painterman

Daer Sunday Driver, I've read what hubby has put!! Tea was lovely- its the little treats that make things better. I must finish the packing. There will be time to worry at the end of the week before we sign (If we actually can sign. We will have to see if our Notaire can sort out the last trouble spots.) OOOhhh, Bayonet the immobilier. Very drastic measure, but uhmmm...... hadn't thought of that...... It is quite a pity that they don't have the stocks in use. I must keep things chugging along. Thank you Sunday Driver. We will let you know the outcome when we return, if all this trouble has been worth it.  Uhmmm... bayonet the immobilier......very drastic, but with a dry sense of humour..... a very appealing thought![;-)]

Thank you to all who have taken the time to reply here. I'll check the pm's too in a few minutes. It is very important to have a balanced view from both sides of the 'argument'. It is no good damning the whole system of this or that. We posted this thread simply to warn others who could be in the same sort of mess that we're in. I at least get a break from the paperwork side when I go off to work, because The Mrs generally deals with all that. She sat and cried this morning. I think that she is totally fed up with the whole bag of lies. We had one more shock on Friday when she translated one of the documents we have just been sent.( I'm not writing any of this for sympathy because that would'nt get us anywhere anyway. The Mrs deserves a good hug of comfort when I get back from work tonight - and the tea is one me without a doubt.) As always she gets back up and cracks on with things- as you do. We've had a weekend of translating so I was quite surprised that so many people have replied. Our French is improving, but I would have preferred that to be achieved through the happier ways in life. Anyhow this is why we've not checked on the forum what was happening for a few days. Harley, Llwyncelyn, and Sunday Driver, your comments especially valid, ( as others are not to reduce anyone's contributions). So Thank you. The comment about FNAIM  not perhaps helping will knock the Mrs for six. Maybe one more shove too hard and it will be the newspapers here she comes... I hope not, but she is her own person and we always support each other. Legally, we perhaps could do with some legal help, but we'll have to give it a few more weeks and then we'll see about that route. I don't think we could go down that route though if The Mrs talks to the press..? I'll have a talk with her. She's always so sensible. We know one thing thou, the notaires that we have are good and have done their best to make good/better a bad situation. We hope that we are on the last bit of this slog with the immobilier though. I feel sure though that if/when we finally arrive in France, my wife will not be quiet about this because it has had such an impact on us. The Mrs is usually very restrained in such matters preferring to see things from both sides of the fence , so to speak. No guarantees on this one though- immobilier watch out. Contrary to her nature she will I'm sure speak up on this one. If we get sorted in the next few weeks, we'll let you know. Tonight we must finish the packing because we have to leave for France in the next couple of days, and it won't be the ferry that makes us feel sick, just the thought of what other nasty surprise might be waiting for us. Maybe I should have stuck out for emigrating to the States.... suppose there's problems there too. Sorry folks I'm fed up too and waffling. We'll let you know how we get on, but the offer still stands, that if anyone else is in the position that their deposit is at stake and the immobilier wants their fees even though they don't deserve them by now, pm us. There might be something that we have done to protect ourselves that some others could still employ in their methods to sort things out. Even so, we lost any rose tinted glasses that we may have had last autumn. Since then total reality has been the order of the day and no amount of following up what the immobilier is doing has helped. How can you trust someone when they don't send you the copy documents that you repeatedly ask for, and withhold information from the notaires? I need to get back to work, break over. I will let you know how we get on in a couple of weeks. Painterman.[:(]

Thank you Beryl, I agree. [:)]

