Chancer
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Posts posted by Chancer
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It does seem very strange to me that someone wants a list of artisans and another of tradesmen across the whole of France (a very big place) when they do not even know what region they were thinking of moving to.
Unless of course the business they want to develop depends on the information contained in those lists!!
I am with you Ron Avery
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Fil
You say that they have put a great deal of work into their part of the property but did they or the parents pay for the materials?
Arguably from the parents point of view they may have been living here rent, rates and services free for 4 years and now is the time to stand on their own feet at last.
Perhaps it was never meant to be a permanent thing, maybe a stepping stone that was at the time, mutually beneficial to both families, after all as has been said you cannot "verbally gift" or even sell part of a property.
In any case due to the stress and bad feelings towards the parents perhaps it is best that they now stand on their own feet, or are they perhaps still very young?
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The (very expensive) insurances offered to me by the (very expensive!) letting agents were about as much use as a chocolate teapot, the only purpose that they served were to line the agents pockets even further.
They would not pay out if "in the insurers opinion" there was little hope of them being able to succesfully recover the lost rent from the tenant through the courts, i.e if the tenant had no money or could not be contacted.
I had to ask myself if a tenant didn't pay his rent would he/she leave a forwarding address? and would it be that perhaps he/she didn't have the money to pay???
Sure these insurances may give you a feeling of security but those offered to me were as much use as most insurances when you really need them.
Edited: The above information was only found in each case by scrutinising the lengthy legalese small print.
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There is no point trying to plaster over broken laths, the correct way is to cut back the good plaster to replace the broken laths from the adjoining joists then replaster.
I have never seen or been able to find bonding plaster in my area.
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Auchan have one on promo at the moment for 169 euros, don't ask me for any more details as I just saw the billboard while passing and am not an afficionado.
I would not have one myself preferring to use good old fashioned maps to gain my "sense d'orientation".
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Gluestick - made me laugh!!!
Of course eco friendly power is not anything new, my grandfather built a windmill on his land in Cornwall after a water diviner had "detected" an underground source which turned out not to be there.
He then made an inertia pump which was located in a sump under the village stream, it worked on the principal of a see-saw with a large bucket of water pumping a cupfull up the hill every second, it was still working last time I visited after 40 odd years.
He also generated electric using a vintage stationary engine (now in local museum) running on T.V.O. and stored by WW2 submarine batteries, and recuperated all the rain water to augment the inertia pump and the handpump in the village square.
He only finally chose to get connected to mains water and electric in the early 80's when the remaining batterys would no longer hold a charge and my step-grandmother was terminally ill.
I recently met a retired doctor who was the ex-proprietor of my village chateau (Chateau Potez was built by Henri Potez the father of french aviation).
When I asked the doctor if it had been really expensive to heat he said no as he had used electric heating across the whole of the chateau but that he paid nothing for the electricity as it was still generated by the water turbine (his words) installed before WW1 to power the aircraft factory.
Will the B&Q badged R.P.C. wind turbines last as long? - I bet when they appear in Brico-Depot (owned by same group) they will be less than half the price like most other things.
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[quote user="cooperlola"][quote user="Just Katie "]
I have to disagree because I have yet to meet a smoker who disagrees with it.
[/quote]Well, here's one. One of the things I love about France is that I'm not treated like a leper here. [/quote]
YET!
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I have been here 18 months in a 2001 RHD Skoda Octavia TDI estate which only cost me £3500 the day before I moved here, granted it had nearly 200K miles on the clock but has been a reliable and very economical mode of transport.
I agree wholeheartedly with the argument "how much would it cost me to change to an equal LHD model?" in my case it would have been over 10000 euros.
I can honestly say that until very recently I never had a problem but perhaps now feeling a little more confident in my surroundings (and maybe in a little bit more of a rush) I sometimes get a little frustrated when I want to overtake and can't see enough.
I should add that I have always been a bit of a boy racer and did in fact compete for several seasons before moving here, but the combination of less stress/less traffic on the road and the initial general uncertainty of driving/finding my way around here has slowed me down enough to make wanting to overtake happen less.
If this can happen to me then I think that most people whose cars have a few years left in them but are faced with the significant cost to change to a LHD model would have no problems bringing (and registering) their cars here.
