goose

I'd read somewhere that its always Le Maire even if its a woman because in French grammer the position of Mayor is always masculine. Remember before political correctness infected the business world in the UK a Chairman was always a Chairman even when she was a woman? Madam Chairman was the formal manner of address I beleive....

We are still struggling to get our notaire to do this - he clearly doesn't want to! Currently we are stalemated with him saying he needs a letter from our Maire in UK and with us saying a)no you don't and b)we don't have a Maire in the UK anyway....other than this our house purchase and most of the much vauinted French paperwork has been considerably easier than expected.

Actually Quillan we're "holidayhomers" and we're with you "residents" on this. I'd much rather use a local artisan and certainly a registered and legal one and we've found (in our limited exposure admittedly)that the locals are rather more reliable and prompt than British builders and plumbers. We've all paid our taxes - why should we support the cash in hand brigade who take from the state but never put back in?

Can anybody reccomend a van rental company that will let me rent a transit or Luton or similar in UK and drive to France?

Thanks all, we got a "tondeuse thermique tractee" from locavente for €26 a day that did the job very nicely.

Thanks all, we got a "tondeuse thermique tractee" from locavente for €26 a day that did the job very nicely.

Iceni, we will be around Bretenoux Saturday too, I sent you a PM but I'm not convinced I've got this system working properly yet. Anyway, I'm a big fella with close cropped grey hair, herself is very short and very blonde, both early 40s, say hello if you see us wandering about the market. Rgds, Goose and Tracie (yes, that really is my name, very short and not very interesting story to it)

We've found tiger balm to be good but its difficult enough to get in the UK never mind here. I applied an ammonia based after-bite remedy whose name escapes me but it comes in a pen shaped device to a wasp sting and it cured it immediately but apparently that works best putting it on right away - its not an itch releiver. There is also a product called "witch doctor" that we always carry that is good and based on witch hazel so its better for your skin (and clothes!) than formadehyde or ammonia. Again, haven't seen it yet in France.

Thanks for that, I borrowed my neighbours this week to solve the problem but I'll look up my local gamme vert.

Most French villages are attempting to get tout a la gout (mains drainage) installed over the next few years. I beleive its one of those nice EU laws that most rural communes will not be able to comply with but do check with your own Mairie before you install a fosse septique as you may be obliged to decommision them, anyway, shortly. Just to give you an idea, if you do need a fosse septique installed, a new one that complies with the latest legislation is going to be about €4k (unless you have a huge house and thus a large waste requirement). They can fit in the cave, you dont always need vaste ground works. ...and yes for the benefit of anybody about to buy and to echo another poster, ask where it is and how old it is. If it is recent there should be a certificate to accompany it showing that it meets current legislation if not, well then assume some expenditure might be needed.  

Dont forget that the legal maximum towing weight of the car according to the handbook isn't the same as the recommended safe towing weight which is generally accepted to be 85 percent. That is the caravans PTAC (laden, most people forget this includes all your holiday luggage, toothbrushes, barbecues, bicycles etc travelling in it) should be no more than 85 percent of the cars unladen kerbweight. ie a caravan PTAC of 1150 kg requires a car kerbweight of 1350kg. Those who exceed this are the ones you so often see with overturned caravans on the motorway!  

We came over this spring househunting and also looking for work. We signed on and claimed and received the french equivalent of UK jobseekers allowance, however, and this is perhaps why we managed it, we signed on in the UK first and told our job centre (bishops stortford in hertfordshire) that we were going to France, they provided the paperwork in French explaining we were jobseekers (demand d'emploi), although they had to check what to do because its quite rare, and the ASSEDIC in Cahors (46) and the ANPE in Soulliac (46) sorted out the rest. We just turned up, handed in our paperwork and played the les dumb anglais s'il vous plait m'aidez. I couldn't have done it without the paperwork from England. They ANPE here even arranged dedicated 1 hour a week support from an english speaker, CV translations (although that hasn't happened yet - I'm in IT and they are struggling with the technical terms) and also free french lessons (except, and this is beuaracracy gone made, now we are all europeans and our UK qualifications are transportable and recognised in the french systems as a bac++ we find ourselves too highly qualified to qualify for the french lessons and got bounced!! c'est la vie. It is timelimited though, and you can't keep channel hopping and signing on both ends. Useful cash whilst it lasted though.  

