Jon 1

Ah well!! Thanks

I hope that this is the correct section to post. I did not receive TdH via the post and 7 e-mails later eventually managed to get a reference so that I could pay it online. In my haste to avoid penalties I just paid the total amount. However, we have just sold our property and if the TV licence amount is an advance payment then we have overpaid. Any advice on how to recoup the over payment if in fact it is in advance? The TdH payment should not come out of my account until about the end of December.

[quote user="breizh"]3 Key dates. Jan 9. France has to borrow EUR 29billion Jan 30. Italy has to borrow EUR 32billion Feb 28. Italy has to borrow EUR 46billion Very scary, considering what happened last week when Germany failed to get EUR 6billion!! I doubt the Dwarf will sleep well over Noel.[/quote] References?

5 e-mails later and still no T d H! Anyone else still waiting?

Many thanks. I was beginning to panic because there is some mention of TdH on other threads.

Have Not Received TdH. I keep sending e-mails which are ignored. Can anyone please advise on the last date for payment? Thanks

Norman, was your diagnosis and treatment in the UK or France? One of the main criticisms of the UK NHS is the time taken for consultations and diagnosis. This leads to a statistically higher incidence of death from cancer than other European countries. Due to hip pain my wife had an X-ray, after a considerable wait. The report to the GP stated that an unidentified mass was obvious in her femur, but no cause for concern. The GP felt that this merited further investigation. After an almost 4 month wait the GP has received a letter from the hospital stating they don't intend to conduct further investigations. I know that this would not happen in France. We now have to decide where we go from here.

[quote user="P-D de Rouffignac"]Replying to your question about notifying the French utility companies - This can be left to the agent or notaire, who will take readings just before completion, so the buyers can take over the services (water, gas, electricity) without delay and there is no cut-off/re-connection. Exception is of course the telephone and related services (internet etc) which are optional, and you can notify cessation when you want. The compromis de vente and acte finale will also state how the property taxes (foncière, habitation) will be apportioned, and any management costs if a co-ownership building. Hope this helps. P-D de R. [/quote] Yes it does. Thanks

[quote user="Anton Redman"]As far as I am aware if the furniture etc. Is included in the price then there is no deduction for its cost. The separate listing of furniture allows the purchaser to pay lower costs of acquisition. In the third of the links below one of the drop down boxes allows you to input the costs of diagnostiques http://vosdroits.service-public.fr/F10864.xhtml#N10164 http://www.pap.fr/argent/calculettes/calcul-plus-value-immobiliere http://www.leparticulier.fr/jcms/c_35797/simulateur-de-calcul-de-plus-value-immobiliere[/quote] Thanks for your reply and for the useful references.

I was told that the reason for the delay was essentially the tardiness of the seller's notaire. They were slow in getting documents to the selling notaire. We are still keeping our fingers crossed that all goes according to plan. Can anyone advise on when you should contact all the utility companies concerning the actual date of sale? We have been given a date of sale that states "it will be no later than". This makes it difficult to be precise and give adequate notice by recorded delivery letter. The sale is going to be completed through power of attorney.

I have received the Plus Value calculation from the notaire. All the furniture was included in the total price and the Compromis indicates a value attributed to the furniture and to the property respectively. However, the official Plus Value document does not make this distinction or separation, it simply shows the total sale price with no mention of furniture. This obviously leads to CGT being payable on the attributed value of the furniture. Is it permissible under the French Plus Value system to deduct the value of the furniture from the total sale price? N.B. We did not buy the furniture with the property. We bought and added all the furniture. Is it also permissible to include the cost of all the diagnostiques eg DPE, termite survey etc in preparation for the sale, as a legitimate off-settable expense, as this too has not been taken into consideration. I would also appreciate direction to any official French reference or website that explains the above. I have been unable to find one.

[quote user="Pommier"]You might find this site useful for sending lettre recommandée on line (so can be done from the UK) https://lettreenligne.laposte.fr/lregp/accueil.action[/quote] Many thanks

Thanks again for the replies. There are some thoughtful comments. I chose a notaire who speaks English Benjamin, but translation of documents may take time as you imply. A Lettre avec Accuse de Reception is difficult from the UK Mikep. I have found that UK recorded etc is often disregarded. "I appreciate that your word is your bond but it is only as good as the other parties respect of it". How true, AnOther!

