far too busy with our lives to worry about your mythical 7 o'clock cocoa club, some of us are still working (this is a tea breakl, not a cocoa break) outside in the garden where we may well be living part of our dream.

Some of us do like/love France, we just don't bang on about it, we just get on with our lives in our own quiet way without having to discuss our philosophy of life.

Margaret, it could be the type of timer that you're using.  I've also wondered about the Gardena timers, those that I use are fairly small and they also have a 1 hour max but that suits me.  If it has a manual over-ride button, you can just use that, if the tap is already on it should kick in immediately.  I tend to start mine half an hour early if I want longer than the 1 hour max. Are you using a trickle system because they will take longer? And remember the canicule if they declare one this year, that can really upset things with your timers as to the actual time you can use the systems.

[quote user="Clair"]In their wisdom, the officials in our commune des communes have decided to start collecting a taxe de séjour from 2010. Rather than charging per head/per night, they have opted for a one-off yearly payment from the owner. Can owners who pay this "tourism tax" give me an idea of what is being charged in their area? On another tack, I know of a couple of British-owned properties where the resident-owners offer holiday accommodation to British holiday-makers. I know they are not registered with any organisation and are not known to the Tourist Office in any official capacity. It has crossed my mind they might not (know they have to) declare their income... If I do not see them at the taxe de séjour meeting next week or if I find outh they have not been contacted, I must remember to mention their websites to any interested party... I would so hate for them to miss out...[Www][/quote] I'm on the Commission de Tourism for our Commune de Communes and this has been discussed all the time.  Some of the communes in the CdeC do levy a daily tax, others don't bother and the taxes range between 50c and 1 euro perhead, I think all for over 13s. As part of an exercise to have an idea of how many gites there are in our CdeC, we did a sort of audit.  We have 11 trading gites in my commune of which one (1) was registered with the Mairie and none paid taxe professionale.  Also we found that several of the gite owners (1 Australian, 2 Brits, one American) weren't paying any taxes either despite being wholly resident in France!  That situation has now been rectified and one of the Brits made it clear that THAT wasn't the reason he was one of the people who asked me to stand for the Council.  Ho hum :)

Quillan, it also looks so much more professional if the advertising text is grammatical and without errors as yours is, sort of finishes things off nicely.