Thanks Deimos, but there are a couple (to keep it short) of insidious discrepancies amongst the paperwork that we have that could point to the fact that perhaps this immo' has already done this sort of thing to someone else with this property. I have asked FNAIM to check out this particular point, but I won't write that bit on this forum because although proof of the paperwork is winging its way to France for them to see, I would hate to give the immo' the chance now to make that bit of info' suddenly disappear before FNAIM have had chance to check it completely. It would be nice to think of forgetting it all when , if (still) the house becomes ours, but we have neighbours to think of too who will wonder why our vendor is being put through a certain amount of financial hardship now, because pressurising us, by the immo' to sign before we had the DDE planning permission has not worked and we've insisted upon waiting until we have proper permission- after all if planning permission was not forthcoming we would not be buying the house.  So it is not a case of simply 'broken promises'. They can be resolved or worked through by good communication and a bit of care to one's fellow mankind. The point about artisans is interesting though. We shall see in time, but from a hard grafting family myself, artisan style work should not be too difficult to deal with even though I still have lots to learn in all sorts of areas, and I'm sure there are plenty of artisan people that do take a pride in a job properly done. Thanks though for your thoughts.

Thank you. I've just replied on the other thread, so won't take up too much of your time on here, but thank you for your advice. We do have the paperwork to prove that the immo' has lied, now so especially that the notaire has sent some other documentation to us. We've kept a diary, copies of letters and emails and phone conversation, dates etc, proof of posting, even the envelopes letters to us arrived in, the lot. ) ( Hoarder of paperwork now I'm afraid because of a very nasty past experience in life- I keep everything.) Thank you again. Painterman.

Thank you to those that have replied. I do appreciate your comments. The house is still not yet ours and we have been plugging away at it for months and months. What we are discovering is that some of the dates on the paper work are somewhat incorrect. Thankfully we have the proof of this, and I'm afraid the problem is down to the immobilier holding back all sorts of relevant paperwork that should have been dealt with at notaire level- but if the notaire that he appointed is not given the paperwork by the immo' then the notaire can't deal with it. Only because we started dealing in detail direct with the notaires has have all the problems come to light one after another. We sorted out more in one week of taking direct action than the immo' had in nine months or thereabouts ( I shan't pull the diary out to be so specific on here but everything is diarised). I know that you have to be very careful when making accusations about people lying- but not just for us but for other people, the risks of dealing with an immo' who is not being honest costs thousands of pounds. I'm not trying to be 'noble' about this, but we thought that we had done sufficient research before we embarked on the house hunt directly in France. We did ask the right questions, but the immo' we have since found out from various people, (including advice from the notaires to put right what the immo' has told us that was wrong), has been obstructive by not replying to us, verbally and in writing (more fool him an unscrupulous person may say), & ignoring letters we sent by registered post  asking for copies of documents that were supposedly in his possession but actually we have found that at those points they  were merely still thin air (none existant).   If my 'thread' can help anyone else stuck in our position, or stops someone from ending up in this position, then I'll try to help. Like others, I know that I can only do what I believe is right, but by going through to the notaires and now  FNAIM directly, I hope that, and I'm sure that, the notaires and FNAIM will be honest and professional in any advice or help they can give. The notaires certainly have. We wish we had contacted  FNAIM  sooner. We have been too patient. It is not yet a time to say 'Oh yes we'll make a compromise about the fees' because at this moment in time the immo' is totally unwilling to compromise. He wants the whole lot. As I've written before, if the purchase would have gone through at the proper time, give or take a few weeks, then paying the full fees would be no problem. Now it is a point of principle for the lack of work done by the immo' and the dishonesty that we have had to take. The Chambre de Metiers is next on my list of contacts, before the Press if I have to, but we may contact an avocat first.  No- one should have to do what we have had to do to safeguard their deposit monies paid when the immo' shows the yellow triangle as being a member of FNAIM, and we have confirmed that he is. Once again thanks for all your replies, and if anyoneis in the same position as us, please do 'pm' me and I will try to help as best as I can. Painterman & The Mrs.  

Dear All, id on't think that I should 'hog' this thread too and so will keep this brief. If you have lost you deposit through no fault of your own  in the last two or three years when trying to purchase a French property because the immobilier has either been incompetant and / or dishonest with you then please will you read http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/725864/ShowPost.aspx Thank you.

