Llantony

I quite enjoyed the first Carol Drinkwater book but the last one I read was a bit annoying - is there a new one then?   I was a bit cynical when she complained about how poor they were and struggling to do up their house in France, then mentioned she owned a flat in London. Maz

Last year we bought a tiny ruin in our village - simply to get legal access to the space under the garage we were buying. I'm very stressed as we've had a letter to our UK address from the Mairie saying they've had a complaint from neighbours about noise from the tarpaulin we put over the ruin to protect it as it's mostly below street level and someone had nicked the tiles from the roof (before we bought it).  Also 'falling stones'.  And telling us to sort it.  A friend says he can't see any sign of falling stones and there are few neighbours: our garage on one side, a little park across the street ....  Across a little public staircase to the next street is the neighbour who nicked the tiles, but we've never seen her in residence.  I wonder if the complaint is just malicious - and who..... For the 1st time since we bought our house, we aren't planning to visit between now and Easter (can't afford the flights + car hire and it's too far to take the car for just a week).  This makes it rather difficult.  Will the Mairie follow it up quickly?  What are the legal issues?  I'm getting very worried. What really makes us mad is that further along, between our house and garage, an enormous crane has blocked the street for over a year!  It has done almost no work and lots are people are really fed up.  The postman can't get his van through so has to walk, it takes up space for several cars (parking isn't possible in many places due to narrow medieval streets).  There is no chance to get a fire engine through - our neighbour was flooded and the fireman arrived on foot!  Cars further down are damaged as people ignore the route barre sign and then reverse down the steep narrow street.  No possibility of deliveries.  We were hoping to move there full time in the summer, but couldn't get a van anywhere near. Neighbours have even written to the prefecture as the Mairie doesn't seem interested, rumours of kickbacks from the developers responsible. I plan to write to the Mairie apologising.  Their letter got the street wrong, but I'm pretty sure it's our building.  I'm very tempted to add our own complaint about the much bigger crane nuisance that they've allowed for so long.  Would that be unwise? Any thoughts?  

Yes, you can get a pension forecast online - if 'they' have your correct details.  I got an online forecast no problem (except that due to the iniquitous 'married women's reduced contribution rate' I'll get hardly anything).  But it didn't work for my husband.  When he phoned to ask why he found 1.  they had the wrong address for him (we've been at this address 16 years); 2.  Said he wasn't married (30+ years!) 3.  Said he'd missed a years insurance contributions in the 1990s (has worked continuously since 1980). Funny they got it right for me tho. Has anyone heard that you have to be living in the UK at age 60 to get cold weather fuel payment + to get an extra 5 years NI credits??

'there are ALWAYS alternatives to Ryanair'  - Yes but as already stated, they may involve travelling much further to other airports at both ends of the journey, taking longer and costing a lot more in petrol and car parking (which we don't need to do at our local UK airport as we can get a lift, bus or taxi).  Ryanair have cornered the market on several routes e.g. taking over Nottingham-Toulouse from BMI Baby.

But I didn't contact them about the garage, bought 2 and a half years after the house, and they managed to send a TH bill for that.  No-one ever told us to contact anyone about either tax but the TF bill has arrived through every year.  We sort of assumed that if the TF bill arrived promptly, the TH one would follow - perhaps the notaire slipped up?

Well, it's all a bit odd.  It surely can't be necessary to complete a tax return in France before getting a Taxe d'hab bill - if so, no-one with a 2nd home would ever be asked to pay.  And anyway, we've had a bill for the garage now, sent here to UK. 

Thanks for replies.   Emailing would be easiest though (if the notaire is anything to go by, also local tourist office and a hotel) the French tend to ignore them.  For the first time we won't be going to France in December so won't actually be there again till Easter.

