rozi

Many thanks for all your replies. Will try the mobile to landline again when we next visit.

Hi. Went to visit friend near Veneray-les-laume, could not get through to her home phone from my 'english registered mobile'.Used all sorts of digit combo's including 0033 and nine digits of her number, then dropped the 3 followed by the eight other digits. Where did i go wrong? (confused, me too)!!!! ALSO anyone know where we can hire a trailer/buy near NICEY, Cote d'or. Long building project.Anyone know approx costs of hire v purchase.? Again, what a life line this site is, thankyou x million.  

Thankyou for your responses. We have now received a more detailed outline of thier objections and were right about the velux windows. They have made suggestions and we are willing to comply with them. Many thanks.

HELP. we bought our home in Dept 21 (NICEY) within 100m of the 'historic status' church but were assured by the agent and Marie that we would be ok with the permis de construire. The Marie were very happy with our application as were the neighbours...but the offices at Chatillion have turned us down. The building consists of a small house(1bed) and small attatched barn. The house was occupied 3years ago and we pay both sets of taxes. We applied to convert the barn re-jig the house to make a 3 bed house but it has been refused. The Marie wrote on our behalf objecting to the refusal as planning had been given for barns with asbestos roofs within the 100m limit. We did have 5 velux windows in the roof in our plans, is this the mistake we made as they only give the ruling of 100m as the refusal. Surely as we pay tax on the house part we can do this up and use it. We have been staying in another house owned by a family member and love France, this was our opportunity to have a small place of our own. We would welcome ANY advise.

Thankyou for the advice. We did use the translator as suggested, very helpful. Also found on Google language translator, a comrehensive breakdown of what we need to do already in English. What a great system this is, we are using this site a lot since buying our house.

Charges. We opened an account with Credit Agricole, deposited 500 euros in Feb 2005 and were amazed to recieve statement with a debit for 16,74 euros as we have not used our card or written any cheques at all. This amount seems very steep for a quarterly charge. Is this right?

we have bought our lovely delapidated home in a village in Cote d'or and are converting/rearranging it. Half of it had been occupied until 3yrs ago but needs a complete overhaul. We were surprised that we have been asked to apply for a permis de construire seeing as half of it had neen inhabited. Is it possible to obtain an English translation of such applications as our French dates back to school days? Many thanks.

Sorry, I should have made it clear, we are renovating, there is nothing in the way of heating at all, no chimney, radiators, fireplace. Has been empty 20+ years, ancient pre-war wiring now cut off from any supply ect. NO toilet or bathroom either but we were assured that an elderly lady lived there for many years till she went to the retirement home!Rozi

Just bought small house in Burgundy, can anyone tell me the most ecomomic heating system available. Is it mains gas, wood stove, bottled gas, electricity. Using house earliest April, latest October. Also how do I track down local Marie email address, have tried various things on net. Many thanks Rozi.