Dear All, id on't think that I should 'hog' this thread too and so will keep this brief. If you have lost you deposit through no fault of your own  in the last two or three years when trying to purchase a French property because the immobilier has either been incompetant and / or dishonest with you then please will you read http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/725864/ShowPost.aspx Thank you.

Warning!!! We have been trying to buy a house in France for a year now, we paid our deposit and signed the compromis de vente last August 2005. We were told by the immobilier that the purchase would be complete by December 2005. At this moment we are now nearly there at completion, BUT we nearly lost the house a few months ago because the immobilier tried to make the vendor put the house back on the market and hopefully the purchase will not fail at the last moment because of some unforseen (to us) reason because our intention has always been to complete on the property even though we have had some very sad and  very worrying days about it. We have put a complaint in to FNAIM. We hope that they will investigate thoroughly. We are also going to contact the Chambre de Metiers if this is the correct place with details of their Siret number. If you have lost your deposit because you have not been able to get either honest replies, or you have had no reply at all, AND you had/have already signed a contract and paid your deposit, then please will you contact me. This is probably going to be a lot of unpaid work for me but I am livid. The reason for this is that I spoke to the immobilier's manager a few days ago on the telephone. We had a short conversation and I tried to negotiate a reduction in the fee because of all the dishonesty and incompetance that we have had to deal with from the immobilier. The extra costs we have incurred run into thousands because of the delays. The immo' manager was not prepared to negotiate a fee reduction. The purchase price is 95,000.00 euros and the immobilier fees on top of this are 10,000.00 euros- pretty high for the immobilier doing so little and also lying about what he had done for us. (If the purchase had completed when it was supposed to we would not have 'quibbled' about the immo' fees but would have paid them promptly.) As we have not yet completed on the purchase, we have not yet had to pay the fees in the contract, which by the way, on the contract a false date had been put by the immo' because we were not even in the country of France at the time to have agreed this amount, but unfortunately for us we missed noticing this date when we signed the contract as we were busy trying to understand the words.  This French estate agent has connections to a well known usually more upper price bracket of property estate agents in the UK who as far as I know actually have a good reputation and they probably will not be too happy with the press information that may be about to be produced soon about the French immo'. The immobilier manager did not replace his telephone receiver properly after he had finished with me and it was quite a short ' I don't care about you type' of conversation , (no apology for the inconvenience of being made to wait a whole year, and it is only with the help our the notaire that we have managed this far) -and I heard the immobilier manager say in English to a female colleaugue "These English people do not have the confidence or the language to be able to do anything about it". Now there is no room here for sarcasm. This is costing us ten thousand euros for this disgraceful 'service' by the immobilier for the house purchase process. I know that I am not allowed to name and shame on this forum, and therefore I cannot put the immobilier name and office(s) here, but if you have lost your deposit through no fault of your own personal circumstances and if the problem has been entirely with the immobilier, then I would like to hear from you please by 'PM - private message' and maybe we could collectively take our problems forward to FNAIM (as the immo' we are using is registered with FNAIM and the yellow triangle that is supposed to stand for good ethics, honesty and professionalism) and the Chambre de Metiers. We are also looking to involve the Press in this when we have obtained contact details of them. I have retained copies of my letters and emails, with proof of posting by registered post and noted dates, and content etc of telephone conversations I have had to make with this purchase. So if you have proof also then it may be worthwhile to contact me because maybe together we can stop these people doing this sort of thing to others. The estate agent tried to blame us for all the delays, when in fact it has been his lies, his dishonesty that have stopped us making progress with the purchase for many months because for quite a while we had trusted him, until he tried to pressurise us into signing and paying for the house without the necessary planning permission. This is so unprofessional.  We have met some very lovely French people whilst staying in France but this immo' and his manager are something else if they knowingly take advantage of people who have not yet mastered the French language. I would not extend my complaint to say that this sort of thing is a regular occurrence with the immobilier, but imagination can lead you to think of the money making possibilities without comeback?... That if an immobilier can get away with this once, as in our case, then it may be possible that an unethical work conduct could develop in the future, and I would like to make sure that this does not happen. Anyone past and present willing to help and support each other? Please could we rally together?     

