Pumpkin

Am I correct in thinking then that because the conversion of the barns is to habitable space to be used as my principle residence I am liable for this tax? I have a small house that is being renovated that has 2 barns attached to it that are being converted to habitable space. There will be access to the barns from the small house. If you convert a barn to a gite are you still liable? ( not that we will be doing as there are too many already!) Is there any way round this tax?! And to anyone else out there my advice for what it's worth DON'T BUY A BARN!

As we all know with renovations to suddenly have a bill like this even if it can be paid in 2 installments over the next 2 years is an incredible drain on an already diminished budget. Having looked at the rear and explanatory notes it would appear that having been granted planning permission this kindly makes you eligible for this tax. It states you are eligible on construction, reconstruction and enlargement of buildings of all types. It doesn't however mention renovation. It seems a really mean and hefty tax half of which is levied by the commune when you have taken a derilict building and renovated it to the benefit of the commune to then have to give all this money. If you ask me they should be paying us the money! to help with the renovations! I think I need to try and plead my case but can only imagine I will still have to pay!

Oh dear appears I'll have to pay then! Another book again! but I have also read that you can be eligible for exemption from the taxe Fonciere for the first 2-3 years if renovating, is this true? When does this bill come out? as I haven't had one yet. Perhaps if I didn't have to pay this it might go towards this bill! This now means my return to England for 12 months to work to fund the rest of the renovations will now be considerably longer.

Thanks for the replies. The property itself size wise has not changed or been rebuilt merely renovated albeit the barns attached to the house are being converted to living space. I appreciate the book is not the best place to take info from but it is written in 2004. I will need to enquire with the relevant authority and then rob a bank! Has anyone else who's renovated had to pay this?

Having just got up from the floor having received a tax bill for 5237 euros somebody please help me and tell me I'm not going to have to pay this! It is from tresor Public and 2277 is for the taxe locale d'equipement, 683 for taxe dep. pour le C.A.U.E and 2277 for taxe des espaces naturels sensibles. I have read in a book that TLE does not apply to renovation of an existing building or change of use ie a barn which is what we are in the process of doing. Anyone any ideas please!! This is a big bombshell obviously that is completely unexpected.  

The pipes and cables could go behind the plasterboard. The distance you have left from the concrete to the finished floor height if 3" would be just sufficient to put cross batons on and then lay a wooden floor on top. I cannot stress enough though you must have an air flow underneath the wooden floor. To lay tiles now you would need to put the screed down as there has obviously been left the height for the screed to go down.

We have just laid an insulated concrete floor similar to yourselves. It was 10cm of reinforced concrete on top of 6cm of insulation. In some areas we are having tiles and so still need to lay a screed of 5cm. We could have finished the original concrete off to a better smoother finish by floating it thus avoiding having to screed it. I think most people screed on top as it is easier once you have something down to achieve a better finish. Where we are having wooden floors we have allowed about 7.5cm for the batons to lay the wooden floor on. ( so in this area we will not screed) The importance of this is that you need to allow air underneath the wooden floor so it does not rot. You need air to flow underneath that comes in via a vent to outside. Hope this helps a little. I agree that your pipes could have gone in the original floor but will now have to go in the screed or under the floorboards. The whole process boggles the brain and hindsight is a wonderful thing. I would have thought though that a professional could have offered you these options and perhaps saved you some money! which is always nice!

Thanks very much for the e mails. I have one of the suggested coming out to take a look this morning.

Thanks, that sounds more realistic. We live 15 mins from Matha. If you could let me have both no.s I'd appreaciate it.

Thanks for all the pointers in the right direction. I had a quote for 500 euros but I thought this was really expensive. What does anyone else think? We are situated between Cognac and St Jean D'angely. I just need it cutting back as the chopping up we can do.

Does anyone know of anyone who is registered and would be able to considerably cut back a 20 metre tall tree in dept. 17 ? Rather too big for me! Thanks.

