Alan Zoff
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Posts posted by Alan Zoff
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I always laugh when I hear TV presenters waxing lyrically about the "bargains" on offer at Depots de Vente in France. They imply they are almost giving away great furniture.
Our experience of these places is that they are either full of junk (literally broken or rotten stuff fit only for the bonfire) or are very expensive compared with English sale rooms. As for buying new, good modern French furniture is classy but far too pricey for me, whereas the affordable stuff is mainly nasty paper-coated chipboard.
So I am picking up decent quality second-hand items bit by bit in England (there is a great auctioneer for this in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire), taking them apart where possible to make them easier to transport, and cramming as much as I can into the car and trailer on each visit. I reckon I am paying a quarter of the equivalent French prices so the hassle is well worth it.
I can see now why our French vendor refused to sell the contents with the house for the extra sum I offered, even though the occupant was moving into a retirement home. They probably considered the furniture to be worth more than the house!
On the other hand, if someone knows a Depot de Vente in northern Auvergne where real bargains can be found, I would be glad to hear from them.
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Who said romance was dead? Was it your birthday, wedding anniversary, perhaps?
If you want something to practice on before tackling your house, I have about 80 metres of garden wall which seems to be held together by - well, nothing, as far as I can see!
One of these guns looks a good investment, compared with the tedious bucket and trowel method which in my case oftens means giving the wall a light and patchy rendering....
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Depends on how willing you are to pay the extra. If, like me, you make several crossings a year, price becomes a big factor and I'm willing to tailor my travel times to fit in with SpeedFerries rather limited service.
I do wish, though, that they would respond quicker to emails (other than the automated replies), particularly when trying to convert SuperTickets or SuperVouchers to actual bookings. But admin staff cost money, of course. It's a case of striking the right balance between cost and service.
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Thanks for the pointers, Phil.
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Just returned to UK.
Took Rouen route down but wished I had stuck with Paris. May have just been unlucky with holiday traffic on Rouen bypass and around Dreux but I reckon it cost me at least extra 2 hours, even allowing for possible gridlock in Paris. Definitely our slowest trip down so far.
Journey down - Boulogne to Allier (Rouen route) over 8 1/4 hours in car (i.e. ignoring stops)
Journey back (via Paris) 5 1/2 hours in car.
Of course, if we had ended up motionless on Peripherique for 3 hours, I might have reached different conclusion....
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I am busy trying to rid our house in north Auvergne of Capricorne (House Longhorn) Beetles. The large grubs are busy munching through the timber and leave large oval flight holes and weak timbers.
They have also riddled the centre of a large, and quite attractive, walnut tree that grows a few feet from the house. (The trunk has split near the ground and the beasts seem to like the soft, sappy wood in the split. However, the tree itself seems to be thriving.)
I would like to keep the tree if possible. Does anyone know of a treatment strong enough to kill the bugs that won't harm the tree? All suggestions gratefully received.
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Jane
Have just sent you another Private Message.
Alan
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Jane
I have received your PM saying you have not received my earlier one to you. But both appear in my Personal Messages list and the first shows you as the Recipient . Can I just check - have you opened your Personal Messages file (accessed from the main Forum menu)?
Alan
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I take it you were not interested in message I sent you? Have not had any response.
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We are going over later this week to our house which is 7kms from Lurcy-Levis. I thought the circuit was used only for private testing - does it in fact hold events open to the public?
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Thanks Robert. Had just made a decision to take similar route (with the help of the Michelin online route finder but ignoring the suggested route when Boulogne was my starting point.)
Interesting that all these services (including Mappy and Multimap) suggest the quickest route from Boulogne is via Paris. Really depends on when you hit the peripherique. Several times I have skipped round it without any problems or delays at all. On others it has been grid-lock....
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Teamed Up - I don't disagree with you if you have long had all your assets in France and have established your permanent home there. I thought I had made that clear. In that case, the person to contact is a French lawyer or notaire to advise on the terms of your will, if you need one.