It was interesting that the French insurance company did not feel that a RHD care presented any more risk and hence did not load the premium.
I will probably re-import the car to the UK and sell it on E-bay when my chauffeur friend is ready to sell me his next bargain (a RHD volkswagen touran) when it reaches a similarly stratospheric mileage.
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Ah but after doing the DCF calculation what about the "net present value" one to confuse things further?
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A door lining is no more than 6 peices of two different planed sections and is fairly easy to make, by hand if necessary and will usually be cheaper (that is if you could find one to buy here) if you buy unplaned wood and cut and plane it to size.
Sometimes we need to go back to basics in this country (that a lot of us appreciate for being 20-30 years behind England) and ask - what would I (or my Father) have done then, before the ready availability of things in DIY sheds.
This is exactly what a French carpenter would do if asked for a door lining set from an English customer.
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2 out of 5 statistics are made up on the spot!
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Well I will soon be having my consuel inspection so I will be able to advise of any strange requirements or recent changes.
Those that I am already aware of are:
Plug sockets and light switches that are held in with the small claws (agriffes I think) are interdit, the new type have two screws similar to the UK ones and are much safer if the phase wire were to become detached.
Minimum amounts of sockets in each room (as before) but a requirement in the kitchen for a minimum 4 above the plan de travail - I would like to see how to do that with some of the brico-shed pre-equipped kitchenettes. Note twin sockets count as one but with a small gap between count as two, usefull if you are near the maximum or cant reach the minimum requirement.
Colonne local technique must be fitted with all TV and satellite and telephone cables going into junction boxes for testing/isolation puposes and then onto the wall sockets, you may have your satellite parabole on the wall just behind your tele or your phone point may be just behind the incoming cable but the cabling must be routed via the colonne.
Edited. The collone must have a separate tableu, usually underneath the mains tableau containing the repartiteur de television and the prise PTT principale, these wires must be separated in the goulotte from the haute tension or run in a separate one. The prise PPT principale isolates all the phones in the house when one is plugged into it rather like disconnecting the faceplate on a modern BT one.
All these low voltage services are part of the consuel inspection.
I have to have consuel on the apartments that I am building/renovating in order to get independant supplies to each from EDF, the normes for that are even more involved but would only affect others changing to multiple occupancy, in reality they are written in a way that is fine for a new built block of flats but almost impossible to realise on a conversion.
My earlier posting regarding compulsory inspection has been in force for at least a year in this department, to sell a house you have to have the new survey which highlights any non-conformity with the current regs, the results are for the buyers information and you are not obliged to do any remedial works, however problems occur when it is evident that say a renovation was carried out in the last year or so that did not meet the regs current at the time.
It is all designed to improve the safety of the older installations and speaking for my 90 year old house with shellac and canvas insulated wires in ungrounded lead conduits it can only be a good thing.
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It's because whilst they are "free to air" channels they are still tied under contract to Sky, this means that you cannot get them yet on a FTA digital receiver so therefore you cannot receive them on a sky digibox without the card.
It is to receive these channels (and also because of the better channel guide) that I have switched from a digital FTA receiver to an old sky box which even with an old out of date card gets CH4 and CH5 but not without it.
Hope that explains it for you.
P.S. I believe that when the current contract expires the channels will be in the free listings.
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Just topped up my virtually new NRJ phone, I still have E3.50 left of the original welcome pack which together with todays E30 and the previous E10 top up means that I have E45.50 credit.
This should last me several years by my calculation but somehow I don't think that I can trust NRJ's fidelity for several minutes!
Nous verrions!
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Peages both manned and unmanned do not carry out balance verification, the transaction happens far to fast for this to be possible.
If you don't believe me try this at the next unmanned peage: use an out of date or non-functional ex-bank or credit card and watch the barrier open.
I do not advise you to try using it a second time!
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Usually to change to a higher current setting they just move a link in the disjoncteur, although sealed it is usually visible under a clear window for the meter readers to verify that the owner has not changed the setting and remade the lead seals.
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Alcohol...
in Health
If I had to quote "geographically distributed delivery management skills" often enough it would turn me to drink (or in my case more drink!).
That quote alone has made me feel better about giving up the rat-race. I no longer have to keep up with the latest buzz words.
