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Babbles

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Posts posted by Babbles

  1. Yep I'm interested / nosey, but I'd love to know how manipulated the story line is, they (TV Company) seem to portray them as fools who haven't planned things well, but when you look whats going on in the background and how much they have achieved it all seems a bit unfair. Like most things in life if you put your head above the parapet (or in their case a beautiful turret) someone will take a pot shot! Also what do the general public expect, to build a success business from scratch takes time, hassel and lots of arguments (my husband and I took over a failled village post office and have turned it into a thriving village shop, hopefully to finance our move to france) and its only been a couple of years, Anyway good luck to them!!!!
  2. Thanks

    I'll try giving Bergerac office a ring but its amazing how their English and My French seem to vanish when trying to sort things out, and its not the first time they have let me down, I do hope they have made a mistake and can fix it, but the cost do seems so excessive, They also gave us a larger van than I wanted, which was a short wheel base Renault Traffic and I got a long wheel base high top boxer, which also miffed me as the tolls were double and I couldn't go into city centers to park, you live and learn!!!

  3. Hi All

    Thanks for the ideas, I'll get out the French dictionary and draft myself a letter and try and get everything sent ot our local branch in Condom, and maybe copy it to our local branch and maybe do a blanket email just for the fun of it ;-) and let them know how miffed I am at not being able to set up direct debits and have to go to the expense of transferring funds to the builders account. Anyway why do they have an in ternational branch where they only speak French, I do try but foolishly I thought that it would be easy to phone the international branch. Does anyone know where I can get a chip implanted in my brain so I can suddenly speak fluent french under pressure!!!!! That might help!!!!!

  4. I don't know if I'm a complete plonker, but if you read this you will think I am!

    Last month we completed on buying our holiday home in Gers32 Our furniture arrived safe and sound but I had the bright idea that it would be useful while we were there to hire a van,to got to broccants and depot vents for the other pieces we needed, me being an organised kind of person thought I'd organise before I got there from the uk and called Hertz uk vans( as I am a gold member) they couldn't book it but transfered my call to france who took the booking and had the van waiting for us at Bergerec airport larger than I thought I had booked, so far so good and it was useful having a van when we were there but on returning to the airport the trouble began, firstly they said we hadn't filled the van up with fuel as the gauge didn't show full(we had and it was but there as no reciept)so we had to go and put another teaspoon of fuel in although we were already pushed for time, the Hertz chap took our booking form and as we wanted to catch our flight we dashed to check in. A week after we returned home we were stunned to find our credit card had been charged 2000+ euros for 10 days hire and there hadn't been a fuel surcharge.On the side of the van it said 29 euros a day so how can that equate to 2000+ euros I have no copy of the orginal agreement as I had phoned and they didn't send a confirmation email and the guy who we returned the van to kept the paper work. I'm really not impressed with Hertz and there doesn't seem any way I can complain about it as the intial phone call kept being transferred to different people I have no idea who I actually booked it with, I know my french is really basic but this is soooooo annoying and I do feel I've been taken advantage of. It was useful having a van when we go over but has anyone any ideas of how I could do it cheaper, our home is on th 32 47 border, all ideas welcomed!!!

  5. Hi All,

    We have just bought a (holiday) house in the Gers with a mortgage with BNP Paribas which has been great and trouble free BUT we have got a problem with our current account, it was set up for us by our broker at the international branch on the Champs Elysees Paris and we are trying to get the Cheque Book and Cards sent to the local branch in Condom to pick them up ( I went in there to try and sort it but as I have no name at the international branch I don't think he will have much success either), which all sounds fairly easy. The English speaking mortgage Lady at BNP is very helpful gave use the email address of the chap who opened our account but he's now turned into the Scarlet Pimpernel and doesn't answer his email and there is no contact phone number for him, I've tried ringing the Paris branch to only get on an automated system when I finally got to speak to person my french wasn't up to explaining what I needed and he said there was nobody who spoke English there. The trouble is snowballing as I can't get EDF to set up a direct debit even though I've filled the form in.

    Does anybody have a contact name and number for BNP Paribas international branch who speaks English and I can get our account unblocked and a cheque book sorted out, I've looked on the web and it only gives the automated number. I would like to get this sorted before I go back in November because if I leave it till then they still won't be able to get the cheque book to the branch in the time I'm staying there.

  6. Who wants to work in the Hell hole that is London, We're happy with what we've achieved "Up North" and are looking for a bolt hole in an more relaxed pace of life. We got out of working for big corporations as we did not want to on that tread mill what we do is small scale work and have no interest in just chasing a fast buck or managing a huge workforce, when I had 550 people working for me it was all about Human Resources and Disciplinary procedure and driving 1000 miles a week, I don't want a life that revolves around that anymore, it sucks!
  7. Not in that heat either!!!!

    We're not looking to rip anybody off, and maybe France has a very different work ethic and attitude to manual labour jobs that need doing to the UK , cos we have really struggled to find labours who put in a good days work here in the UK we've always treated & paid well even if some of our staff turned out to be theives. It cuts both ways its not always the boss who takes advantage.

  8. Just wondering as they're part of the EU, and here in Lancashire they do a lot of labouring, hotel work and factory work mainly because no Engish National wants to do that type of work and have really help speed up getting things done they're not paid any less than an English National they are just prepared to do manual jobs,

    A bit surprised that you assume they would be working un-insured and unregistered, why do people assume that it would be underhand an an expoititive arrangement. These people aren't run by gangmasters who force them into manual low paid work, when they take their wages home its the equivilant of working as a professional even if in UK/France it is the minimum wage

    Very dissappointed that there is such a high level negativity with little evidence to back it up.

