Vivijones

I know a lot of people don't bother, I even know of one French estate agent who drove around in a English registered car for many years. I was just wondering if it was possible to do it properly! Tom( Still using Vivi's ID as nobody's sent me a new password!)

Hi We are moving to Brittany in the near future and one of our vehicles is an ancient Range Rover which has had the original V8 engine replaced by a Mazda three litre turbo diesel engine . I’m guessing this will be virtually impossible to re-register in France . Anybody any similar experiences ? We are a bit loath the get rid of it as it’s such a good towing vehicle and worth virtually nothing. Tom (using the wrong id!)

There's one in the Concevoir et Construire Series by Michel Matana, it's no 6 Electricite. You can get the from some supermarkets, Diy shops or Amazon.fr. I think there about 10 euro. Tom ( using Vivi's ID cos they haven't sent him a new password yet!)

If we buy a business ( a SARL) that owns property i.e. the premises it works from, what percentage notaries fees are payable and does it take a minimum of two months to go through as if we had bought the property directly ? Any other pitfalls anybody knows about in buying an existing French business? Vivi

I think we are never going to succead in buying a house in France. Having been told last week we were going to sign the acte in a couple of weeks and to make sure the money was in france to pay for the house, got an email from the ( French) agent on Saterday saying there was further delay and asking if we wanted to continue! On checking up why we eventuly found out the vendor had droped dead unexpextedly and we now had to deal with five of his relatives. Now assuming all these still want to sell does anybody know if we are now back to square one and we are going to have to start new sale or can we continue on with sale as before? Vivi

Hi Weve just had a message from our agent (who appears to be working on Good Friday!) that they received notice from the notaires the acte de vende on our property, due in a couple of weeks, has been cancelled as they have discovered that various members of the vendors family also have an interest in the property. Now nether the agent or us are sure at the moment whether this means cancelled permanently or it is just a case of getting more signatures. Two questions spring to mind, firstly why has it taken till now to find this out, Its almost six months since we signed the compromis and three months after the acte was due to be signed (been waiting for the CDU) Surely the notaries should have checked this point before now? Secondly if the sale falls through now, do we get double the deposit as if the vendor had pulled out or is the compromis null and void as the seller was selling something they did not own? Im beginning to think we are fated; this is the third French property which has gone pear shaped on us, maybe its just our knack of picking them! Vivi

Hi there Im looking for some advice as to whether the bureaucracy and cotisations make it worthwhile running a small business in France that may not produce much in the way of profits. Let me explain our situation and what I am thinking of doing. My partner used to be a well paid, high flying freelance computer consultant but about four years ago became seriously ill and is unlikely ever to return to full time work. Luckily we have some savings and investments, which give us a small income of about 8000 a year. Now in the UK over half this goes to pay the mortgage and because we have savings we do not get any benefits so we are dipping into our savings to survive. But we do have sufficient equity in our house to buy and restore a house in a smallish Brittany village so this is what we are in the process of doing. Now Im an artist and sell a few painting and sculptures, but not enough to make a living from at present. The house we are buying has an outbuilding of about 180 sq meters, which we are planning to make my studio. I was thinking about making it into a gallery and trying to sell either my own or other peoples work. The village we are in is not on the main tourist trail but does get some passing through in summer, so we are unlikely to make a fortune, but would it be worth the effort involved? My partner, who has lived in France before, thinks not, he thinks we would be better trying to live cheaply off the income from our savings, maybe supplementing with a bit of cash computer work and selling the occasional painting. What are other peoples opinions? Vivi