I am interested in the anti-drinking drug that was mentioned, is that the generic name that is recognised in France?
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Having spent this week wiring french placo boxes and ceiling roses I have every sympathy with someone who has wired a french house for the first time!
Although one shouldn't rent somewhere that isn't safe I am convinced that most light fittings in France are about to fall out of the ceiling and all light switches and plug sockets are about to fall out if they havn't already fallen into the wall cavity.
This is the first time that I have compared or complained (usually I have no time for people who do so) but really the French placo boxes are c##p by comparison, you have to cut a circular hole to a tolerance of +- 1/2mm using a (french) tool that usually cuts 2mm oversize and even if you manage to cut it on size or undersize the mounting flange is only 4 tiny corners of a few square mm cross section and the clamping lugs (which hold all the weight of a ceiling suspended fitting) are equally small, a recipe for disaster.
I am not surprised that the ceiling pull switch (probably English!) has parted company, I would never dream of hanging one from a French placo box!
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They could be a good alternative to the "Ardoise quarante, quarante" that I was going to use, I have used them before on small wooden outbuidings in the UK but they were a very expensive, indulgent alternative.
How much does your friend sell them for delivered to another departement?
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As I worked for myself I only took one holiday in 12 years (on my 40th birthday) but it did allow me to save enough money to move here and take the opportunity to backpack around the world before coming here.
It was during my travels that I encountered Americans that only get 2 weeks paid holiday per year, what would they make of the French regime?
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[quote user="Georgina"]
I do wish those parents who smoke in front of the school gates would stop. I am fed up of my children having to enter school through a haze of smoke. Plus we had a little girl visit us (one of my son's playmates) and it was very sad that she wreaked of tobacco smoke and her parents have 5 kids to suffer that. It's slowly dawning on some french though I think that it is not really acceptable. Just like it did in the UK years ago.
Georgina
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Everybody seems to smoke around me here, whether they are in the non-smoking area of the brasserie or visiting my house . I even had a neighbour walk in with a fag and when he couldn't find an ashtray he stubbed it out on my floor (it did used to be a bar).
However when I went with my french tutor to collect her kids from school I commented that none of the parents were smoking.
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You can actually benefit from these prices for a 2 day trip as well, as long as you only spend one night in france or england.
I have used this service 3 times recently for short return trips to the UK, it is cheaper and faster than the ferries but I have been delayed on some 50% of the crossings.
I usually pay 30 euros each way although the first time may french account was debited with significantly less than the amount on the booking confirmation they have failed to make this mistake again!
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Will restaurants, cafes or brasseries be affected by the ban? as they already may have a non-smoking area.
At my local brasserie the non-smoking area is small and at the back without ventilation and much daylight, I was eating there the other day tucked (more like trapped) into a small corner as I was dining alone. At the table next to me, which was pushed right against mine the two guys started smoking between courses, they ignored my polite requests to stop so I moved myself to the smoking area (which had the door open to get some fresh air.
The proprietress hates having smokers but would not survive without them and will not allow her young daughter in the area during or after smokers, she told me that she was waiting until it was law so that she could enforce it.
Have her prayers been answered?
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What do you do if you have already boarded and insulated (laine de verre paper side down) your ceiling before realising the need for the fire protection?
I assume that these hoods/flowerpots/home made ones have to be bigger than the holes for the lamps?
I actually only left a 65mm hole for a ceiling rose as until now I hated anything with the 'C' word (contemporary!) but on reflection low voltage spots would look good in the kitchen and I can still drill the holes and fish the cables between.
However are they really as unreliable as the postings indicate? I am very shrewd, some say overshrewd! and get annoyed if I have to change a light bulb within 1 year.
Long Term Letting
in Finding/Owning French Property
Posted
J.P.E.
That's very encouraging to hear, I am afraid that I have a lifetime of experiences and pre-conceived notions to reassess whilst in France.
What insurer do you use and could you let me know the name or type of policy?
Many thanks
Edited - I am in the process of creating rental apartments well located in a very good employment area, that is unless Airbus close the factory here whereupon I would be living alone in an industrial wasteland!
Your comments re returns have reconfirmed my belief that I am doing the right thing.