You could maybe try the pages jaune for "assainisement", now is that "assainissement" I can't quite remember? They give advice for septic tanks but for a fee. You'd need to find out how much they charge first before coming to look at your system. But do be careful as regulations have changed since Jan 2006 for septic tanks and the DDE regulations on them. I've read on here that people do often say to go to the Mairie first but perhaps you could ask your neighbours how their systems are set up first before contacting anyone in authority who may have to be in touch with the DDE as a Mairie or an "assainisement" person  may have to. A little direct approach for research with you neighbours may help you to then  look in the right direction for some solid sound advice from a suitably qualified person that you would be able to count on. Good Luck.

Hi Montagrier, My reply is not about polished concrete floors but polished concrete counter tops (sink and kitchen work tops to the likes of me). I've not ever done this procedure but we (self and better OH) bought a book called ' concrete countertops' by Fu-tung Cheng with Eric Olsen ISBN : 1561584843 by Taunton Press cost us £17.46 and my wife is most impressed by it. The book describes and gives colour illustrations of how to make the kitchen worktops etc, but the bits that may be useful to you I have quoted in a private message to you because I'm not sure if I'm allowed to quote it on a public forum because of the copyright things. So, I know that kitchen worktops are a bit different to flooring but I'm sure there are some similarities there too. The book also tells you briefly about the different types of cement and their uses, so as to avoid shrinking and cracks, but it also tells you about how the finishing techniques of grinding/polishing affect the final colouration of the concrete and the aggregates that you use with is and the sort of sand that you can use too, and then  it goes into detail about the different types of cement in some detail. Great book to give you some insight to working with concrete in this decorative way  but a floor on a much larger scale....?  Personally I'd like to tackle the kitchen worktop side of things for us but a floor would be too much for me if I wanted it polishing- that, I'm afraid, I would leave to those who do that for a full time living because if I were to do this wrong, what a job to correct it???? If you're brave enough to do a whole floor and have the time, patience, and energy, then I wish you good luck. I hope that you find the excerpts that I quoted from the book useful Regards, Painterman  

Hi, I agree with the others about leaving the tomatoes on the plant until they are ripe, unless you want green ones for a particular recipe- but to add to this, in the past (& now) whilst still in the UK, when we have a glut of ripe tomatoes, more than we can eat fresh, then I freeze our tomatoes whole. I only grow the small vine type now (gardener's delight type) with lots of cherry size tomatoes, but if you freeze them whole until you want to make a pasta type sauce, then it doesn't matter that all shape is lost when they defrost. No tomatoes wasted then at all.I put them in plastic sandwich bags for freezing in the correct portion size that I need to use for pasta sauce- usually one medium sandwich bag size full. I usually grow between six to eight plants and this supplies us with all the summer tomatoes that we need. I never pick off the side shoots of this type of tomato plant because they are the bush sort. The Mrs. 

This looks so good! Very nice to see some really useful constructive ( no pun intended) advice on how to do something which adds the beauty of wood to a home. Nice one! [:D]

Hi everyone, and thank you very much for your speedy replies. I will now look into the websites you mentioned too. Nick Thank you also, and I shall try to PM you for the diagram which will be useful I'm sure. Thanks again...[:)] 

Hi everyone, I have two short questions please. 1. Can a fax machine I use in the UK be used in France ( if we ever get that far with the house buying) or are the signals different? 2. Is it possible to arrange a French postal re-direction service at a local post office, similar to what we have in the UK to make sure that (if house ever goes through) we can actually make sure we receive our post (Bills mostly I assume)? Desperately trying to keep this short....[:)][;-)] Thank you in advance to anyone who can help with these.

