AnOther
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Posts posted by AnOther
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Nuff said SD but going completely off topic and at the risk of being labelled assumptive, dare I assume that's your Morgan in your Avatar Cooperlola? [Www]
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[quote user="Will "]
Aaah, but Ernie, is there any real difference between the Polish builders and the like in Britain who you perceive as having illegal, uninsured vehicles, and the countless British in France who have never bothered to make their vehicles legal, even after several years in a lot of cases?[/quote]It may well be more of a perception Will because in these days of ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) it's becoming more and more difficult to get away with driving a car illegally but I still wonder where they find the money. The bare fact is though, that for some it's far more economical to buy a £50 banger which will be confiscated and crushed when stopped and discovered than to pay for MOT, Tax and insurance, and believe me, there is a huge amount of this is going on.
As for a difference, yes, there is a big one. The eastern europeans at least have half an excuse because they probably find it hard to afford insurance in the UK whereas I'm certain that the vast majority of expat brits in France can easily afford it but choose either to deliberately flout the law of their host country or at very least, bury their heads in the sand, both of which are equally irresponsible acts which, IMHO, actually makes them worse offenders.
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Tres bien, merci beaucoup.....
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[quote user="ErnieY"]Thanks SD, thats one less recurring expense to not worry about.[/quote]
Getting a bit ahead of myself here, meant to ask about testing also, will it need a periodic inspection as per a car ?
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It's alright, I'm better now...........lol
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From another thread and with thanks to SD. Don't know quite how or even if it applies to what you plan to do in France but might be worth noting the min requirements at the end, good luck
[quote]"Your UK "Class 1" is a category C+E licence which is the same as category E(C) in France, ie. vehicle with a PTAC >3.5 tonnes and trailer > 750kg.
All licences issued by an EU state are valid in all other EU states. You may exchange your UK licence for a French one if you wish and you will receive the same entitlements as on your existing licence.
If you are a UK based driver, you are regarded as a foreign driver and you may drive in France on your UK licence and you remain subject to normal UK LGV training/qualification requirements. If you are resident in France, however, then you are regarded as a "french" driver and as such, there are additional training/qualification requirements, not all of which may apply to you.
FIMO: Formation Initial Minimum Obligatoire (obligatory minimum initial training) - 4 week initial commercial driver training course, obligatory for all new LGV licence holders.
CFP: Certificat de Formation Professionel (Professional Driver Diploma) - 350 hours training with choice of diploma in delivery driving/long distance(artics)/dangerous materials. Diploma recognised as a key qualification by French transport companies. Given that these days, you can take your Class 1/E(C) test using a 10 tonne rigid with a 1 tonne drawbar trailer, I would think the the CFP artic qualification would be a routine requirement for finding employment driving artics, although your UK experience may cover this.
FCOS: Formation Continue Obligatoire de Securite (obligatory continuous safety training ) - 3 day course every five years covering general road safety, current regulations, etc. Attestation issued on successful completion.
Note: A minimim requirement for the above is the ability to read and write in French and perform simple mathematic calculations (addition, subtraction, multiplication,division)[/quote]
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Thanks yet again SD.
Call me an old cynic or whatever but it's symptomatic of why we, my wife and I that is, feel disenfranchised and alienated in our own country and is one of the major reason we've decided to leave it, but this sentiment belongs in a whole different thread doesn't it....!
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Thanks SD, thats one less recurring expense to not worry about.
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[quote user="cooperlola"]That is not comparing like with like is it? Temporarily adding a non-UK european citizen to your own insurance is completely differnent from a european living in the UK who arranges his or her own insurance direct with the company concerned. They will no doubt have to prove no claims over a certain number of years to qualify for their own bonuses[/quote]You are probably quite right technically but what I find a little difficult come to terms with, and I admit I might be totally wrong here, is that I can't really believe some of the countries in question have a mature enough systems to even demand compulsory insurance let alone operate a no claims bonus scheme and if the incoming migrants are as poor as we're led to believe where are they finding the hundreds, if not thousands of pounds in the inner cities, to pay for insurance?
To get back to my original question though:
[quote user="ErnieY"]does this mean you have to declare a third party driver to the insurance BEFORE they are allowed to drive your vehicle?[/quote]
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[quote user="Will "]Thus insurers will set a driver profile for your policy, and anybody who comes outside that profile, as a higher perceived risk, will be excluded[/quote]So does this mean you have to declare a third party driver to the insurance BEFORE they are allowed to drive your vehicle?
I understood the French system to be similar to that in Germany where the car is insured and anyone can drive it but if there was an accident and the driver proved to be someone outwith your profile the owner can face a massive excess so the incentive is to not lend your car anyone you don't know or trust.
BTW, anybody ever tried putting a non british driver, i.e. visiting friend from say Germany, on their policy in the UK?
I have and it's nigh on impossible. First question always is "does he have a british driving licence" errr no - he's German - second question "has he resided in the UK for the past 12 month's" errr no - he's German and unsurprisingly lives in Germany, then comes the inevitable, sorry sir, we can't insure him then....!
Another question to ponder: How do some of our recently arrived "eastern europeans" bretheren get insurance in the UK, or is this just another example of positive discrimination in their favour and it's an "un PC" question to ask ?
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Interesting thread as I have a Bateson Towavan box Trailer http://www.batesontrailers.com/trailer-detail.asp?ID=6&cat=1 which will be used for the eventual move and then kept in France so will require registration. Thankfully, being in excellent condition and of known make, the neccessary paperwork should be pretty straightforward and who knows, I might even be able make the odd Euro here and there (or at least score a bottle of wine) by helping friends or neighbours move a bit of furniture etc.!
