MKT

Have read all this with great interest and am keen on getting this nrj simcard for my uk mobile (we live in france so all our calls are france -france but of course go throguh the uk). we only have the phone for emergencies, it is pay as you go and we have stuck with this roundabout way of doing things because of the limited validity of french payg mobiles ive seen so far, Nrj looks different and would eb the answer for us if it works.    My question is this. will this simcard that i can buy from nrj online for €15 work with any phone? i mean am i obliged to buy a new phone or can i put this simcard in my english bought nokia (currently with vodafone). the phone is about a  year old  and is fairly basic. I mean are sim cards universal?   grateful for any advice and sorry if this is a stupid question, i am mobile phone illiterate Maria

Thanks again Andrew. PH keeps rising, even though i can temporarily reduce it its always back up the next day. Will do what you say and add the acid on a regular basis if necesary.  Pool nice and clean now, it was dirtier than it looked once i started cleaning. Thanks for the info re the balck hole - i will ignore it! i dont think anyones put anything in it actually, it has been totally neglected. I took a salt reading and it was zilch, so added 4 sacks of salt whcih got it up to 3.5/l which is what it said was minimum on the front of the unit. A further 3 bags have got it up to 4.5. The pump is working fine. The skimmers were off anyway as they had a robot in there (completely useless) and all the suction was being routed through that. The salt light is still lit on front of the machine which i distrust. the electolyser thign LOOKS as if its working, i mean the light comes on to say it is, and it reverses its polarity each time and you can see there is water in it and a sort of dull black plate thing but i am still not getting any sort of chlorine reading. Is there a way to test if it is working? what are my/their options if it isnt working? The machine is only two years old but I suspect it was left on all winter and it says all over the instructions not to do that.   Many thanks Maria      

Thank you so very much for your help, More information than i dared hope for. The only worry is that this 'basic plus' thing booklet says never use anything other than liquid ph minus  and not acide chlorydrique . presumably this means not into the actual tube of the system but is it still ok to add manually to the pool?   I did  a big cleanup up there yesterday for hours and it is looking much better although i dont think the waterline will ever completely come clean. I have also deduced that the 'automatic' injector for the ph minus isnt working and probably hasnt been for some time. When you turn it off and on again the cog thing tries to go round but seems to get stuck. it can be turned manually and when it is, some ph minus does get sucked up the tube so i assume this malfunction is how coems the ph has gotten so high. In answer to your question, the machineitslef  reads 9.5 but i aslo did a test myself manually and it went bright pink (off the scale of my measuring kit!).   I did note also that the water level was way too low, and i put loads in yesterday. Given that we have had heavy rain recently one wonders how low it did actually get and as well as the skimmers not working properly (some appeared to be turned off) the evaporation must have been adding to the problem of ph i assume.   Can you confirm that if there should be a chlorine reading for the pool if all is well? The salt indicator is lit so i am off to buy some today for that and also some salt test strips as you suggest but i did wonder if i am supposed to test for chlorine too. Miraculously, the water is clear and not cloudy. I cannot understand this but it is defintiely so! There is no justice.   One final thing, and a bit of a long shot. next to the pool is a deep deep hole(at least as deep as the pool), with some stagnant water in the bottom. This hole is formed by a peice of plastic pipe, about a foot in diameter and we cannot think what is is possibly for but it must be conencted to the pool in some way as it is adjacent to the skimmers, set into the deck. I did do a backwash yesterday and peered into the hole but nothing seememd to be changing in there so i am clueless as to what it might be? i wondered if it was for the salt but it doesnt look as if it connects to anythign else. I realise you may think 'how the hell do i know', and i understand, but i cnat ask the owners themselves as their probelms are too seriosu to be bothering them with this. i am grateful for any hypothesis you may have as to what this amy be.   I am so very grateful for your help so far, thankyou again Maria