Your plans would probably still need to be seen at some point by the DDE especially so if your septic tank ( if you have one) is not newly built within this calendar year of 2006 because of the new regulations. It seems that from reading the experiences of others on this forum that even if the maire agrees to some things then the DDE (planning authority) can still end up being involved. We looked at this other forum website for some of their info: http:/languedoc.angloinfo.com/countries/france/buildplan.asp?p   I'm not sure if quoting the above is fully ok on this forum in case there are any issues between them so I apologise if it is not allowed, but you may find the section on 'Technical Dossier' interesting. The mairie's office should be able to provide scale maps/plans that you need. If you are able to sketch or draw house plans fairly neatly so that the details are clear to the reader then maybe you would be fine without an architect, but drawing on the back of something would not look very caring about how you intended to comply or proceed within respected methods of submitting plans. It's best to keep it all professional looking to the best of your abilities. Be aware though that although it doesn't cost to submit the plans, once they are granted that a locale taxe d'equipment is charged and a couple of people on this forum have mentioned that it is a few thousand euros, some of it paid in instalments if you are converting say a barn to a house. This is something we need to find more information on from somewhere...?.... Hope it helps a bit. The Mrs.  

Hi, husband & I downloaded a copy from here: www.equipement.gouv.fr/formulaires We found this site by going to 'google' and then typing "google.fr" in the search space, this brings up a page where we click on "translate this page", and it brings you to google france. We are finding this quite useful and typed in 'declaration de travaux, amongst other things we now want to find. Good luck with it, and hope it's the right one. The Mrs.[:)]  

My OH told me once about her pet rabbits: as a child she had two-a  male and a female. One day she'd gone to open up the extended run and found a dead rat in the hutch enclosure. The rat had been attacked by something (at the throat in fact- she found it quite upsetting at the time she said), and the only 'guilty' bunny was the male with a bloodied nose and a bit of fluff missing. OH not happy with the dead rat but she told me her dad sorted out its removal. She never understood why the male rabbit had finished off the rat because there were no baby rabbits involved. She wasn't allowed to lift up and  pet the rabbits on her lap  after that, only pet them on the ground- until they made a bid for freedom and got away- funny black 'wild rabbits' followed on for a few years after apparently in the fields, so at least she was happy that the rabbits were happy in the end.

Perhaps if you want to back out of the C De Vente you could arrange through the notaire that the purchaser obtains a full refund of their deposit, and that you agree to pay for the Notaire fees for the work done so far (perhaps the taxes incurred by you may be less since the transaction has not proceeded to completion) for the purchaser, and also that you as the vendor pay the estate agent fees not the purchaser. If only sixty days have passed and if you do not have very much written proof from the estate agent that he has incurred much work so far, then it is unlikely that the estate agent has done very much work besides the marketing of the property for you, then perhaps you could come to a lenient agreement with your estate agent about a fee reduction for you? Honesty should be the best way forward and if you show in writing through the Notaire  that you will make sure that the purchaser does not lose their own money because it appears not to be the purchaser's fault that you have changed your mind about selling , then just maybe, the purchaser will agree to nullify the contract through the Notaire's office of course and with proof in writing that they would not incurr estate agent fees through no fault of their own. Maybe this will be too costly for you? - maybe not? Perhaps the most expensive part for you would be the estate agent fees? If so, perhaps you could re-negociate with the estate agent to sell through him/her again to offset most of the fees with a different purchaser? You will not know unless you ask.

