Nickndrachael

[quote user="Sunday Driver"] Given that interest rates on savings are so much better in the UK, you'd be best off leaving your money there.  You'd still need to declare the UK interest earned for French tax purposes.   [/quote] That does of course depend to some extent on what you think is going to happen to the exchange rate in the near future.

Just to go back to the agents commission discussion... We have just put our house on the market and agreed with one agent that it would be "semi exclusive" in which case they agreed to receive 50% less commission.  As it is a relatively expensive house this would represent a saving to the buyer of many, many pennies and will therefore hopefully make it easier to sell - which is why we did it. However, as we are also using a different agent with different commission rates it means that the property is advertised (inclusive of agents fees) in two different places at two different prices, which is just a bit confusing.    

How does this 16.4% deemed VAT work?  I'm about to sell my 2 year old house and I wasn't expecting any more bills...

Can anyone advise if it is it worth advertising a property for sale on the private sale stand of The French Property Exhibition?  I've never been so I don't know how many people visit the stand, what type of properties those attending are looking for etc.  

Or, you can rent a parking space in Geneva (should cost anywhere between CHF 150 - CHF 300 per month) - you're kind of tied into it but if it is something you are doing every week it could be a lot cheaper.

The other possibility is to take a bus from Samoens to the airport / railway station in Geneva.  Depending on how long you are leaving your car at Geneva airport it should be cheaper (but less convenient of course).

We feed our dog raw food which we get from a local(ish) butcher.  The butchers in our tourist village were very sniffy about being asked whether they would supply RMBs for a dog (almost as if why would they stoop to such a level) but a butcher in the non-tourist local town has been really helpful.  We used to get mostly chicken necks with a side supply of "sternum de veau".  We've stopped the chicken neck order for the time being and are now getting 50:50 sternum and lamb breast. Ask around would be my advice.

Just one of the many cultural differences you have to get used to![:)]

Does anyone know what legal or other costs are applicable when remortgaging? I have a variable rate mortgage, with no penalties for early redemption.  I'd expect to pay an arrangement fee to a new lender, but are there any significant legal costs for re-registering the mortgage etc?  

Sorry if this has been answered previously, but I've been through the pages and can't see it clearly. If turnover is below the threshold (i've seen 15% of 27k mentioned) does that mean that you don't have to register with URSSAF/Chamber of Commerce and you just fill in your tax return at the end of the year?

The OH spoke to the local tax office and apparently we are in one of the rare communes which doesn't apply the exemption.  Fantastic.

Having purchased a new build house last year, we were under the impression that we would be exempt from tax fonciere for 2 years. Having now received a large tax fonciere bill that we weren't expecting can anyone clarify what the rules are?  It appears that we have been exempted from the district and regional part of the tax fonciere bill but not the communal part.

The reason that the breeder wants the pups to go at 8-9 weeks is because for her this is an important time for bonding with the dog - I think she is worried that if the dog isn't picked up until it is 4 months old then it will have past the best "getting to know us" period.  I know there are different arguments for letting them go at different ages but this is what the breeder wants. The annoying thing is that the rules are very inconsistent.  It is possible for a pup to cross the border with the mother before 12 weeks without the jabs, but it is not allowed to stay without the mother. Where is the sense in that?! Apparently dogs cross all the borders (Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland) all the time without paperwork, but clearly it is not the "right" thing to do.

My wife and I were in the process of buying a (rare) puppy from a Swiss breeder.  We had done our research on the various websites about the procedure for importing into France, - the puppy had to be at least 3 months old and have received the second lot of vaccinations.  We confirmed this with the vet at the douane to confirm just a week or two ago and he said that we didn't need to stop at the border but if we were stopped then we would just need to show the paperwork that proved the age and that the vaccinations had happened. Now that the puppies are born we have discussed this with the breeder.  Apparently, and this has just been confirmed with the ministry in Paris, the law has changed recently so now the puppies have to have received the rabies jab AND WAIT ANOTHER 30 DAYS before they can be brought in - something to do with recent rabies problems from Morocco. 16 weeks is too late for us and the breeder. Ignoring the ethics issues for now, what would happen if we brought the dog in at 3 months.  We would want a pet passport, and would want it to have all the correct jabs, so we will obviously need to visit a vet.  Would the vet report us?  Would he perform the chipping for us? We're trying to come up with ideas at the moment as this seems ridiculous (Switzerland is a rabies free country) and had our hearts set.  

"Her indoors" is a British qualified PGCE (French and German) and has a TEFL from a good college but she cannot teach in a French state school with these qualifications.  She is currently working for a private school in Geneva (where most of the English teachers have only TEFL as a qualification). As far as I am aware there are no requirements to have any qualification to teach in a private institution (it depends on what they want).

This is actually a very complex area that even large companies struggle with.  It kind of depends on what your long term aims and ambitions are.  The problem with having a sterling mortgage and a euro denominated property is if you ever need to sell the property you could end up with a large exchange loss (or gain).  By having a euro mortgage you are matching the asset (the value of the house) with the liability (the mortgage). The ideal strategy depends upon how much of the property is secured against a loan and how sensitive the ability to make repayments are to exchange movements. What some people do is to have a 50:50 mortgage whereby half the loan is denominated in euros and half in sterling.  That way you hedge your ability to continue making payments against the exchange gain or loss on the house.     

Can anyone tell me how the CMU is calculated?  I understand it is based on household income less a (small) threshold, and the rate is 13.5%, but is there a cap?  I'm moving from the Swiss private system and I think it is going to be expensive  

Is this available on-line at all?  The BBC website only allows UK listeners. Thanks Nick

There are a couple of "brokers" who it appears can source new cars cheaper than the local dealerships.  Elite-auto.fr is one example (but their website doesn't appear to be working this morning).  I considered the route of buying a nearly new car from Germany (where some types of car are definitely cheaper) but considered that it wasn't worth all the hassle and time involved, so bought in France instead.

Quite a detailed question I'm afraid... This weekend, I am intending to drive to somewhere in Germany, buy a car from a garage, and then drive it back to France. Can anyone help me on any of the following: 1) will it come with German plates? 2) how long do I have to re-register in France? 3) what documentation will I get? 4) will I get insurance for it? Or am I just completely mad to think about it? Nick

Are there any building regulations regarding insulation for buildings made out of wood (i.e. chalets)? Do they need to have insulation layers, or is wood such a good insulator that they don't need it? (or should I not believe everything my builders tell me...?)

Have you tried using a broker? I've been researching a new car in France, and have found the websites autoies.com and elite-auto.fr useful. I think kelkoo.fr also has links to other brokers if you type in what you are looking for. I can't vouch for the service or reliability of these companies as I haven't got round to using them yet. So far, Elite-auto aren't exactly biting my hand off in my requests for information. They do seem to offer discounts of between 10-20% off the list price, though. If nothing else you could use this as a bargaining point at your local dealer (you can print off a devis).

There have been a couple of postings advising that there are people who arrange for "nearly new" cars to be imported from Germany or Belgium into France. As far as I have seen, nobody has posted the details of any of these companies. I've tried searching Yahoo for information without success, so I'd be really grateful (and I think it would be useful for others) if someone with experience would be able to post details here. Nick

I have a Franklin / LAROUSSE translator which I carry round with me and which I use for the occasional word. It has a good range of words, but doesn't seem to handle sentences very well - at least I can't make it work. I find it quite useful.

Does anyone have advice for how to listen to the current test series in the West Indies? (from Geneva)