I have been asked if i can clean up a friends pool a bit whilst they are stuck in the Uk with family problems.. I owe them a favour bigtime so would like to oblige but need advice. I have experience with my own chlorine pool where i have always doen everything manually and used prevention rather than cure to keep it clean and nice but this one is a salt pool and in a right old state. The main problems are the ph is an incredible 9.5 despite there being an 'automatic' regulator (a system called 'basic plus') linked up to a tub of something called aquamoins which says it lowers the ph. I normally use ph minus in powder form but am unsure if this will work the same in a salt pool the skimmers etc are in an awful blackened state inside and out - i clean mine with a bit of desalgine on a sponge but is it ok to use desalgine in a salt pool? the water line is very black and thick in places. I usually use desalgine on a sponge again to clean mine, but as above, is it ok in a salt pool and also this line is way worse than i ever let mine get, so i may need something stronger.any suggestions? can i use one of the purpose made water line nettoyant products available in the shops? how do i know if it actually needs more salt? i took a ph and chlorine test today adn chlorine was non-existant but perhasp this is normal for a salt pool? excuse the stupid question but where do i actually put the salt anwyay? in the water? in the skimmer? I (and they) woudl be so grateful for any help or advice you could give. I suspect the 'automatic' system isnt set up properly and i have found the instructions for that, but need the answers to the other questions first really. Thanks Maria

Can anyone advise where on my declaration de revenues (if indeed anywhere) I have to put the £500 i was left (in the uk) by a godmther when she died last year?. I am french resident. If anybody knows how it will be treated that would be even better but i'll settle for just knowing where to put it!   thanks Maria

Derf - read your post with interest as i have the same problem. ages ago I reported the problemin this forum,  getting stuff through from wanado to ntl and in resposne to advice here i set up a hotmail account for the 'problem' people. Last week i got the same message as you from my hotmail account toom three times - it first says delivery is delayed and then eventually failed. moreover i couldnt last week email TISCALI.net from wanadoo, so tried the hotmail route with that too adn the same thing happened - undeliverable as it 'couldnt connect to the server' (whatever that means). I am rather cross becuase i thought i had solved the problem and cannot imagine why my hotmail address now cant get throguh either - i dont have broadband, if that makes any difference.  soon i wont be able to email anyone if this continues. Maria

Quillan and JHC I will never be able to thank you enough for putting things into perspective and explaining everything so well. I may even sleep tonight. As I said before i am not trying to cheat or hide anything, and of coruse i have no problems on the sorts of amounts you suggest may be due. I am now making enquiries about getting an accountant to deal with all this - any recomendations gratefully received (Im in dept 32gers but gite is in 65 haute pyrenees) and have also an appointment at the Marie to discuss it all next week. thankyou so much everyone, but particularly you two, for understanding my situation and hopes and fears- Quillan, that must have taken ages to write out and i shall be forever grateful Maria  

Teamed up, are you saying that everyone pays tax on their income AND an additional 45% of their income in social charges? I understand that employers may well pay this for their staff but I am not an employer, i am merely renting out my house and doing the work myself- tryign to scratch a living. I shall certianly have to sell up if they want 45% of my €13,000 as well as the tax. i had envisiged paying tax on it and paying further 10% for CMU/healthcare cotisations. We cannot live on €6000 a year. Why cant i jsut pay tax on the money, make a contribution to the health system (at the same rate as everyone else, presumably dependednt on income). I neither want nor expect any other benefits from the system and am already paying voluntary contributions to the UK pension system. Maria (getting more worried by the minute)  

er TY, I DO receive the money in sterling (for my clients convenience, not mine), in the Uk, but as i am french resident, gloabl income must be declared here....its not the tax i have a problem with, its how to get into cpam and why i should pay 45% when everyone else pays 8%   Maria

