Ciel Bleu

I'm also very interested in where wind farms might spring up, as we're planning to buy on the Manche/Calvados boundary not a million miles away from Percy. I've been doing a little googling and found this website: http://www.basse-normandie.ademe.fr/servlet/KBaseShow?m=3&cid=9981&catid=10107 I've already seen a small goup of 'eoliennes' near St Martin des Besaces not far from the A84 in Calvados, and this summer we saw lots in the Aude in SW France. I actually think that they're quite pleasant to look at and as someone said, I'd prefer these on the horizon to pylons. I have also stood directly beneath  the single eolienne (although there could be more there now) which is between Gavray and Villedieu les Poeles - it was turning quite rapidly but was only making a small amount of noise.  The above website has answered lots of my queries about them, but there are only detailed maps of where they might be built in Calvados, and much sketchier details about Manche.    

My OH genuinely enjoys doing our paperwork, so I let him get on with it (......but of course check it afterwards!!) Further to my link to property prices published by the Notaires, I've just read on several different websites that although prices are still increasing, the rate of increase this year has slowed a lot, and some economists (on the BIPE website) predict an average increase of 6% in prices over 2006 but average falls of 4% for 2007. It also looks as if the ECB will raise interest rates this Thursday, and most likely again in December as well. We know of a French family who are trying to sell 2 appartments in the seaside town of Granville in Manche - popular now with the Parisiens I understand. They've had them on the market since last summer but have hardly had any interest at all. I've also read that Les Parisiens have also bought far fewer holiday homes in Calvados this year, so the Brits aren't the only ones 'tightening their purse strings'. Good luck to all buyers and sellers!

Going back to an earlier question regarding published details/websites about trends in property prices, I've found this website which has price changes in 500 French towns between april 2005 and march 2006 - all totally bona fide figures from Notaires de France. http://www.lexpress.fr/services/immobilier/dossier/immobilier/dossier.asp Just click anywhere on the map and the figures scroll down. Looking at the percentage change in the price of old houses over that period, there are hardly any negative changes so far (although there are some eg Nimes has dropped by 7.8%), BUT as the figures are only looking at the towns it doesn't give much indication of what's happening in deeply rural areas. Quite interesting to look at though and some of the price increases are astronomical. What does anyone else think?

I watched it last night here in the UK (sorry but I didn't record it) and according to my TV guide, next week's episode is about the same couple and I would imagine that they will recap on what happened last night. It looks as if there are a total of 7 episodes in the series, so there is a possibility that they're all about this particular couple. We enjoyed watching it, they've certainly got their work cut out and a new baby on the way, and rightly/wrongly they're not afraid to borrow money!!!!! I found their website on another forum; http://www.frenchfusion.com/index.php    

Since posting my original question, I have found a B de V that we signed last year and it clearly states that it's binding for a period of 15 months from signing (I knew I had read this somewhere, but couldn't remember exactly where). So according to that, after the 15 month period with this particular agent,one is at liberty to negotiate directly with the vendor and completely exclude the agent from the sale.  For property that is viewed without signing anything at all, am I right in thinking that if one then negotiates directly with the owner the onus is on the vendeur to tell the agent about the prospective purchaser as they themselves will have signed a mandat simple or mandat exclusive which legally means that they have to ensure that the agent (who first showed the buyer the property) gets his/her commission?

Brilec, I agree with you. The question I put to Headdon Consulting contained only a limited amount of information, and I think they probably answered me as well as they could,  given what I had told them - does that make sense?! I've been reading their forum and lots of people have asked about CGT in different situations - yes, it is complicated and depends very much on individual circumstances, and needs a legally-trained brain to sort it all out !!! The conclusion I have drawn is that due to the difficulty people are now experiencing in selling French property, it would make life a whole lot easier if one is able to complete the sale of Primary residence no.1 before buying Primary residence no.2.  Et voila! = no CGT incurred  

Hi Debra, thanks for replying. I posted my question on an independent legal forum:  http://www.headdonconsulting.com/ and this is what they said: "Under French tax office guidelines, the same one year period is accorded for the sale of the principal residence where another is purchased prior to finding a buyer" Caroline  

Thanks for all replies. I just wish that the French government would close the loophole that allows agents to set their own fees - seems odd that they haven't done it already, having seen commission vary between 4% and 15%. Bon de visite - despite what is often said, it doesn't look as if they're legally binding. We have viewed houses with FNAIM agents and none of them asked us to sign, and as they are one of the largest agents in France they must deem that the B de V is of little use!  