Hi to you all, and thank you very much for your replies, especially Sunday Driver and Nick. We have written to our notaire to ask about how we stand for withholding at least some of the fees, so we shall see what we are told . I will post it here and let you know just in case it might help someone else too.  We are hoping to have some news soon......[blink]

Thanks for your replies. I'm sorry my paragraphs were so long. Alot has happened in the ten months. The estate agent is a nugget. He has been dishonest to us on numerour occasions about the purchase, but cleverly for him it is our word against his for most of it. He insisted on writing the clause suspensives. I could have done better myself. The second notiare we involved warned us that the estate agent, for whatever reasons (and he assumed they were questionable), had written the clause suspensives very vaguely giving us very little protection. That is not what we had asked for. The sellers notaire is the one who is supposed to submit the CU change of use application. Due to the seven month delay, our notaire insisted on applying for us because what the sellers notaire applied for apparently wasn't worth the paper it was written (our notaires words not ours.) If planning take the full four months to make a decision we will have to wait until the end of July. Hopefully they will reply by the end of this month and we will hopefully know where we stand. The estate agent lodged our deposit with a legal representative and the word FNAIM is on the deposit receipt. I will write to our notaire and ask how we stand legally for witholding some of the 10,000 euro fees because of his shady practices. Neither of our notaires is happy with 'our' estate agent. I will try and find out if we can do anything about this aspect before completion, if it ever takes place at this rate. The compromis was a standard printed thing. The estate agent didn't want us to see the notaire without him being present. He told us that he should be present for the transaction. We decided to go and see the notaire without him. This is where we finally learned most of the truth and obtained relevant French paperwork. It looks as though we will have to hang in there until we can find out if the clause suspensives can be met or not. Thanks again for you responses, again sorry its so long. I never was any good at writing in note form.  

Hi, and thank you to all who replied. The situation is this, we were sent the first 7 day SRU cooling off letter in August 2005 by registered post from the estate agent with the request that we sign and return it to him within seven days of receipt. We signed it and returned it. We tried to translate it with google's language tools but at the time were not tto worried about the penalty clauses because at that point we had no intention of not completing the purchase.  Also in Aug 2005 whilst in France we signed the compromis de vente with the estate agent who wrote in the details and explained that the date of Dec 2005 was the completion date. The estate agent gave us a copy of this and we returned to UK and waited for the estate agent to send another copy of the compromis de vente to us with the vendors signature on it also because the estate agent explained that he could not obtain the vendors signature at the time whilst we were in France. This was done. The estate agent assured us in Aug 2005 that he would submit the CU change of use for the barn that we needed and submit an application for permission to install a septic tank. We offered to pay for soil tests to be done but he was adamant that this was not necessary. He would not let us write our own clause suspensives saying that they had to be written in proper French and he told us that some of the conditions that we wanted to have put in writing should be put in the acte de vente, and not in the compromis de vente.The estate agent speaks excellent English. We know now that we have clearly been lied to about this. We insisted that two clause suspensives were put in the compromis de vente as he required us to sign it without the vendor being present and this was for the CU and septic tank. We asked if we could meet the vendor and he said "no", that we would only be able to see the vendor when we complete and sign the acte de vente at the notaires office. He assured us that this was normal in France.He insisted that we pay the deposit which we did by cheque drawn on our french bank account. The deposit is being held by some legal representative of the estate agent. We had expected that all would be well but in January the estate agent sent us a second SRU 7 day cooling off letter saying that the first one had an incorrect date on it, and would we sign it and return it to him as before. Each time we contacted him he reassured us that the delays were the fault of the french legal system and that we should not worry. By January we were very worried and had already begun writing in detail to the notaire to ask for answers, and the estate agent was not giving us the information we asked for about the paperwork to prove that the applications for the CU and septic tank had been done. We contacted a forum member from here and she gave us the details of an English speaking notaire that she had dealt with and so we also began contacting him. He has been helpful and can see how dishonest the estate agent has been with us (how can we possibly prove this though- his word against ours/ long lengthy legal battle that we don't want to have to get involved with). By March 2006 the estate agent finally admitted that he hadn't put in the relevant applications- he had lied to us. The notaires we are dealing with are not happy with him and said it was a disgrace " almost scandalous". Since March our notaire has submitted the CU change of use that we need to know if the property can be used as a dwelling space, and we have employed the services of an architect to oversee the activities of the soil testers and hopefully in time the installers of the septic tank. This is more money that we have had to risk. We have insisted from the very beginning with the estate agent and the notaire that if proper planning consent for the change of use is not given we will not buy the property and hence the two clause suspensives that we actually managed to get the estate agent to write in.( Although I could have done better myself even though I say this myself because I would have put a proper time completion on the transaction and we were not allowed to do so.)  So the estate agents fees are ten thousand euros, and the deposit we paid was eight thousand euros, but the SRU letter says at the bottom last few lines "Si, l'acquéreur exerce sa faculté de rétraction, le professionnel dépositaire des fonds les lui restitue dans un délai de vingt et un jours à compter du lendemain de la date de cette rétraction. Lorsque l'acte est dressé en la forme authentique, aucune somme ne peut être versée pendant le délai de réflexion de sept jours. Est puni de 30,490 euros d'amende le fait d'exiger ou de recevoir un versement ou un engagement de versement en méconnaissance des alinéas ci-dessus."  To me that looks as though we could end up paying 30,490 plus 10,000 and losing our 8,000 euros if we decided to pull out of the transaction. But we really want to buy this house and barn but it is proving so difficult to do so because our UK costs are mounting because of the delays and that has made us think from time to time, and today is no exception that maybe if we could pull out of the transaction we would, if the compromis de vente had a limited period of validity legally naturally in French law and if the 7day cooling off period letter also had a limited period of legality, or are these two forms  legal indefinitely. My wife and I are grateful to those of you who have replied. If there is anything further that I have added above that has helped clarify the position we are in so that you could perhaps add a little more if you know if the forms are indefinite or limited in their legal timespan, we would be very grateful. We are doing all we can to push things forward, we even went to France and went looking for the vendor, whom we found, and he told us that the estate agent was not giving him any information and that he thought that we didn't even want the house anymore, and he was going to put it back on the market. The situation stinks. Really sorry this post is so long, but any help most gratefully recieved- we would still like to live in France. Thank you.