Thanks again Mikejan (have answered in legal forum). Miki, thankyou again too, but i still dont understand (sorry) what they would consider 'the normal route' and why they should want me to pay cpam contributions at a rate of 45% and not 8%. I thought everybody paid at a rate of 8% after the allowance - have i got this wrong? i fill in a tax return too - why arent my contributions assesed off that? why does it matter to them HOW i earned the money as long as i pay tax and contributions on it at the same rate as everyone else? If i sell up and stick the money in the bank then i would have no income except the interest - so would i then  be expected to pay just the 8%? would i be accepted into the system then? I understand that CPAm etc are trying to save money etc, and i am trying my best to live on a  shoestring too and i will go and talk to them again, but it was THEM who sent me to go and get the Siret number and started all this so i am scared of what they will say/do next and want to have an idea what my options are, if any. Thankyou for your patience and sorry if i am missing something vital Maria  

Thankyou Jan and TY for your help.... - it was the tax office who told me to put the income down under 'micro bic' on my tax form . I dont think theres a probelm with paying tax on it - i expect to and will. - if social charges are going to take 45% TY, then i shall not stay in business - i cannot live on €6000 pa. What i dont understand is why a 'normal' person would pay 8% to the CPAM and i would have to pay 45%?????? what is the rationale here? If i sell up and live off the capital and interest(looking more liekly by the minute the way this is going), how THEN would i get into CPAM? and what is the difference? i mean why does it matter HOW I earned the €13,0000. Why dont they just charge me contributions to cpam off the basis of my tax return and thus my income? I have filed a tax return each year since living here, albeit mostly with zero income. sorry to still be confused/panicking/packing for the UK Maria  

Yes Miki, that is exactly what  i was hoping, indeed expecting to do - pay 8% on my global income. it was the mention of paying thousands of euros that got me going. I will not go the CdC route unless forced as there is no way its worthwhile staying in business. gite is large (sleeps 11) and with pool etc and did well this year. Only other income is small amount of savings & interest - we think(hope) we can survive on the income (no mortgage). Are they likely to NOT let me pay 8% and what can i do if they refuse me? how do i get them to asses me under this basis? thankyou again for your continued help Maria

Thankyou so much Miki, pulse rate and blood pressure are returning to normal levels....if you know, to whom should i address the question 'am i obliged to register my gite in this department', or should i just asume not and hope for the best. we have just the one gite, dont employ anyone and have alwasy had every intention of paying tax on the income. however it IS our only source of income, so it seems to be a problem what to do about health cover - which is how this whole thing started when CPAM told me yesterday that i will not come under them when my cover expires at year end and I need to go to some other agency (she said somethign about independent workers) and they will want a Siret number. I have posted a query in the legal and health forums in the hope of enlightenment. you are currently the only ray of hope in my dark tunnel! Maria

Oh dear, i really hope soemone can help here! Spent  2 years  renovating house here and living on our savings (we had health cover with E106) This year we have finished the work and rented out our gite at last - and thus earned income (around €13 000) on which i assumed we would have to a) pay tax  and b) pay into medical fund and had understood rate for that was about 10% of taxable income. We can JUST about manage to live off that if careful. visited CPAM yesterday to ask what to do when curent cover expires on 31/dec and she started into this long explanation that seemed to be we are not going to come under them anymore but i need to go to some other office called 'independent workers' and get taken on by them - they will provide my health cover from then on.i need a Siret number to get taken on by the 'independent workers' lot. To get this i have to register as a business. Does this sound right to any of you? a morning spent reading old threads on this forum about registering as a business leads me to think that i will have to pay about €4000 a year to do this. Clearly this makes it un-doable and i would be better simply to close or sell up (shame, we had considered it to be succesful - we had good take up and everyoen seemed to like it). However, i had understood health contributions to be about 10% not 45%, so have i got it wrong? I receive the money i the UK, if that makes any difference. if i dont register, but pay tax on the income of course, do i just drop out of the health system? if i sell up and put the money in the bank, thus just living off the interest and capital, do i come under CPAm then? do i have to register as anything then? grateful for any light anyone can shed on what appears to be a can of worms Ive opened that is threatening to shatter my dreams of running a succesful but small enterprise renting out my house for about 10 weeks a year.There must be an alternative to registering as a business for someone this size as i dont expect earnings to increase much as years pass either. Maria

