Jacqui Too

We sold our French holiday home in January after 12 years. We used an agent who did most the changeovers for us/buyers; electricity, water. I closed the phone line contract months before. Today I phoned the bank and asked them to send me an account closure form and they cancelled my card. We didn't use the French bank account for the transfer of the sale funds, we used a currency transfer company which the notaire sent the money to on the day of the AdV and we were able to choose when to convert to £'s. We had the money in our UK bank within 5 days.

Thank you so much! That sounds perfect, the same principal as how we pay via the Easytrip badge which we've had for twelve years, but as we've sold our house and have closed our French bank account, I can't seem to change the payment details to our UK bank. This sound like the way to go. Thanks

Hello Does anyone have one of these and pay with a UK bank account? We are closing our French bank account but we still want to use the badge. Any help, advice gratefully received.

Just a quick update on our experience. It took just 16 days from requesting the inspection and receiving the report via email, I am quite impressed as I feared the worst and it be 4-6 weeks! The cost is €120 paid on receipt of invoice. All fine except they recommended it be emptied and cleaned! Thanks, to everyone who commented.

[quote user="mint"]Jacqui, if you want to contact the notaire, you need to do it by phone. Either speak to him or his secretary. My notaire told me perfectly brazenly that he NEVER read his emails[6] So, if you didn't ring, do so at once and make sure you get an answer (even if it's not the answer you'd like) [/quote] I think I'm very fortunate my Notaire and her associate both email me back within a few hours of any email I send them and the cherry on the cake is they do it all in English!! She (notaire) is obviously one of the 'new' school and her office is in Excideuil.

[quote user="Jacqui Too "]We have never had it inspected?since it was put in, but as it only used for approx 6 weeks a year it hasn't needed emptying. I have asked the notaire if it is possible to carry on with a clause, not had a reply yet![/quote] Notaire say 'non' ???

We have never had it inspected?since it was put in, but as it only used for approx 6 weeks a year it hasn't needed emptying. I have asked the notaire if it is possible to carry on with a clause, not had a reply yet!

[quote user="richard51"]That seems to tick the boxes. Hopefully when the holidays are over then SPANC may get back into gear. Our Advocat too![/quote] Good luck!!

[quote user="mint"]Doesn't matter, Jacqui Too, whether the fosse complied at the time of installation. The normes change all the time, practically on a yearly basis, hence the requirement to have a fosse report on sale of a property. If the fosse is relatively new and properly done, it is unlikely that it would have to be replaced completely. There might be small items like the ventilation pipe or the float (we had a float as we had a pump as well), or even the cover. Minor and not expensive to sort out. Anyway, the lack of a report at this early stage of the sale should not slow down progress. You simply have a clause on the compromis to say "subject to fosse inspection". After all, the notaire's part takes about 3 months, so plenty of time to get the inspection and report done. Of course, it is then up to your buyers whether they want to proceed, renegotiate the price, whatever, once they have had sight of the report. BTW, I wouldn't leave it all to the agent. If it were me, I'd make enquiries myself and see if I couldn't hurry things along. It might or might not work but my own experience has been that most officials are reasonable and can be persuaded to act if requested to do so on a personal visit. [/quote] ??Oh! I don't understand why the agents didn't say to get that report in the bag early on, we knew we didn't need the other reports (no need for EPC) until a buyer had been found when it takes so long to get one. The bill will be payable to Tresor Public, so I take it it will be a public body that inspects it! probably why it may take 6 weeks. Private companies would probably take a 1/4 of that time to get it done!! Thanks ?

[quote user="richard51"]Hope you had SPANC overseeing the installation. They should have issued a report that would help. We are currently in legal battle with our french installer who said it was compliant but installed a 5EH tank and not a 6EH tank. Installation was in 2016. This was found by a routine SPANC inspection last November. Funny thing but the installers (recommended to us) are saying it was compliant at the time so are willing to defy the November SPANC inspection. On the positive side for you it appears that the rest of our hamlet is not in compliance NB we had installed a large terrace at the rear and so thought it a good idea at the time to change the fosse to one that complied.[/quote] Thank goodness it was, I have both SPANC and the Marie approval. I know the law came in to have the report when the house is sold but as I understand it that if it complied when it was installed we shouldn't have any problems, my problem is getting the report done as quickly as poss before my buyer gets cold feet!? BTW what's the difference between 5EH and 6EH?

Does anyone know how long it takes to get a fosse report done when you are selling a house? I was able to get the diagnostic reports done very quickly but the fosse report is done separately (so I now understand) I have had to sign a form for the agent and they now tell me it could take weeks! up to six weeks is that true! Has anyone got any experience of the process and how long it took? Our fosse was new in 2008 and completely complies with all regs.

