Mazan
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Posts posted by Mazan
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French systems in good working order are normally self-priming so you shouldn't have to do anything. You may need to push the reset button on the burner once or twice if it cuts out waiting for the oil to arrrive.
Whatever you do don't try and start the boiler until at least 4 hours after the tank has been refilled as this will give time for the muck to settle. -
The injection technique certainly is available in France though for some odd reason that I don't understand builders never seem to do it. It's left to specialised companies that you will find if you look for humidit in the Yellow Pages or your local free ads paper or here http://search.ke.voila.fr/S/voila?kw=humidite
These companies aren't cheap. As you are very close to the UK you may prefer to hire the pump and buy the product in the UK, bring the lot over and DIY it, or have a French builder do it for you. This will probably save you 50% or more.
Your damp is probably rising damp by the way. Once the walls are treated you will still need to strip off all the plaster and re-plaster them with a special additive in the mix.
There are several threads about this problem in the archives, including one that refers to a technique that involves using an electronic device. -
I thought that I had made this clear in earlier posts.
If there was any legal way of avoiding paying these (or any) taxes the French would have discovered them long ago and would use them en-masse, and the government would have plugged the loophole within months. -
There are a lot of questions here and no single answer.
He could get his mortgage in the currency that he has the least faith in as if that currency increases in value then he will end up paying relatively more if his income is in another currency. If that currency drops in value then he will be paying back less, of course.
For security he should only get a mortgage in the currency that his income is in as then he will have few repayment surprises, if any. Watch out for negative equity though.
UK banks are much more sophisticated and flexible when it comes to financial services. French banks are still very much in the dark ages. -
All French utility bills and local taxes can be paid by direct debit (prelevement automatique). Anyone with property in France should get this organised as quickly as possible for all these bills as it has only advantages. Don't wait for the bills to arrive as by then it is too late.
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Several of the UK banks do offshore Euro denominated accounts with a Euro Visa debit card that will be accepted everywhere in France and on which there are no charges for purchases. There may be a small charge for cash withdrawals though.
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Dentist's charges, like a GP's, are paid in full at the time and reclaimed later if you have cover. The standard repayment of 70% applies for charges that fit the Social Security scale, just like with a GP. If you have work done by a dentist who exceeds the set scale then the difference will not be repaid. Most simple work (fillings etc.) is charged at the regular scale but more complex work (plates) will not be. A standard check up and de-scaling costs under 20 here and 70% is paid back by the state.
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There are several things to know about these two local taxes, Fonciere and Habitation.
All houses get them. The Fonciere is paid by the owner and the Habitation is paid by the inhabitant. You may be both.
They are both calculated on the supposed rental value of your property. This value is totally artificial and bears no relation to reality at all. You will pay more or less depending on what has been declared about your house by previous owners (size, number of bathrooms, garage, pool etc.). Some people in one village may pay 100 per year and people with a similar house in another village (or the same village for that matter) may pay 10 times that amount, or more. Don't look for any logic because there isn't any. Popular areas tend to have higher taxes.
Some deductions may be made for dependant relatives, low income etc.
The two bills come separately, around September and October.
Even if you wish to contest the payment the law requires you to pay first and argue later. If you don't pay on time you may be billed extra and this amount increases every month.
It is your responsibility to pay these taxes every year even if you haven't received a demand. Non-payment for whatever reason may incur an extra charge.
To ensure payment on time set up direct debit payments (prelevement automatique) from your French bank account. This is free and totally reliable. Forms are often included with the tax demand and payment is made on the last valid day.
If you don't want to use direct debit then be sure to take your cheque to the Tresor Public in person. Do not rely on the post.
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>What disappoints me
>is that Egg is also
>copying the French way of
>doing things re charges ie
>they are making an annual
>charge for debit cards.
Most of the Egg services are free though they are with several other French banks also. Egg's charges for "extra" services are steep: incoming transfers from overseas are one example.
With the fee for debit cards they fall foul of the usual absurd French protectionism that a) regulates the minimum fees that can be charged for many services and b) pays heed to the other absurd French concept of "concurrence deloyale" - disloyal competition - which makes it a virtual crime to charge sigificantly less for something than your direct competitors do.
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> I opened my post
>office account locally and the
>records are still written on
>a little card kept in
>a box ! Needless
>to say I keep all
>my receipts!
It may look as though the records are kept on a card. In fact these are just your details that are kept as a copy in the branches to which the account is attached. The accounts themselves are handled by computers at the regional financial centre.
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>they have insisted that we
>have a deposit account in
>which we must put 300
>euros as a guarantee and
>then found out that we
>have a separate current account,why
>I wonder ?.