We have just bought a house in the top of the Lot (46) near Bretenoux and now need to tame the garden.  I`ve found that lawnmowers are quite expensive here and we won`t be here all year round anyway so I wondered if anybody knew a) where I might be able to hire one? b) any body local willing to mow the lawn occasionally (for a fee obviously) c) any other ideas?    

This is really good news, we're struggling with a reluctant notaire having completed the acte authentic in the last week, first of all he denied this could be done, then when we quoted the appropriate parts of the civil code (thank you to the person on another forum who posted an extract from their CU document) he then agreed it might be possible but is currently claiming to need permission from our Maire in England, who of course we dont have! Could you let me know which region you are in and which notaire you used?  Thanks

yes, our agent shows them but our house had zero in the box. Enquiries revealed that the current (now ex - we moved in last week) paid nothing, the reason given that they were maison secondaires too. On a slight tangent, re the TV, we dont have one and dont intend to but when I asked our agent he said he didnt pay it either. He declared it to be rubbish that he wasnt prepared to spend €100 a year on! His advice was just keep ticking the non box. Its a shame really, our vendors were quite keen to point to the TV booster over the valley and proudly proclaim that reception is wonderful here!  

...are they? Well that at least is an improvement over the British scheme...thanks everybody for the help, we're off this morning for another jolly 5 weeks in 46...oh the blue skies, the croissants, the french cigarettes begin lit up in non fumer bars etc etc....ttfn

Presumably thats per year rather than 183 days straight but do you know if its calendar/fiscal or rolling year? thanks.

Do you know if that is 6 months in any one calendar year, fiscal year or what?

ha ha quite! no, secondaire,but I want to avoid being drawn into the principal/residency trap

Well, originally it was an immobilier and I suppose that if I said in England that "an estate agent told me" then everybody would laugh but it was reading through this thread that made me realise that everybody seems to think this is different. I used immobiliers in 24 and 46 as we were searching on the borders. They were both categoric in what they said and they were both different. In 24 they said its absolutely a fixed fee and it relates to the price or value of the property but in 46 they said it was income related BUT only payable if your were resident. The taxes are very cheap compared to the UK were we pay a fee in the 000s and get bug5er all for it so I'm quite happy to pay it! Do you know how long you have to be in France to be thought of as resident? I've read that if you're in France for 183 days or more a year they draw you into the tax system....and again of course one's house becomes a maison pricipal....

Interestin thread. We've just bought a house and after setting up a currenciesdirect account I phoned through and got spot rates 3 times with them and compared them with my own bankers - Barclays - each time Barclays beat them by a substantial fraction of a percent. Barclays did charge me £20 for the transfer but as another correspondent pointed out, 0.5% on the sort of money you buy a house with makes a £20 charge seem insignificant. Also Barclays do internet or telephone transfers but beware, and I imagione all banks are the same, internet transfers have an upper limit on the amount of internet transactions per day. Even as a premier customer its not very much. Weekend spending money might be okay.

On a similar but not quite the same vein, We have a house in 46 as a maison secondaire and we will be visiting frequently (we don't work) but not intending to become full time French resident. I read somewhere that as long as you are not in France for more than 6 months of any one (calendar?) year you are okay but over 6 months and the French government treats you as French resident. Anybody any ideas on how that works?

We're in the same position as the person who sent on the original post. When assesing costs of our house to be (in 46) we were told that the current owners don't pay tax habitation because it is a maison secondaire and that we will be in the same position. Further, we have been told that if we were to be here long enough to change to a maison principal then our tax habitation would be based on our income amongst other things. Is it possible that all regions do this in a slightly different manner? rgds, Goose.