[:(]Hi, I tried to do this post yesterday but somehow it didn't work. So here goes again. Could I please ask if anyone knows the answer to my two questions please. These are: 1) Does the 7 day letter that you sign and return to the estate agent agent have a valid time limit, eg is it valid for six months... or indefinite. 2) Does a signed by both parties compromis de vente have a valid time limit, eg again maybe 6 months? It is just something that the architect we are using mentioned whilst we were over in France last time to try and sort out our house purchase. We are buying in 'cash' so to speak (through the banking system actually but not with a mortgage) without the need for a mortgage as we've already sold our UK home and are in rented accommodation now. Unfortunately as we were discussing the 'finer' points of having a septic tank installed my wife and I didn't remember to ask more of the architect about his comment that a compromis de vente had a timescale. We were supposed to complete Dec 2005 as this was the date that the estate agent said and wrote (he told us what the words in French meant from the compromis de vente) regarding the Dec 2005 date.We originally saw the house at the end of July last year and put in our offer, which was accepted by the vendor, and to cut a long 'story' short the compromis de V was signed and we returned to the UK. A 7 day letter was received by us in August 2005 which we signed and returned. Eventually because the purchase still had not been completed by Jan 2006, the estate agent sent us another 7 day letter saying that "the date was incorrect" on the last one, and so could we please sign this one and return it- which we did. However, we wonder, after the architect's brief comment if there is a validity date of these two documents if completion has not taken place within a certain timescale. Does anyone please know the answer. Our saga has been ongoing for ten months now and if it wasn't for the fact that we'd probably lose our deposit, still have to pay estate agent fees and probably some sort of penalties that seem to be in the small print if we pull out, we would pull out of the transaction, but likewise if the vendor pulled out and put the house back  on the market he would surely have to pay us our deposit back because the clause suspensives have still not yet been met- we are trying our best to get them met by risking more of our money by using an architect to help with the septic tank and our notaire is doing all that can be done too. Things are in the hands of the planning department and the three months is almost at an end. BUT I wonder if we don't get the positive CU we need for the house which is unhabitable at the moment or positive approval to have a septic tank are we going to be able to get our deposit back if all this is not sorted out within say the last six months of us signing the second 7 day letter. Originally the estate agent had been dishonest and told us that he had put in the permission for the septic tank and the CU change of use for the  attached barn but he finally admitted in March 2006 that he hadn't. It has left us more than worried. The vendor and his family do seem like nice people but I believe we have all been had by the estate agent in one way or the other. I'm sorry this is so long, but if anyone can shed any light on my two questions before I go back to hassling our notaire, your help would be very much appreciated, and so I will thank you in advance.  