[quote user="nomoss"]Personally I wouldn't worry about helping the buyers to save money. I'd be selling for a Euro price, so would expect to be paid in Euros, and would just stick the money in our French bank and wait until the exchange rate is in our favour. The way things are going I'd be best off leaving it in Euros. [/quote] Humm, I think the £ would have to drop nearer parity for me to not bother about scraping back a few grand after losing so much when the French housing market dropped and prices that never really recovered let alone increased. We're selling because there is a whole big world out there and having a holiday home in France is just not viable anymore. The Brexit effect on the £ couldn't have come at a better time for us. By the time the sale goes through it might be an even better time to buy £'s, so you may be right!

[quote user="suein56"]Jacqui Too wrote : I'll just have to ask but expect to be disappointed. You definitely don't get if you don't ask .. so ask away .. you might strike lucky ☺[/quote] I keep wanting to press the 'like' button, you can tell I've been away awhile elsewhere! lol

Thanks, everyone, it's obviously not a thing that's been done successfully very often, I'll just have to ask but expect to be disappointed.

[quote user="suein56"]nomoss wrote : I'm afraid that article may be out-of-date. The same thought crossed my mind .. friends have just sold here, as they are returning to the uk for family reasons, and they have had a most difficult time negotiating the present regulations as they wanted their resulting €€ sent directly to an exchange company .. for exchange to ££ .. and the notaire said firmly No. The €€ had to pass from the notaire's account to their French bank account .. and nowhere else.[/quote] Ahh, the gaelic shrug and 'Non' I've come across that before! I won't be banging my head on a brick wall about this but it does seem ridiculous that we lose between 4-5k between us.

Thank you,Tancrède. Very useful to know! We won't have any capital gains, even after 11 years!!! in fact, we will lose 10's of thousands of euros but as the £ is so low we can re-coop most of our initial outlay.

We have finally decided to sell our holiday home after 11 years (nothing to do with Brexit) and I now have a Brit that is keen to buy. I've been keeping an eye on the exchange rates and wondered if it was ever possible for them to pay us in £'s and avoid both losing out on exchange companies lower than the interbank rate, I know they will have to exchange some money into euros; deposit, fees, notaire costs etc, but is it possible to have the remainder done in £'s Thanks for any advice/help

[quote user="Loiseau"]There seems to be an iOS app, so if you have an iPad you could probably get it that way.[/quote] Thank you for your reply, I have just downloaded the app to my iPad, but it seems I also need to pay a sub to receive the mags. As I already subscribe to the hard copy version, I was hoping to get access to the online one as well. If anyone knows if that is possible to get free access I would be grateful for the help. I am in France at the moment but my copy is delivered to UK, so I'll just have to wait till I get home :-)

Hi, Can anyone tell me if French Property News is available online, I already subscribe to the hard copy, but I would also like to view online. Many thanks

I wish!! No it definitely is UC There are at least 3 other areas that have UC on them and two have now got new houses on.

Many thanks for that, sounds like we wouldn't have too much trouble getting planning. With house prices depreciating so much we might claw back a tiny bit more if we sell it off separately.

Hi, It's been a while since I've posted on here, I'm in a bit of a quandary about the status of part of our land we own with our house. We always knew that part of the land was within the village building plan but not sure what the situation is. In 2009 we were sent a plan of the village showing the area which if developed would have to pay PRV (participation voix réseaux). After that date the infrastructure of water, electricity, telephone were installed along the lane which passes our property and tarmacked after, three houses have now been built but although no more are planed (owner won't sell) we have always thought it a possibility. Now on this village plan there are markings; 1AU, UC, A, Could someone enlighten me as to what planing permission type each one represents. Note; new houses have been built on all 3 markings areas. We have UC on our property. Thanks in advance for any help.

Sorry about the phone number!, nice to know there is someone looking after our best interests. The latest is that I got a message to say that there are no lines available for me at the moment at the exchange/riseau, so goodness know when I might get a new line now :-((( Getting used to MacDonald's coffee!!

Thank you Mod, Wasn't thinking!!

[quote user="Martin963"]We're all wondering how you got on Jacqui....? [/quote] Ha not very well Martin! FT turned up on time and a very nice engineer said " You don't have a line" I said "No, I thought that was what you had come to do"!!! So looks like FT are just as incompetent as BT!! (long story) [:-))] Not sure when I will get the new line, hopefully they can string it up all 20m of it before I go home on 6th May. I've got all my equipment now no problem, just need a phone line to use it! Meanwhile I am sitting in McDonalds having a coffee as that's my last resort.[kiss] What wonderful weather we're having! thank goodness our work is indoors. If your passing call in, would love to see you, my number is XXXXXXXXXXX Won't be back on line for a while :-(....... Mods Hat ON I have removed the phone number from your post. If you want to contact somebody and pass on private information like real name, phone number, address etc please do so by PM or Email (Buttons at the bottom of each post). I am not telling you off at all but there are some very weird people out there. I don't mean contributors to the forum but you never know who is reading the posts as this is an 'open forum' and viewing is not restricted to forum members. Mod Hat OFF Forum Moderator