Many thanks for all the replies. Given the comments, I must admit that I am a little more anxious now. I hope we are not being played, or the notaire is one of the more laid back ones. As I said we had a previous really bad experience with an unscrupulous seller and solicitor, where we subsequently ended up tens of thousands of pounds out of pocket. This was due to us being naive in the cut and thrust of buying and selling. We vowed to be more hard headed next time, but have been just as docile and soft this time. As I said another immobilier contacted us after our verbal acceptance of the sale and said they had an interested client who could possibly beat the offer, and provide an immediate C d V. Silly us said that our word was our bond, and here we are getting more anxious by each passing day, particularly as we were told that the buyer wanted a quick purchase! I hope the delay is due to the notaires being in two different cities and us in the UK. However, I would have expected to have had sight of a C d V by now, given that our notaire has had nine working days to produce it, and the facility of instant electronic communication. If we hear nothing by Monday afternoon, I may try to exert some pressure on the immobilier.

[quote user="pachapapa"] [quote user="Frederick"]Well some Englishman does not have to worry about a Euro crash .. When it comes to the Euro .... he is 101 million quids worth better off by buying a lottery ticket .[/quote] Not a propitious use of an indefinite article in the plural.[:-))] [/quote] Almost on a par with 'idioticy' http://www.completefrance.com/cs/images/emotions/tongue.gif

Thanks for your replies. We are getting a little anxious for a couple of reasons. The problems in the Euro zone are one of them. We don't want to potentially end up with devalued euros, if matters go pear-shaped. When we watch the escalating situation on the media, we feel we may be in a race against time to conclude the transaction and repatriate our funds. Secondly we have been caught out in a property transaction before, playing with a straight bat, and somewhat naively placing our trust in solicitors we ended up substantially out of pocket. We were told that the buyer wanted a quick transaction and that we would probably receive payment within a month. Here we are two weeks later with no C d V in sight. We remember when we offered on one property, over a decade ago, the immobilier immediately rushed us to sign the C d V at a nearby notaire's office. An added problem is that we are dealing with this from the UK. In addition when you are not absolutely fluent in French you don't pick up on the nuances behind your restricted telephone conversations. I suppose that we are seeking assurance through others anecdotes, that over two weeks can be the norm. Hopefully all will come good this next week.

As sellers, we feel that we should have received a copy of the compromis de Vente to sign by now. It will be two weeks this Saturday since we verbally accepted an offer through the immobilier. We were told that the buyer wanted to move quickly. The diagnostiques were done and submitted by hand to the notaire a week past Wednesday by the immobilier. We were also told that finance was already in place. There are two notaires involved ie for buyer and seller. The buyer's notaire is located in another city. It is a good number of years ago since we bought, so cannot remember the time scale. Should we have received the C d V for signature by now? What is the norm? The immobilier said to contact the notaire, but as per standard practice, the notaire is not responding to our e-mail. Another immobilier with an interested client has contacted us, and said that they want to offer and can provide an immediate C d V. Should we be chasing this up?

Sorry. http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2010/oct/09/foreign-exchange-money-safe

Idun, here is another interesting article. It mentions TorFX in the comments section. After reading the foregoing, would you use a currency transfer company again, for transferring a large amount of money?

Idun, I can identify exactly with what you are saying. We usually buy into something when it is about to collapse. This is why I decided to be a little more cautious this time. We are waiting for the Promis de vente to go through and lo and behold GBP starts improving against the euro before we have even reached the end stage.

Thanks for that further info Idun. I suppose it as an element of risk and better rate versus the converse.

[quote user="idun"]We used TORFX who are registered with the FSA. Got a better exchange rate than our bank in the UK would have given us. The funds are deposited in a client account in Barclays. Cost us around 4€ charges from our french bank, the transfer was in the uk in euros the following day and in our account that afternoon. [/quote] Thanks for the info. I did a quick Google search, and this came up http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/banking/2011/01/torfx-what-are-the-links

[quote user="nomoss"]Ask another Notaire[/quote] Possibly like asking two economists. You get three answers!!

Possibly like asking two economists. you get three answers!!

I don't understand your reply Who is misunderstanding, me or the Notaire? As far as I understand all expenses like these are considered a legitimate expense for UK CGT. I don't understand why this is not the same in a French CGT context.