Georgia

Thank you, Will,  for this, I will talk to an accountant before doing anything else as this looks as if it could potentially be a minefield.  Our only mitigating factor is that the majority of money we spent was actually on our house rather than the gites - but it might be a bit tricky convinced the authorities of this!  Georgia

Just to share our experience with all you fellow sufferers and to see if anyone has any further suggestions. Firstly, can I just state that I love dogs, we have a dog and I would never be without one.  However, we have a property with 3 gites.  Our neighbour has always had his dogs in a kennel attached to the end of one of our gites as he owns a strip of land alongside that gite.  His house is far enough away (allegedly) for him not to hear the dogs, lucky him!  3 years ago he got a new dog, which caused major problems by barking pretty consistently for the first 18 months and two whole letting seasons.  The run of the kennel ends 2 metres from the gite's kitchen window and 6 metres from the bedroom windows.  As the dog got older and learnt to trust us a bit, things did improve.  I have spoken to the neighbour many times who just shrugs his shoulders and says they are hunting dogs and what can he do, but he did at least agree to get his wife to let them out into the garden once a day to run off some of their energy (I think half the problem is that they sleep all day in the summer, so are wide awake at night).  Apart from the noise, the kennel is full of animal excrement and as it only gets cleaned once every 3 months if we are lucky, the stench is unbelievable and the flies even more so.  Last autumn, they bought another dog which barks incessantly and even they got fed up with it in the end as they had to keep getting out of bed in the middle of the night when they had their window open.  We have discussed the problem many times and they tell me it is a problem dog, apparently the neighbour's brother has another dog from the same litter and it barks all the time too.  It doesn't matter how many times they shout at it or beat the poor little creature, it just barks more.  The neighbour's solution is to ask us to let him move his kennel to the other side of our property, i.e. on our land, so at least it will only bother us and not our gite guests (or indeed, our neighbour).  As there are dogs on the other side too, I really don't want them near each other as I am sure it won't be long until they join in (as it is they bark at any excuse).  I really haven't wanted to involve the Maire because I know he is a hunting man and mates with my neighbour but I don't think we have much choice now.  I also wonder about health and safety issues with all the dog excrement.  But if there is anyone French out there, can you please, please explain the following to me: -  why do none of their French neighbours, including those with babies, seem to be bothered about dogs barking when there is no way on earth they cannot hear it? -  why do so many French people have dogs which they never do anything with?  The aforementioned neighbour admitted to me that he hunts two or three times a year only, so why does he have 3 hunting dogs which are locked up in misery for the other 362 days of the year?  Our other neighbours bought a plot of land, built a bungalow on it and before even moving in had built a kennel and put 3 large dogs in it, which are NEVER let out for any reason at all, and are completely ignored when they bark (so not much good as guard dogs).  What is the point - is it some sort of status symbol?  It just seems incredibly cruel to me.  I can't help feeling that if I understood this mentality towards dog ownership, I might be able to find a solution to our problems.  It is very sad because I love everything about France, and I love the people, but our lives are being made a misery and our livelihood threatened because of this problem.

Wonder if anyone can help me - we are considering selling our primary residence (and its attached 3 gites), having been here for 3 years.  There is a massive increase in value from when we brought it due to (a) all the work we have done (against which we know we could deduct the cost of the work undertaken by registered tradesmen); and (b) because we were very lucky to have bought it at a knock down price, so we are concerned about CGT.  As far as I understand it - e.g. Will's message in June to an similar enquiry  - we shouldn't have to pay CGT as it is our primary residence, but I see in Will's message a sentence saying "French residents have to pay an extra 11% in social charges" - would we have to pay this and is 11% of the gain or the sale price (in which case, I think we'll stay here!)?  Any guidance would be very much appreciated. Georgia

Don't know if anyone out there can help with this one.  We have a house and 3 gites, which we have been letting for the past 2 years within a micro-enterprise created in my husband's name (despite our best efforts for it to be in joint names!).  I have now been offered work by a number of immobiliers helping them with their English marketing/clients, and wish to do this on a freelance basis, i.e. invoicing them for hours worked/projects undertaken.  In England this would be regarded as a consultancy type arrangement.  What I would like to find out is if it is possible to undertake this work within our existing micro-enterprise or whether I need to set up a separate one.  Does anyone have any thoughts? Many thanks