The problems I was referring to concern people with assets both in France and elsewhere, which I imagine applies to many people using this forum. Wills in more than one country may be the answer for some of them - perhaps not for others, including me.
I have no doubt at all that France and England have different definitions for domicile and residence, which again is part of the problem. I can comment only from the English perspective. As far as the UK is concerned, residence is really a tax status, confirmed by quite rigid rules, in particular concerning the length of time in or away from the UK. Domicile on the other hand is a legal concept, based mainly on a starting point of your status at birth (domicile of origin) and subsequent actions/evidence to show a definite intention to establish a new legal status (domicile of choice). There are no statutes or fixed rules to say precisely what is needed to change your domicile but unless sufficient evidence of intention can be produced by your executors (demonstrating the severance of all ties with the UK), the Inland Revenue (Capital Taxes Office) will argue that you are still domiciled in England & Wales (or Scotland, as the case may be) if it is in their interests to do so (i.e. if you have sufficient world-wide wealth to give rise to a UK inheritance tax liability).
My concern over the "two wills" approach relates more, however, to the scope for conflict between the two documents. Although we do not get much involved in European issues, the litigation department in my own firm gains a lot of its work because of the problems caused by incorrect or conflicting provisions in documents. Apart from any problems raised by the different authorities in two jurisdictions, I can tell you from experience that people (beneficiaries) have a tendency to try to exploit defects in wills if they can see some financial advantage. I think it has to be sensible to try to minimise the risk of these occurring.
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Depends on the law that is to apply which is chiefly affected by "domicile" rather than "residence". Many people have property in France and are living in France but have not given up England as their "domicile" - their permanent (or rather long term) home. They may be "resident" in France for income tax purposes but still "domiciled" in England & Wales for UK inheritance tax and legal purposes. (Under English law, it can be quite difficult to lose your English domicile, especially if you have retained property in the UK.)
The important thing to decide is which law you want to apply to your estate. If you are of English domicile and English law applies to your will, then probate will be granted to the will in the UK if it satisfies validity requirements. For UK inheritance tax purposes, your estate will incur inheritance tax on your worldwide assets, usually with relief for tax suffered abroad on foreign assets.
A grant of probate of a will in England & Wales will often be accepted by foreign jurisdictions in relation to non-land/non-house assets, particularly if the value of those assets is modest. For larger values, the foreign juristiction will have further requirements but foreign companies (banks, etc) abroad will nonetheless then accept the instructions of the UK executors. Otherwise, the relatives of people living in the UK who buy shares in foreign companies or open accounts abroad would not be able to deal with those assets on the owner's death.
As I said, there is no "one fit suits all" here and it is a case of choosing the arrangement that best suits your circumstances, including tax implications and organising your affairs accordingly. If you still have assets in the UK, the best arrangement may well not be to have wills in both England and France.... (If all your assets and income sources are in France because you have decided to make France your permanent home, then of course you will only need a French will.)
I am an English lawyer who has spent the past 25 years dealing with English estates. I attended the lecture as an increasing number of clients (and now I myself!) own property abroad and problems are encountered when winding up those estates, sometimes made worse by the existence of a foreign will. I therefore had concerns about the standard advice that if you own property both in England and abroad, you need a foreign will - the guy giving the talk confirmed that I was right to be concerned, and particularly in relation to France.
Perhaps one day, the laws across Europe will be truly standardised but I suspect that day could be some way off.
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I have just attended a lecture given by an excellent English lawyer specialising in European law. Very impressive. I told him I hadn't made a French will as it seemed to me that it was merely complicating matters as I have an English will that covers my worldwide assets. French law will determine what happens with the French house anyway so the French will is only of relevance to non-property assets in France.
