whistleway

Many thanks for that, I'd better start making some phone calls, now had a moving date, 14/3/07 to Creuse.

My wife and I and my elderly mother in law are on our way to France in the next couple of months, we are below  retirement age and will not be working. Can someone give us a potted version of who we need to inform and what forms we need to complete re social security and tax

Thankyou everyone for the replies, I can't say all my concerns are gone, but at least now I have a good idea about the ways I can go about it. As is patently obvious, If your vendor is agreeable to the Clause Suspensive and also your house sale in the UK goes fine, no problem, otherwise it's in the lap of the gods.

I take your points, however, remortgaging or a bridging loan are not a viable option for us, our purchase depends on equity release. We can't afford to lose a 20K deposit, but we have horses moving with us and so can't sell first and then buy after. 

The seller has indicated that he would be happy with a 6 month completeion date, earlier if need be, so hopefully my pint will stay half full and there will be no problems

Thanks for the info Clair, I had heard that somewhere before, but the Immobilier we are dealing with told us that we could not make our sale a condition.

I'll shortly be in a position to make a formal offer on a property in the Limousin. Once the deposit is paid and the 7 day cooling off period has passed, what happens to the deposit should my house sale in the UK collapse? Is there any thing I can do to protect it? Paranoid yes, Pessimistic yes!