Just to add my twopence worth. We have eaten at the Holly Tree just the once .........won't be returning. The external first impression wasn't good - a row of Brit-registered 4-wheel drive fuel-guzzlers - ouch!! To be fair the owners were very welcoming, food was OK but as others have said, not true Indian, and too pricey for what it was. There were no French anywhere in site, we could have been in the county of Normandyshire........not what we want!    

Bonjour Arnaud Bienvenue a Complete France forum, Je vous remercie pour votre reponse - ayant lu ca que vous avez ecrit, c'est tres interessant pour notre situation. Je vous envoyerai un email prive. Caroline  

In the UK I understand that if you put your house on the market and then buy another one before it has sold and move into it, you're allowed an overlap period of one year (I think I'm right ) - during which time you own 2 properties - before incurring CGT when selling  house no.1. Do rules similar to this happen in France ie as long as you're trying to sell one house are you exempt from CGT if it sells within the year? We don't own anything yet in France, and only have one house in the UK - but am just trying to understand how things work because we know someone in this very situation in France who has been desperately attempting to sell one of their houses for almost a year. Thanks Caroline

I know that when viewing properties with some agents they ask you to sign a Bon de Visite, which essentially means that you can only buy the property they have introduced you to through their agency, and you can't buy from the owner direct, as the agent still legally has a right to claim his commission at the point of sale. Can anyone tell me how long the Bon de Viste lasts for? I've read somewhere that it's only binding for 15 months - is this true?   Caroline

I've just received my letter in the post this morning from P&O explaining about the new bid from PSA International, the adjournment of the January stockholder meeting for 2 weeks and it also says  "Stockholders may continue to submit the Forms of Proxy and Forms of Election which were distributed in relation to the offer by DP world. Forms of Proxy will be valid for the adjourned meetings. Stockholders will be given at least 14 clear days notice of the new time and place of the adjourned meetings" It says the new approach by PSA 'may' lead to an offer to acquire deferred stock for 470 pence cash per unit and an offer for the concessionary units (no price is mentioned for these), and the cancellation of preferred stock on terms similar to the terms made available by the Dubai offer. It looks as if we're all doing the right thing by getting our forms and certificates in the post.

We have already returned our voting papers and concessionary share certificates to P&O having opted to sell for 100p and retain the option to have 1 concessionary unit per share if available once a takeover has been decided. The date by which this all had to be received was January 26th (or thereabouts), and the implication was that our shares could become null and void if we hadn't returned them by that date, as the only 2 choices were to sell for 125p and forgo any rights to reduced ferry fares or the option that we chose above - I hope someone will correct me if I'm wrong. We're happy with our decision because we've had our moneysworth in reduced ferry prices for the last 12 years. According to this link our concessionary shares are worth 112.50p today, it's the deferred stock that is increasing in value, at 500.00p as I type; http://portal.pohub.com/portal/page?_pageid=71,217793&_dad=pogprtl&_schema=POGPRTL My father bought concessionary shares over 20 years ago, and had the option every year to not receive the annual cash dividend but to change them into the same value of deferred stock - he's now onto a winner but not us unfortunately!   Caroline  

Hi to all I've just read through all of this thread and find it very interesting. We are planning to buy in Lower Normandie sometime during the next year or two, but for the time-being have put our househunting on hold for several reasons. Over the past year we have viewed quite a few properties mostly with an agency but some privately. We did make an offer on a couple of the houses through an agency (one French-owned house the other English-owned) but in each case the owners would only accept a very small reduction in price, which we felt still made the house too expensive. I've recently checked the agent's website and those particular properties are still for sale. My French is reasonable and it's been enjoyable to visit Mairie's and gleen all of the information that we needed about the local area - no problem at all. The information we now need is the exact route of the impending pylons running through the Manche and news of whether or not a landfill site will materialise - it's just a matter of waiting and sitting it out until both of these decisions are made. In answer to Seanie's original question regarding using someone to negiotiate a better price, in our experience we could negiotiate until the cows come home and put all of the negative facts about the property at the feet of the owner BUT still they would not accept our offer .Looking at agency websites in Normandie now and reading what others have written about the slowdown in sales, it seems that a lot of prospective British purchasers have turned away from buying in France as there are very few bargains left, if any! One agency based in the south of Normandie has over 800 properties for sale on their website, and they're increasing weekly! Seanie are you proposing to assist people who have already chosen a property through an agent, I've not fully understood what you're planning? From our point of view we would be much more likely to use services such as yours if we were buying privately or through a notaire, but the greatest help to us would be hunting out private property sales from local newspapers and advertisements and vetting the property itself - these are things impossible to do from our home in the UK. Bonne annee et bonne chance!