Hi, we were told three to four months to complete on our purchase but by the 15th December 2005 at the latest. Our purchase has now been going on for ten months now and it is all due to the estate agent basically not telling us the truth (saying he has submitted the correct CU and applying for septic tank permission at the beginning and insisting that he had done so himself until March 2006 when he finally had to come 'clean' and admit that which he did not do, and so our notaire has stepped in because the vendor thought that we no longer wanted the property and was going to put it back on the market. I think there is room for estate agents to make a 'quick buck' here by not responding to purchasers (us) and supposedly giving vendors incorrect information, and guess who would still have to pay the estate agent fees? The estate agent could have sold this house nearly four times over by now...and what if three of those sales had fallen through? A nice 30,000.00 euros in fees for him with no work done.  .....  and . so we are still waiting......) The estate agent wouldn't let us put in the C de V the more specific clause suspensives and he insisted on writing in himself the two we were adamant about but there is room for ambiguoity in his wording. We have spoken in length to our notaire and put all of it in writing registered post. Our notaire is helping us. Try keeping in very close touch with your notaire for what you can do with regards paying the sellers 'damages' (storage costs/mortgage) as time goes along (with receipts done through the notaire's office to keep everything above board) this way if it does end up in court the court should be able to see that you have been making all attempts to resolve the issue without monetary loss to the vendor so the courts can see that you are still trying to complete on your purchase but that circumstances outside of your control are what are causing the delays. This may help to negate 'damages' the court could impose. Best of luck.    

HI, painterman's wife here, Horsechestnut trees as you probably know grow to a good hundred feet tall if left to their own devices. Does it have a large girth for its tree trunk? That way you'll be able to guess at the size of its tap root. The other anchoring roots usually would only extend outwards to approximately the edge of the leaf canopy if the soil is rocky but usually these roots are quite deep too.  Usually, one third of the tree is above ground and two thirds of it are below ground as the roots.  If you chose to chop it down, you need to check with the Mairie's Office if you need permission if it is a very old or protected tree.  If you prune it hard, this must be done when the tree is dormant, but winter pruning encourages new growth, whereas summer light pruning (and sealing of the wounds which will bleed needs to be done) will help to restrict growth. You would have to prune at least every few years though if you wanted to try and keep it small. If it is only 5metres tall, then it is a baby still unless the girth of the tree shows otherwise. I have some Bonsai horsechestnut trees - I gave a few away to a friend a few years ago but they neglected to prune the roots..... and thought they were being mean by keeping them in such small pots...so they put them into larger and larger ones..... and so they grew and grew. So from having 50p sized leaves when I gave them away, they had dinner plate sized leaves in no time at all. Pruning is therefore a large chore when they grow in the ground.  Does your property actually have foundations?  The long term effect upon house walls should not be a problem. We had an old horsechestnut tree of some one hundred feet near a neighbours house (within 23feet of it) and there were no problems with their house - very deep roots. House and tree had been there for a couple hundred years or so- UK though. Maybe you could check out the RHS website for info?   Not sure about subsidence problems though if you chop it down. Roots would take a long time to decompose and usully a large tree has to have part of the trunk and bole ground away by the tree feller to stop it from regrowing at the base of the trunk. You need specialist tree advice on this if you want to cut it down. Still you will not need to worry over it too soon. If you prune it this summer, you still have time to find a tree specialist. Mrs B.