BJSLIV

I think one just has to sit tight and see what transpires... In which case I guess that you have a Fosse Sceptique.....

Patf Quite right. The point is that a law has been passed which brings in a periodic, and chargeable inspection. If the Fosse fails its inspection then it clearly isn't working correctly (aux normes) and an improvement notice can be served. End of arguement.

Just found this in the Code de La Route Vous devez vous arrêter au niveau du panneau (ou de la ligne blanche), puis marquer un temps d'arrêt (quelques secondes) puis céder le passage aux éventuels véhicules vous barrant la route, puis, une fois les contrôles effectués (gauche, droite, en face, ...), repartir  (My emphasis on the duration of the Stop)

I think the problem that UK drivers have with French Stop signs is that you really have to stop, pause and then move off, assuming there is nothing coming! Its almost the technique you were taught for the Driving Test. There is a tendancy in the UK to do a "virtual stop", particularly on junctions with which one is familiar. If the Gendarmes are about its not enough.

Teamed Up Perhaps you and I should form the D. O. club, highly exclusive just us two. PS We never heard what happened to the people a few weeks ago who were trying to sell up without the DO cover .....

Its another one of those little charges that gradually accumulate. Fortunately its not too onerous,  less than 2% of the value borrowed. For example €1700 on a loan of €100000,€3000 on a loan of €200000. An Online calculator. http://www.anil.org/guide/calculs/hypotheque/emprunt.htm   An explanation of whats its all about. http://vosdroits.service-public.fr/particuliers/F786.html      

Yes once your French house became your main residence it would escape the tax on gains. Prior to last year if you moved into a house that you already owned you had to wait 5 years for it to qualify as residence principale. I'm not quite sure how or if you can  prove that it's a residence principale in the period until you  complete a tax return, ie the year after you actually move in.....

What if we sell the holiday property and pay the 16% CGT in France and then use the money left over to buy another French property? It would still represent a gain which should be reported on your UK tax return, and which  could be notified by the French authorities to their counterparts in the UK. We never reported our purchase in France to the Inland Revenue, but we received a detailed questionnaire asking for details of any rental income received.

As far as CGT in the UK is concerned it can get quite painful for a 40% taxpayer, once the initial £8000 allowance is used up. Fingers crossed that the property is in joint names. At least then  you would get two lots of allowances.

Don't forget that though you can reduce your gain by the cost of any work carried out by French artisans, find those invoices quickly!, you no longer get any credit for work you have done yourself, or using non-French registered traders.

One mustn't forget the British obsession with low taxes and cutting subsidies. Virtually all major ferry routes anywhere  in the world receive some sort of subsidy. The cross channel ferries get none.  I would bet that we also apply more stringent safety regs. Both of these will tend to push up prices. Its no surprise to find that most of the tubs withdrawn from The Channel go on to a lengthy afterlife in the Far East or the Greek Islands. The much unlamented Lion from the old P&O Southampton - Le Havre route was in service until a couple of years ago!

A visit to the Mairie is what you need. Ask what the zoning of your land is, and that will tell you your chance of being able to build. If its far from the village it is probably not zoned for construction, hence unless you have a sound agricultural reason for building you are unlikely to succeeed.

"Surely to give as much support as possible toward a better education is in the countries own interests?" But as far as the provision of additional language resources are concerned, the French have other more pressing demands, such as the integration of people from their own ex-colonies. These will surely  rank ahead of "hobby migrants" where experience shows many are  back in the UK within 5 years. I know its an extreme example, but where was the benefit to the community from educating our celebrity TV Chef's kids for a year while he was recharging his batteries/ writing a book / making a TV prog.

Should we expect them, teachers, school, or communes, to make any allowance? Why should they provide additional resources to bring our children up to speed? We choose to make the move to France, nobody forces us to do it. We choose to put them into a local school which may well be strapped for cash already, and any money spent on "Foreigners" is diverting resources away from the kids who are already there. Isn't it our responsibility to make sure that we budget for our kids education in the same way that we allocate money for the roof, the pool or the fosse septique? Otherwise move when they are little, or you must just hope that they swim rather than sink.  

There are others who can tell you more about the discounts that come for the taxe d'habitation which largely depend on the number of people who live there. The base tax however is related to a notional rental value, a bit like the old rateable value in the UK. It is driven by the size and "quality" of the property. So things like additional bathrooms, toilets, central heating, and general newness can tend to push up the taxes disproportionately. I don't think the Fisc puts a value on rustic tumbledown charm which always seem to get off relatively lightly. It will be interesting to hear how your extension is handled, because the added rental value from additional new bit, even if its a large new bit, is possibly harder to calculate than a similar job which was entirely self-contained.  

  The taxes are based on the floor area created, multiplied by a set amount per metre, which is then multiplied by a percentage set locally of typically 2-5%. If your local percentage is similar to most I guess you are creating something like 150sq metres of accommodation, which will eventually bring with it a sizeable increase in Fonciere and Habitation. In the overall scheme of things the taxes are not that significant / whopping, its just that they tend to come as a bit of a surprise, like the "compulsory" Assurance Domage Ouvrage.

I seem to remeber some publicity last year saying that they had changed the sytem. Instead of doing evryone once every ten years they were going to do a percentage every year.

Sounds like you may need to increase the size of the drainage field. Its surprising that it wasn't picked up in the porosity tests.

Sounds like you may need to increase the size of the drainage field. Its surprising that it wasn't picked up in the porosity tests.

If you need to pump out the soakaway, there is something wrong. Either its not big enough, perhaps it was sized for one 3000 litre fosse but not extended when the others were added. It might be that its not the right type for the soil conditions, perhaps the fosse was not emptied in time sod the drains have become  blocked.iThere is nothing wrong with putting rainwater into the ditch, in fact it should never go anywhere near the fosse, but draining the fosse output into the ditch, or a neighbours land is a no no. Is your village up to date with its inspections?. In due course you will be served with a list of things that need to be done to put things right. Perhaps you could hang on until then, or if you can't waiy you will need to get the experts in yourself.

To be fair (fare?) they did say from Day One, that they would be introducing a new scheme, its just that we are all so cynical about so called improvements, that we all expected the worst.  

For this to work you would need the RIB of the person you are paying, and these details could be used to set up a monthly transfer from your English account using SWIFT . BUT, BIG BUT depending on which Bank you are with you will probably have to pay anything from £8 -£20 per transfer, with a grotty exchange rate, and on top of that you may have to pay your landlords bank charges for receiving the money. I think your current way of doing it is the best , at least you can get any more money transferred that you need on the back of the rent, otherwise that would be yet another transfer to pay for.

Its just continues the habits of Victorian explorers who would give a few cheap baubles to the locals when  they were  colonising the savages.

For a basic line, FT charge 13 euros per month plus a one-off connection charge of 46 euros.

As I  mentioned earlier the Tele2 56k offer at 10 euros a month suits me very well. For the price of 10 hours PAYG you get 35 hours, with nothing to pay in the months when its not used at all. Has anyone other than mysellg ever used them?