A little to my surprise, he broadly agreed. He said too many people automatically make wills in both the foreign country and England (or Scotland, etc) but often would have done better to cover all matters in one. (This assumes of course that they still have assets in the home country and have not moved lock, stock and barrel to France.) OK, your family may have to convince the French authorities that your English will is valid in relation to some French non-property assets but that is not normally too difficult. He says if you make wills in both countries, the French authorities often ask to see the English one anyway (to make sure there is no conflict between them) and the English authorities often want to see the French one.
Above all, there are so many grey areas between the French and English law that the scope for ambiguity or oversights is greater if you have two wills than if the full position is laid out in one document. If you put in place two legal documents, both are legally binding and have to be interpreted, and if there is any conflict between the provisions, someone has a potentially expensive problem to sort out. You might take the precaution of asking your English lawyer to look at your French will, and vice versa, to check there are no conflicts - but do they know enough about each other's legal systems to vet them and spot potential problems? And if you are going to go to this expense, you might as well pay one of them to do the whole job.
What it boils down to is that people's circumstances are different and there isn't one automatic solution to suit all.
People buying French property may be following the lead of those buying property in Spain. (Due to Spanish legal and tax systems, it is almost always advisable to make a Spanish will if you own assets in Spain.)
I realise that the above rather goes against the general advice that is often given on this and other forums. The lawyer said he would be happy to speak to anyone who has doubts so I will PM his details to anyone who asks for them. (I might add that I have no connection with him or his - London - firm whatsoever.)
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Point taken, Frances. It's one thing to leave them to their own devices on several acres of common-land but another to find one on your bedroom window-ledge in a town.
Having heard parents of mindless yobs praise their offspring for wiping out harmless water-voles (which they described as "rats") with air-rifles, I can get a bit defensive when it comes to wildlife issues.
I was interested to read in the commune newsletter for my village in central France (appropriately named Couleuvre - translates as grass snake) that the French equivalent of the RSPCA is growing in popularity. I imagine Hissing Sid has gone now (!) but I suppose a phone call to them might have been a possibility. Next time, perhaps.....
Alan
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Before anyone gets too carried away and begins exterminating perhaps rare and certainly timid wild creatures, bear in mind that the risk of harm is miniscule. Snakes have acute senses and will usually clear off long before you get anywhere near. I lived for 20 years at the edge of a common which apparently is home to quite a large number of adders (vipers) living among the ferns. I rarely saw one and never heard of any person being bitten by one. And their presence doesn't seem to put off visitors to the area.
As for grass snakes biting people, when I was young a local lad used to catch them and keep them as pets. We handled then often without once being bitten. I suppose if I had forced my finger down the throat of one and stamped on the other end, it might have nipped me - but it never occurred to me to do that.
Indeed, the only snake-inflicted injury I can recall was to a terrier that hunted down an adder. That could have proved fatal but my recollection of the newspaper report (yes, it was unusual enough to warrant a write-up in the local rag) is that even Fido survived the not altogether undeserved bite after a hasty trip to the vets.
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All I would say, having just got through a 9 month battle with Orange to end a mis-sold contract and ended up well out of pocket, is that I would not touch Orange again with a barge-pole.
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I suppose it depends on the information they were after but I was surprised to read that it was genuine. You were certainly right to be cautious. I would probably have deleted it without a thought, having had several approaches purporting to come from various banks.
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Have sent you a pm.
Alan
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Afterthought.
By what time on a Friday pm should traffic be starting to tail off?
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Nice to know everyone agrees!
Personally, I would go for light blocks every time if constructing off a solid floor. You will have something solid to screw into without bothering with cavity fittings or hunting for hidden struts.
I might add though that all my houses have had some wood and plasterboard stud walls and I have never had problems with them warping.
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Not surprised but as well to be warned. Thanks Miki.
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Is Good Friday likely to have similar problems? Leaving Boulogne mid-day, heading for the Auvergne via Paris.
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Now those aren't the pictures the agents show you when they are selling the properties!
Don't feel quite so bad now about the weeks of rain in Allier. Anyone in Manchester interested in a swap?
Furniture - Move it or buy a new lot?
in Finding/Owning French Property
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