bigears

Hi I would think the european countries will be forced into it,  there's too many illegals and folks ducking and diving.  Best advice I believe for all retired ex-pats is to keep a residence in the uk, just in case things go wrong and a return to the motherland is called for.

hi I think its about time we have a mechanism to prove residency in whichever european country we are resident.  I have untility bills in my name in both the uk and france.  The current system allows ducking and diving.  Lets not also forget that one of the couple is seriously ill. 

hi I as a uk resident with a maison secondaire in france would have to pay gct (in the uk) on the sale of my french house.  Why should it not be the case the other way around?

Another, yes but how does a non technically minded motorist constantly verify that their car is road worthy?  I am my own mechanic and am  vigilant with regard to any issues to do with our cars.  Having said that our uk based car has a problem which could be dangerous, mind it passed its mot with it.  It judders when I brake, I will fix it when next back in uk and the weather is amenable.  For non mechanically minded owners how often does a car visit a garage?  Also I must say my experience of the quality of workmanship of car mechanics is very inconsistent.  I just put our transit into the local ford dealers (I do 99% of my own work) to see if they could find a water leak which was rusting the passenger footwell.  They told me I needed a new windscreen as there was a crack in it and the water was coming in through it.  Well we have had the water leak for 2 plus years and I had never noticed te very obvious crack before.   One of the young mechanics must have tried levering off the platic piece covering the down pillar by the side of the screen with a screw driver and caused the crack.  So I must pay 48 euros to have the insurance company fund a new unecessary windscreen when all that was probably needed was some mastic in the right place.  I've just changed a set of glowplugs today, would I let a garage mechanic do it, not on your life they break too many and it costs the owner dear.  

Hi have decided to let the insurance company deal with it as the plastic parts are so expensive.  Thinking about selling it in the summer and buying a sym xs 125 moto just to keep me on two wheels.

hi thanks chancer, the gendarmes did register the details and did phone up the company.  I'm leaning towards claiming on the insurance but I don't think they will be able to pin the blame on the other party with no independent witnesses.  

hi The scooter is french registered and the insurance is with a AGF.  I am non resident here, its a fact not a claim. 

hi We had a low speed spill on monday as we negotiated some road works that were controlled by traffic lights.  A digger was working moving a large pile of gravel which covered three quarters of the road.  I was proceeding slowly towards him when he swing the digger arm towards me, I turned left to avoid him and lost the bike in the mud at the side of the road.  The workmen were't interested as the boss said we didn't hit you.  If I had continued straight on he would have.  Actually during the time we were at the accident spot one of the workmen was injured, not sure how, he was hit on the head by something pehaps the other digger, the workmen were a real bunch of cowboys.  Went to the local gendarmary told them the tale, said the driver was working dangerously and had caused the accident.  They took down some details but weren't interested in doing anything about it. To put the bike back into as new condition would be expensive, perhaps 800 euros as plastic panels are expensive and the exhaust has a  significant dent in it.  The scooter is a burgman 400 sept/07.  Not sure if I should claim on my insurance or just do the minimum repairs to it out of my own pocket.  I will loose 2 years of my 50% bonus and have to pay 10% of the repairs.  Any advice about how to proceed would be apprciated, especially aby implications of claiming on my insurance.

hi Currently what movement restrictions apply to vehicles registered as 'voiture de collection'?

hi ok just the wifes toothbrush, I've been using the socket in the light to power a 300w halogen spot light.  This was the only socket functioning at the time upstairs as I did the elctrics.  What I think I will do is to put both the lamps on a single circuit, I've a number of spare fuses in the box.  Thanks for your help.

hi could anyone in the know tell me how to wire in a couple of fluorescent lights which are to be placed above mirrors above our bathroom sinks. They also have a socket for a shaver/toothbrush/hairdryer incorporated in them. Do they go on their own circuit/fuse or can they go into a socket circuit or a lighting circuit? I cannot see it in my french electricity book.

hi Pickles last post may be technically correct but in practice how does an ex pat prove they are french resident?  We have vehicles on both sides of the channel and fly as much as we can, at the moment we have our gb reged car at our french maison secondaire.  If I want to move bulky items to france I would (and have) driven my french reged transit to the uk and back.  In practice you will not have a problem as long as you are not abusing the system i.e. living in the uk with a foreign reged vehicle to avoid car tax, congestion charges.  One or two other points, I think if you are french resident and intend to stay, its best to change your licence.  If you are as a uk resident taking a french registered vehicle to the uk on a short trip make sure you have proof of a return ticket.  If the worst case senario were to happen, you could say 'we are in the process of becoming french resident'. 

hi thanks for that tip, I've just done it for the non freesat channels, not a bad deal all this built into a television.

hi unpacked the lg telivision and it had freesat working in a few minutes.  Needed to enter a valid uk postcode, which wasn't difficult.  Only station I havn't got is sky news, not a loss really.  Will try and see what I can get with the in built freeview connected to my old analogue french tv arial that has been on my roof since we bought the house.  If nothing then no matter.  Telivisions are cheap in the uk.

hi We have just bought an lg with both freesat and freeview.  If anyone is interested I'll post how we get on when we get back to france.

hi Has anyone experience of installing or running a freesat box (e.g. humax foxsat hd http://www.richersounds.com/product/freeview-freesat-pvr/humax/foxsat-hd/huma-foxsathd-box ) or a telivision with built in freesat (e.g. http://www.richersounds.com/product/lcd-tv/panasonic/viera-txl32g10b/pana-txl32g10b ) in france. I am led to believe you can just connect them up to your sky dish whith its current orientation and away you go. 

hi if you have two good tyres of the same make, hunt out another two of that same make.

Join the euro! It will never happen now, in my grandsons primary school they are teaching them about feet and inches.  The uk will be lucky to remain within the community as any referendum will be a resounding, NO.  Mr Blair has a lot to answer for.  House prices in the traditional cheap areas of france have just gone back to what they were, cheap.  People who have spent good money on doing houses up in these areas will struggle on selling to recover their costs.  We live in interesting times. 

hi forget the 6 months, in practice you only become french resident when you declare yourself as such.  Come back ron all is forgiven, this forum is dead without you.

hi just caught this thread.  I try only to use my nationwide card to withdraw cash, normally 300 euros at a time.  At the supermarket I always use cash.  Very ocassionally when I have to pay a larger bill that I don't have the cash for, I have used my nationwide card and it hasn't failed to succeed.

Its going down, down, down ..... Media is talking about the euro becoming the hard currency, rather than the dollar. Also said that sterling may endup trading less than a euro. In the past some posters on this forum were talking about the demise of the euro. What now mi lads?

hi actually my sister in law was medically assessed in france, by a french doctor in Toulouse working on behalf of the uk.

hi How would removing a person off IB down to unemployment (jobseekers?) benefit affect ex pats here in france?  Would the IB claimant on loosing their benefit not be able to claim UK unemployment benefit as its not exportable? 

voters should not be asked to vote on such an issue as it becomes more of a vote on how people feel about the EU itself. 

I agree, best out of 3, as who is to say the current vote is more valid than the first.