We only received ours last week.  (82)

We bought our house in 2003 and have received bills for Taxe Foncieres but not for Taxe d'Habitation.   2 years ago I went to the Tresor Public in the village with a friend who'd had an overdue for Taxe d'Habitation (the original went to Australia, the reminder to France!).  I said we hadn't received a bill and the official checked his computer for our name/address, it wasn't there and he just shrugged his shoulders.  Didn't suggest we should contact someone to sort it out.. It seems TF bills come from the Departement but TH from the village and somehow we weren't registered when we bought the house.  Presumably the vendor was - he was there 16 years - so it's a mystery that it wasn't transferred.  We have now had a TH bill for the garage we bought last year - 65 euros.  So we can't pretend we don't know we're liable for TH on the house (which is a 2nd home).  What to do?  Don't want to suddenly get a huge bill - with overdue penalties. Is TF usually more or less than TF? Bewildered, 82.

"Pay more and fly BA' That's OK if you live somewhere near an airport that gives you the choice.  Ryanair is the only one that goes from near home in UK to somewhere near 2nd home (roughly an hour and a half from Bergerac or Toulouse). We did BA from Gatwick once as it was cheaper than the cheapo airlines, but then we had to pay 8 days' car parking and add several hours to the journery to allow for delays on the M25 (which did not disappoint!).  The stress of worrying about missing the flight doesn't help. PS (And the 2nd - small, scruffy - home = 2nd mortgage and we don't earn anywhere near £50k per annum. We just don't go out, spend very little on clothes and household goods etc but love going to France.)

Yes, a bus service that runs about 4 times a week, with many being fully booked in advance, so if one is cancelled.... The other moan is the PA system, I was not aware what they were flogging/telling us about as the people spoke so fast and had such strong accents (Polish, Czech?) that no-one could understand them!  Hope it was nothing important.

After a discussion on Ryanair earlier this year, (many negative comments!) I said I'd report back when I'd actually been on a Ryanair flight.  We got there OK tho I hated the scrum due to them not allocating seats.  They  allow checking in online if you have hand luggage only.  We had 1 piece of hold luggage so thought we try to book one of us in online - not possible!  They try to make it a hand luggage only airline, claiming that if you book online you print a boarding pass (and therefore get a low number) you can get on the plane first - rubbish!  Everyone surges forwards and it's a free-for all.  Return journey Sunday morning 29 October - plane did not land due to fog.  200 people tried to rearrange their flights with the one person at the desk.   When we finally got his attention we were told the next available flight to Nottingham was Friday.  Relunctantly accepted as we had no information on other ways of getting home and knew Ryanair would not compensate us in any way, except to give us a transfer to another Ryanair flight.   Later, back in queue as people told us there were other flights. Phoned my son who checked website and said there was a flight on Wednesday and he could book 3 places - we didn't because it was expensive and we couldn't be sure of getting the money back from Ryanair and we were back at the desk by then.  The man at the desk said that flight was full even tho I had just been told it could be booked online. Then found there was a flight from  Limoges on Tuesday, back to desk... 'Only 1 seat left'.  Later, 'There are seats but we can't transfer you to an earlier flight!'    An hour later, back to desk - 'are you SURE?'  Transferred to Tuesday from Limoges.  So 1 day spent at airport, 1 day extra in our house, most of 3rd day spent driving to Limoges.  3 days extra car hire, 3 days extra parking at Nottingham, 200 miles extra fuel and a lot of stress.  We have travel insurance but it doesn't cover lost income or a different flight, just delay.  The extra car hire and parking has not yet appeared on our credit card statement, I'm sure they'll catch up eventually (once it was over 2 years for a hire firm to tell us they had made an error and our payments had not gone through!) but we still don't know how much it's cost us. Thank goodness we didn't have to go to a hotel. I don't think we'll use Ryanair again even tho it's the only airline that goes from Nottingham to anywhere near our house in France.      

Depends where you live and whether you mean to drive it yourself or hire van + driver.  When we bought our little house we couldn't find a cheap van hire that would let us take it to France. We just crammed a few things into the car and bought bits in France.  Since then we've found a firm in Nottingham that isn't too expensive and will let us take a decent sized van to France - when we finally  move there.