    By the way a 40 ft shipping container is bigger than a lot of hotel rooms!!!

  9. Thanks for the additional info, and when you think about it the trusses and beams do look the same as a UK type roof from the similar period (18c) I think I've been a thrown by these sous-tuiles as I've not seen them being put on in practice and didn't know how that effects the price, more commonly we've worked on property with slates (being up North!) with felt etc

    I think as we are at an early stage of the process, if we decide to progress with this property and once we've got some ball park figures we can then research in depth to find the right artisan for the job.

    I do think its a good idea to ask at the Marie, but at this stage they might not neccessarily have our interest at heart as the commune own the building!!!!!!

  10. Hi Gluestick

    No disrespect but we have quite a vast experience of renovation projects from houses to business in the UK , and contary to popular belief we do know what we are doing , its just that French roofs are constructed differently and I have no expereince of there costs.

     I am asking a specific questions before we make an offer, it is not a full renovation project as many aspects are already in place and naturally we will be there to see the process through. I am trying to gleen a little information before we go and make sure its the right thing to do. I also know for a fact that these jobs we cannot do ourselves no matter what happens hence wanting to find a rough guesstimate before we go because as you say some people think Les Anglaise have deep pockets and I don't want to be taken for a fool!!!

    Any information gained now surely can only help me make a judgement of wether a quote is accurate or a rip off but its not the only information I'm going to use.

    Thanks for the reply

    PS We're a long way off retiring!

  11. I have heard various rumours about using Polish builders for renovation projects and all have been very good saying that they're hard working and reasonablly, What I am wondering is just how much cheaper they are, can anyone give me some idea of the saving? and just what the experience was like, language barriers etc or even recomendations of any in 47 or 32

  12. Hi Mulsanne

    Thats really useful to know, was that for the beams  and purlins ( I think thats what theyre called) as well as new tiles and insulation?

    The roof is in reasonable condition and watertight, its really so we can use the attic space and have it insulated, we really would want to reuse the tiles and have seen property with this done (no doubt they will want to charge more for that as it will take longer to strip the roof carefully) I also think the Marie would want us to do that as its in an historic village.

  13. Thanks everyone for the advice, a bit more info for you

    The price is top of our purchase price and we do have a renovation budget as well but the work we need a rough quote for is to make it habitable, the other work we can make a reasonable guesstimate at from other projects we've done and some of that work we can do ourselves but neither me or my hubby are good with heights!!!!!

    The windows we need a quote for are the attic ones ( the space was once habitable servants quarters or something like its not a loft to convert) so they won't have any glazing bars but we would want them to be openable and double glazed.

    Getting a builder to quote before we go back for a second viewing is going to be a challange as I'm now back in the UK and I'm only wanting a rough idea if anybody has any experience of similar work just what they've paid.

    Waiting egerly for more advice!

  14. Hi

    Before we put in an offer on a house thats at the top end of our budget I could do with some help with some renovation costs

    :- a roof which is dry with reasonable quality tiles which covers a floor area of about 120sq m , to have it removed have the beams treated new under-tiles (sous- tuiles) and the orginal ones replacing,  thre are no fancy dorma windows just a really plain roof.

    :- 120sq m loft floor boards replaced and the beams treated ( any decent ones will be used to restore other parts of the house)

    :- 12 openable windows roughly 800mm x 500 double glazed wood single pane, fitted

    The rest of the work can wait but thse costs need to be taken into account with the offer.

    The house is in the 47 32 borders if that makes a differnce!!!!

    All advice greatly recieved, hubby asking questions I haven't got answers to!

  15. Hi

    We've not yet bought our home in France and have been avidly having French Lessons, I found it hard at school and even harder now ! But we keep trying ! I think learning the language is key but more importantly is understanding a different cultures, I lived in Florida (due to work) for 6 monthes spoke the same language but  felt Like a creature from another planet ! so there is more to it than language. Just be yourself, there is no law that says everyone has to like you and if they don't it doesn't matter, but by being yourself you'll find true friends.[;-)]

  16. I'm hoping someone can help us, We are looking to buy a holiday home in Gers, Lot & Garrone (which will become our permenant home)and could do with any advice on how to finance it as we are not in a "normal" position. We have a business which we live over and will be refinancing for the deposit, the bit I'm unsure of is, will our ( French ) morgage be treated as a 1 st mortgage or one for a second home. We do not have a mortgage that has been calculated on our income in the UK , our business pays all our home costs as we live above it but we do have loans against the business and freehold (about 40% of the value). This creates another issue as our income looks like it is lower than reality compared to when we were employed as there are no housing costs in it. Ideally we want to borrow the maximum we can in Euros and the minimum in the UK against the business as the interest rates in the UK are not that favorable. Can anyone help me untangle this to make some kind of sense!!!!

     

    A bit more info, we will still be working in the UK for 2 or 3 years ( whilst we still have a reliable, predictable income and could have major unforeseen expenses during renovations) but as the majority of the mortgage we would be living in France we thought it best to have Euro one and get ourselves established financially before we move. The other point on the interest rates is that we have a business loan not a mortgage in the uk which is more expensive than either type of mortgage.

     

    Thank you for the recomendation and if anyone has any other suggestions/ recommendations they will be greatfully recieved !!!

    Thanks for the Advice, have now found a broker and have started the long process of sorting through all the documentaion self employed people need !

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