for the first 2 years here, renovating house and living on our savings we had health cover with E106. it ran out last Dec and a visit to CPAM had us fill in forms with details of our (then nonexistant) income. They gave us a years cover including the top up bit. This year we have finished the work and rented out our gite at last - and thus earned income (around €13 000) which i assumed we would have to a) pay tax on and b) pay into medical fund and had understood rate was about 10% of taxable income. We can JUST about manage to live off that if careful. visited CPAM yesterday to ask what to do when curent cover expires on 31/dec and she started into this long explanation that seemed to be we are not going to come under them anymore but i need to go to some other office called 'independent workers' and get taken on by them - they will provide my health cover from then on.i need a Siret number to get taken on by the 'independent workers' lot. To get this i have to register as a business. Does this sound right to any of you? a morning spent reading old threads on this forum about registering as a business leads me to think that i will have to pay about €4000 a year to do this. Clearly this makes it un-doable and i would be better simply to close. However, i had understood health contributions to be about 10% not 45%, so ahev i got it wrong? I receive the money i the UK, if that makes any difference. if i dont register, but pay tax on the income of course, do i just drop out of the health system? or do i go to docs as normal but pay myself and am not reimbursed or what. grateful for any light anyone can shed on what appears to be a can of worms Ive opened that is threatening to shatter my dreams of running a succesful but small enterprise renting out my house for about 10 weeks a year.There must be an alternative to registering as a business for someone this size as i dont expect earnings to increase much as years pass either. Maria

To register your gite business as a Micro Bic (presume this is done at the tax office) do you first need a Siret No? Is it obligatory to register as a business (and pay cotisations) before registering as a Micro Bic for tax? The cotisations would make renting the house out unstustainable anwyay it seems. have spent the day reading old threads on this and am going round in circles trying to find out what I must do and when.   Maria

Thankyou all so much for your help. I feel much less alone with the problem now. - actually i checked and we do have a  clause that would protect us i suppose, about not being liable for things beyond our control and also about not being liable for things caused by adverse weather conditions. also i checked on that site you said and we are dept 65 which according to that as yet has not got a restriction on topping up the pool, at least for the time being. nothing at the Mairie either. shall hope for the best. I replied to the enquirers that there are currently no problems but that the situation could change and although i will do my best,the matter is out of my hands. thankyou again Maria

I am getting increasingly panicky over this - this is our first year renting our house out and I would really appreciate some advice or a clue as to what the rest of you do. i am getting several emails from booked clients asking if there are water restrictions meaning i cant top the pool up. this weeks clients managed to splash so much water out of the pool that the level is down to the bottom of the skimmer and the filtration will cease to work if it gets any worse. am also worried it will break the pump by sucking air into it instead of water. How do I know if there are restrictions? (am loath to go to mairie and ask incase they say yes there are and are thus aware of me) and if i am not allowed to top it up, am i supposed to close it/let it go green or what? am i supposed to just go out of business? I mean these people have paid top prices for a place with a private pool that they will not be able to use unless i can top it up. do people generally expect/offer a refund? if so how much and do i have to bear the cost of this myself? or do i just shut up and do it or what? any insight or suggestions would be gratefully received - we keep the pool covered when not in use to limit evaporation . thankyou maria  

Thanks Mary, that is some comfort, if it is indeed ntl's end. I have indeed scanned for viruses and found nothing. can i ask are you also with wanadoo? i assume yes from your comment about cut offs, and do you use outlook? (i am wondering if there is some problem with the way wanadoo or outlook identifies itself to the ntl server, becasue my ntl friends are getting all their other emails apparently) thankyou Maria