Actually I think the idea of trailer registration is generally very good and I'm quite amazed that it doesn't exist in the UK. Over the years I've seen some pretty apalling and dangerous looking devices being towed behind cars and vans, and very often at ridiculous speeds too.
I have one question though and that is, is the registration a one off or periodically renewable, the latter I would guess ?
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[quote user="Leslauriers"]When you do come to pay it, it will be based upon your French tax return, normally, gross salary less 10% plus any other income (savings interest etc).[/quote]Thought it probably would be. What do they usually require as evidence of income, P60 or more, such as bank statements or payslips not that any of those are a problem.
Seems like an opportune moment to plump for a significant salary sacrifice with my employer which reduces my salary by x% with that amount then going into my pension plan, effectively as a company contribution, which then won't appear on my P60 as income. Gotta play the game !
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Thanks for the input, I will of course be talking to the DWP in due course.
Has anyone got any answers for the prime question though which is: are CPM contributions based on gross or net salary?
I doubt I'll get anywhere with UK Customs & Revenue on this one!
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When we actually move over to France, which will be in the spring or early summer hopefully, my wife will be permanantly resident and not working whereas, for the first couple of years at least, I intend to continue working in the UK commuting on a 2 weeks UK - 3 weeks France basis. I will continue to pay tax & NI in the UK on what might be considered a fairly high salary.
I understand that when I come to pay the 8% CPM contribution it will be based on my income but is that gross income or net ?
Also, even though the French house will be our only residence, it would no hardship for me to ensure I was not in the country for more than 183 days in which case what would the French take on that be ?
If it were to my advantage I might even consider purchasing a modest property in the UK and making that my official principal residence.
Don't misunderstand me, I'm not trying to wriggle out of paying the CPM but 8% of my current income (be it gross or net!) would amount to a not insignificant sum of money and the fact is that, so long as I remain with my UK employer I'll be paying NI on top of which both my wife and I are comprehensively covered by a private health plan so certainly if either of us needed elective treatment we could get it done in the UK. Emergencies (god forbid) should be covered for her under the E106 and me under my EHIC.
After I've given up my job it'll be a different story of course and once fully resident in France I'll be happy to pay my share (well perhaps not exactly happy!) because I believe that initially the contribution will be based on the previous 2 years income so will be painful.
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[quote user="Bobh"]want to see the area in the bad weather/cold time.... [/quote]Yeah right, that was our idea too, hence house hunting in November, but it was bl**dy 23deg and wall to wall sunshine damnit...!
Didn't stop us buying though so maybe we'll see what it all looks like in the gloom later this month when we come over to complete.
We're in Lot (46) so can't really help with your request but good luck in your search.
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It's probably getting a bit 11th hour now but these people will handle the whole deal from start to finish for about £2k +vat I think.
Included in this is assistance with connecting/transferring utilities etc. etc.
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We had an English speaking Notaire for our Compromis and after going through it initially with the estate agent (English), we then all trooped over to the Notaires office, thats us, the estate agent and the vendor (no English), where we worked through each and every paragraph in both French and English so at the end nobody was in any doubt as to the terms.
Ours was probably about as simple a transaction as they come but nevertheless it was a very useful exercise because there were on or two points which needed clarifying.
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[quote user="Bob T"]I have a picture of my bikes GPS showing a maximum speed attained of 238 kmh, does that mean I am bad? Should I tell myself off?
[/quote]On a public road I'd say mad rather than bad, different if it was on a race track of course. -
I don't know where you are but Pretty's in Ipswich have a French lady partner who has handled some issues for us.
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Twas I but I simply followed Mutiara's own link..................
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Nice track from Willie Dixon, If anybody else would like to have it PM me.
After many years listening to 70's prog rock I'm leaning more and more towards real deep south blues.
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Seems like a good choice and there is a review here:
http://www.trustedreviews.com/networking/review/2006/01/04/NetGear-DG834PN-Wireless-ADSL-Router/p1
however, if you can wait and know anyone who's coming over in the near future it is available in UK for considerably less than 149 Euros.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000BRYOQ8/pricegracom-21/ref=nosim
Probably still cheaper to buy in UK and have it posted.
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I'm not in the least upset David and no apologies necessary. Computers can be very scary things to the layman, doubly daunting in a foreign language.
I must admit though I'd never thought of installing Adobe Acrobat Reader as a family affair and I can vividly imagine the scene so don't blame you in the slightest for giving up!
If you do feel brave enough to give it another go, perhaps in the dead of night when you have no "assistants", then The 2 boxes which pop up are a copyright warning and the location to install to, on both of which you just click NEXT. Finally there is a Thank You message which you can just dismiss and thats it. This is for the English version of course but I can't imagine it's any different for the French.
Good luck with the neighbours by the way...!
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[quote user="David"]Even if both principals died e.g. in a car crash, then our children, or other heirs, would be liable to complete the purchase[/quote]I'm afraid I have to disagree with this because before signing our Compromis we asked the question "what if one or both of us died" and were told by the Maitre herself that, unless the a survivor still wished to go ahead with the purchase, that it would automaticaly be grounds to withdraw and get the deposit returned.
New kind of Widowhood
in The Complete France Post Bag
Posted
[quote user="Teamedup"]I do have a friend whose other half who works in the North Sea. She is dreading his retirement and I don't blame her... [/quote]This is similar to our situation except that I don't think my OH is dreading it, or at least she hasn't said so...!
We'll have be 40 years married next year and without doubt the 8 weeks we both took off to hunt for our French house is the longest we have ever spent together, certainly since the mid 70's anyway, and utterly in each other's pockets 24/7 to boot so it was good practice.
I'm planning to carry on working for a couple of years so it's going to be pretty tough on her initially but lets hope she feels the same then when she's properly settled in with a circle of friends and routines for me to disrupt !