I'm pretty sure most airlines say check in at least 2 hours before the flight. Also, come to think of it, we went from Bergerac last October - in the afternoon - and we were ushered out into the departure lounge very early as there is so little room at Bergerac. Oh dear - so our only hope might be a box to return the keys!

Thanks, I guess so.  It's just that when I tried to make a car hire booking and put in return time 8.00am, it wouldn't let me proceed with the booking, just saying Bergerac Airport was closed at that time.  I never had this problem when hiring from Toulouse and returning on an early flight.

Good point, I hadn't thought of that.  It's easier to make a reduced offer to an estate agent than face to face with the proud owner!

I've just tried to book a week's car hire at Bergerac Airport but can't because our return flight is 10.00am.  Check-in is at least 2 hours before, so we'd need to return the car by 8.00 am - but the airport car hire doesn't open until 9.00am - if it opens on time! Does this mean we can't hire a car for the week?   I don't know whether it's possible to check in and nip out later to sort the car return.  Never had this problem at Toulouse, just had to park the car and drop the keys in if the hire desk was closed.

Oh dear!  Cash under the table?  I hope not as one seller is a friend's friend of many years and seems a genuinely nice woman.  She was honest enough to pointed out that the floor in a small extension is on bare earth when we wouldn't have guessed.  The other seller is the father of Greg who is buying the house next door to our present one. So I'll ask next time I see him.

No need to be rude. As I clearly said, obviously the house would be cheaper for me as I wouldn't pay the agent's commission BUT the sellers would lose money if they gave me a cheaper price than the one the agent advertised (which does not include their commission).  So - as I asked in my original posting that started this thread about house prices (not surveys etc.) what's in it for the seller?

I'm losing the will to live on this one! I still don't see why I've been told by 2 sellers that their house would be cheaper if we did not go via the agent.  Yes, we'd be happy, but the buyer would get less!  As we'd pay the commission on top of the asking price

I'd obviously prefer to pay less but that is NOT what I said.  My example shows the vender selling for less if I don't use the estate agent - but the seller would therefore lose money so why would they do that?  

I guess that would explain it in some cases, but our village estate agent definitely charged commission on top of the price the seller agreed.  And the 2 people who've told me their house would be cheaper if I didn't involve the agent both have their houses with that agent!  This agent's advertised house prices do not include their commission. So I'm still puzzled. If I see those sellers again I'll just have to ask them!

No!  My question was: as the buyer pays the agent, why would sellers offer a lower price if I don't go via the agent? When we bought our house we paid the price agreed with the vendor + the estate agent's fee. For example: if price is 100k, buyer pays 100k + agent's fee = 108K (or whatever their % commission is).  The seller gets 100k.  So why would the seller offer it to a buyer who doesn't go to the estate agent at, say, 95k?  They would lose 5k and not save anything as we would have paid the agent. Everyone has to pay the notaire either way so I'm not sure that's relevant. And it wasn't me who said the seller pays!

I started all this!  No-one has yet answered my question about why French people say their houses will be cheaper if a buyer is not found via an estate agent when it's the buyer who pays the commission anyway.  We aren't really looking for another house, but were persuaded by 2 French friends to have a look at their properties and both said cheaper if we don't contact the agent. But if we did want to buy, if prices are generally going down it would make us aware we might get more for our money.

Our estate agent, when I spoke to her last autumn, said there weren't many British buyers. A new Dutch one had set up in the village - only giving house details in Dutch! (and on his website too) He said the British weren't buying any more.   I did notice quite a few Dutch cars around this summer but it seems a bit limiting not having French or English info.  That agency didn't seem to be open this summer tho.... Someone (French) I know is trying to sell his house to get money for his son's business.  Sadly the price of 200,000 euros is way too much for a house with no garden and only 1 bedroom so far. I don't quite get why French sellers say 'cheaper if you don't go through the estate agent' as it's the buyer who pays the fee.  As everyone has to use a notaire it can't be a tax dodge.