I really hope someone here can help. I am with wanadoo, using windows 98 and outlook 2000. I have had this set up unproblematically for at least a year. When i try to email anybody at ntlworld.com the email looks as if it goes but actually bounces back a week later as undeliverable. i have had this with three different addresses (all ntl) and I have contacted two of them by phone and they are experiencing no other problems with their emails from other people (but neither knows anyone else with wanadoo). At least recently i am getting the 'bounceback' message - i have checked into my past few months correspondence and on at least two occasions the email hasnt been delivered and neither have i had a bounceback message (very dangerous, i am in the gite business and this has cost me at least one booking where people think i havent replied) . I am kicking myself for not spotting the ntl link sooner when people look like theyve dropped off the planet.   my wanadoo service is getting worse and worse with many more slow, failed and broken connections. connecting took about an hour tonight yet other people on here and elsewhere report no problems connecting. This leads me to wonder where the problem could be - a call to the wanadoo help desk was a waste of time (check your settings and other textbook answers) and i don't know whether the problem is with them or with my system and i dont have any idea how i can check or where to start looking. sorry to go on, does anyone else have any of this happening or any idea what could be the cause?. I am struggling to survive and can little afford to lose these bookings. often if people send me an email they dont give any other address and if i cant email them then i cant reply at all. grateful for any suggestions Maria

Hello, we have suddenly lost a load of channels! we subscribe to sky and usually get all the bbc and itv channels too. last night suddenly we lost Beeb2,3,4, news24 and Itv1 and channel 5. On all these it displayed a message 'no satelite signal beign received' .Bizarrely we still get BBC1, ITV2 and channel 4 and all teh sky channels we usually get. Has anybody any idea what has happened or where to start?I have checked signal strength and quality are ok and the dish looks normal to my untrained eye. Has this happeend to anyone else? thanks Maria

well Chris, you say you now have accurate and correct insurance, so could you tell me how you have covered the risk of guests setting fire to your house and not having insurance themselves to cover them for this?   thanks Maria

Well I am relived to learn it is not just me, or a difficult insurance agent – thankyou for your responses.   As a first step I too shall be changing my terms and conditions to say that clients must have insurance including third party liability, but I still think we need to sort the legal side of this out because in the event of the worst happening, the fact that I have said they must have insurance and even the fact that they have signed those conditions will not help if at the end of the day, they just haven’t taken it or aren’t covered.   Legally it is bound to help that they signed such a contract but as to whether the money could actually be recovered from them – well, only if they have the money to start with I suppose. I mean its not watertight is it? the point of insurance is peace of mind (I thought)   None of this makes me feel very comfortable, but I am not sure there is anything to be done. I wish I could insure, even at a premium, against guests doing something ridiculous. It sounds as if I cannot. Maria

Having read the archives I am convinced that i need to buy the good quality sunloungers mentioned (stacking, few moving parts types)and to avoid the one in leclerc and the like, on promotion. This seems good advice and it seems stupid to continue to put money into the pockets of companies selling shoddy products. However, i need to buy 10 by the end of March and i have exhausted all my normal shops (Mr Bricolage, Castorama,Leroy Merlin etc) and cannot find anyone selling the good quality sort described above. Does anybody have any suggestions as to where i might find them (dept 32/65/64) or mail order places even.... I am getting desparate. thankyou in advance Maria  

Thanks Carole and Philip - sorry, I should have explained that I HAD read your post carefully and indeed suggested this as a solution to AGF but they say this does not solve the problem - they say this clause is to cover you against damage from clients, for sure, and is already in the contract infact as i had said it was a gite when i asked for the quote, but the problem is if there is a serious incident - the example she gave was a death (yikes) or a fire, the police would be involved and if they decide it was the guests fault (as opposed to negligence on my part) then our own insurance would not pay out and we would have to claim from the guests insurance. (hence the need to have an attestation from them that they have such insurance) Clearly this is a serious matter and i find it incredible that you and I seem to be the only people aware of it/bothered. Like all insurances, I am sure AGF would do anything they could not to pay out, but it is precisely in the event of a major incident like a fire that one would need to be reimbursed from somewhere.  I do not know where to go from here - there must be other gite owners on here - what do any of the rest of you do about this? sorry if i gave the impression i hadnt read your answer properly Maria