Presumably in case you decide to write rubber cheques and skip off back to the UK.
>They charge
>us 5.01 euros a month
>for this pack ' equipage'
>- is this normal practice
>or should we challenge it
It is "normal" in that most banks now try and get you to take out these extra pay services, even to the point of not telling you that they are always optional. It is not "normal" in that if you don't want it then you needn't have it. Just complain. -
>We buy a property in
>France for 70000 pounds. We
>change our minds and want
>to come back to the
>UK. Can we sell the
>property in France releasing our
>lets say 70000 equity, without
>having to pay gains tax?
You only ever pay GCT on the increase in value after deducting purchase costs and other expenses. -
I always knew that the CA were bad but this takes the biscuit.
The CA have long made a charge of about 15 for receiving incoming transfers from abroad, even though this doesn't actually cost them anything to do. I have just seen a document for a very recent transfer in Euros from the UK that includes not only a fee of 15 for an incoming transfer but also a deduction of 0.5% for "exchange". This is for a transfer received in Euros and credited to a Euro account. This is clearly nothing less than theft.
So, if you are unfortunate enough to use the CA then watch out! If you haven't got a French bank yet then be sure to avoid the CA. -
> To our surprise,
>our Nationwide B.S. Visa DEBIT
>card gave us 1.585, and
>was far and away the
>best,
AFAIK the Nationwide, along with just one or two other card providers, adds no weighting to the rate applied by Visa. Other banks add between 1 and 2.75%, on top of any cash withdrawal charge. -
You can try installing an outdoor antenna but I doubt that you will have any success. A digibox and dish is the real answer. You will never regret it.
And the cost of either is not high enough to warrant inclusion in the finance forum.
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>"Well you SHOULDN'T have, you'll have
>to go into a branch
>and put it in writing"
>
>
>Now where is the logic in
>that?
I am not surprised. My bank requires a signed mandate (which I won't give them) to allow any transfers to be made by phone. And even if they have the mandate they won't make transfers to any account that isn't in the sole name of the sender unless they have prior written confirmation. Surely the reason for this is obvious? Anybody with your bank details could ring them and transfer the entire contents of your account and you would be none the wiser until you got your statement.
I wouldn't use a bank that allowed transfers to be made willy-nilly on phone instructions. -
I would not have attempted to get LaPoste to open a cheque account with a UK address.
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>"RBT Pret..."
"RemBoursemenT Pret" (pay back).
> and it seems to
>come with a "Cotisation ADI..."
Only a guess but "Assurance Deces Invalidite" (death and illness insurance) seems likely.
French banks adore these expensive little extras.
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>Every time I try to post/reply
>to a LF message my
>Personal Firewall (Norton 2002) appears
>to block it.
Go into the advanced options of the firewall config. Find the individual line relating to livingfrance.com and check the boxes allowing cookies and the referer field. It will then work perfectly. -
>Do the French have a competitive
>market as far as the
>supply of 'swipe' machines are
>concerned, as we do in
>the UK?
France is a land of little competition at the best of times and the little that there is is usually heavily regulated. In banking there is virtually none as most banks offer the same services at similar cost. By all means shop around though. -
It appears on your taxe fonciere as "non-bati", undeveloped land.
It doesn't appear on the taxe d'hab, of course.
We have a little over one hectare and this costs 33, compared to 960 for the house.
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>Our French neighbour confused me
>when we were over there
>as he said now only
>artisan's bills are taken into
>account, not work you have
>done yourself but he was
>relating this to his taxe
>d'habitation, fonciere, not to tax
>due when selling.
There are no deductions to the taxe d'hab or fonciere for work carried out on the property. These deductions are on CGT and income tax, the latter being only for major work and work tending to save energy and only applies to work carried out by a professional. For CGT DIY is OK.
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Aren't these optional unemployment and/or debt insurance packages or equally optional combined revolving credit and internet banking packages that have been thrust upon you by your bank? French banks are good at giving you these when you don't want them.
Cheap Phone Calls: UK to France
in French Satellite TV, French Internet and Telephone
Posted
>UK BT line 24 hours
>a day Monday to Friday
>for *** a penny a
>minute ***.
This is not the deal it appears to be for the reasons given by Baz.
>And for cheap calls from France
>to the UK go to
>www.onetel.fr I use it
>all the time but you
>have to have a credit
>card registered with them.
Onetel France is not the cheapest or best phone service for calling the UK, especially for very short calls. There are several better services that charge no connection fee and where you only pay a standard rate per second.
I have given the two phone service comparison website URLs several times in this forum and I will do so again now in another post.