Thanks for all of that, my brain is now trying to sort it all out! So as I understand the tax I will pay gets worked out on my tax return each year and my cotisations get worked out my the cotisations man who visits my house (he's in for a treat!) and my assurances which cover me having any accidents are also sorted out. Will I have anything left! I have already purchased a number of tools as I had one of those jungles too and have a large piece of land to mow but I appreciate how costly they can be to maintain. Ty - Thanks for explaining the tea breaks. I too can only grab the odd 5 mins as amongst all the renovations I am looking after 4 children! It will be my husband who will be doing the gardening. I am now going to skin some more of my knuckles removing some old mortar.  

Ty, Thanks this all is really helpful. I have written it all out. Can you please just elaborate on all the abbreviatons so I understand what they are and where I can find them! Only been here 5 months and there has been so much to sort out it blows the mind. But I never thought it would be easy. Hope I'm not as annoying as the man in the car park at the supermarket!!!

I wouldn't have signed on expecting to get anything! Never had a bean in the UK and would certainly not expect anything from a country which I have never financially contributed towards! I have not come to France with the intention of having anything which I have not rightfully earned. By the sounds of it it is a complicated procedure anyway and I think I have enough to think about trying to register a business. Will be off to the Chambre de Commerce later in the week.

Signing on sounds ok, never done it in my life before and I'm up for trying anything new! The gendarmes were fine. I'd only just recovered from the shock of the builder falling off the scaffold, the pompiers arriving and then the gendarmes arrived. Fortunately the builder was working legitimately and not on the black but it re-iterates to you if you have an accident and are working on the black you'd have more than your injuries to worry about! As for the cats, haven't a clue but if you read the earlier replies from what I can gather it's ok as long as it is on a casual basis.

Thanks for all of that. At the moment I am renovating my house so had not really considered that I might be eligible to register as unemployed. What does this involve and does it not seem cheeky under the circumstances. The problem being as with all renovations the budget has been blown and needs to be replenished! I think I need to visit the Chambre de Commerce first and see where we go from there. I want to do everything above board etc so it seems like the place to go. Don't want anyone tearing my house apart for financial info! already had the gendarmes around after an industrial accident! Thanks for the advice re the mower. I have already purchased a tractor mower as I needed one for my own land.

Know what you mean. Don't know what type of van it is but the lights were the biggest expense so would recommend you try to find a friendly scrap dealer who may have a set. Also I have spoken to someone who got their attestation from England and it was all printed in french and cost nothing. If it's not urgent you can probably do it cheaper than I did.

Thankyou. The cloud or as in the case of this morning the fog is beginning to clear! From what I can see as I have all my own  very nice tools and do wish to earn a reasonable living I need to register as a small business. My french is reasonable. At the Chambre de Commerce is it all fairly straight forward or am I going to be blasted with alot of technical french! Do you have to go armed with any paperwork or have any qualifications and does it cost you to register? Can anyone recommend any good books on running a small business here? Thanks to anyone who spends the time trying to explain all this to me, it is appreciated.  

Thanks for that.The picture is becoming clearer! So as I understand if I want to be a casual gardener only and not be in it for that much income I could use the cheque emploi without registering as a business. However if it is to be run with the general intention of making money it needs to be registered as a business and I can do this at the Chambre de Commerce which in turn means I will obtain the siret number. If you are then employed by someone they pay you however rather than with a cheque emploi and then you somehow pay your social charges and tax. Out of interest how do you pay your social charges if you are a registered business???

Thanks but I am still a little confused! If you want to be a self employed gardener do you need to register as a business? If so how do you do this? Is this different to a siret number? Basically what I need to know is if you want to offer your services as a gardener do you need to register as a business, obtain a siret number (whatever that is!) and asked to be paid by cheque emploi. If you are paid by cheque emploi does anyone know how this works? As I understand they pay you whatever rate you decide an hour and then thay have to pay your social security contributions. Is this correct or am I really confused now?!

I have just re registered my vehicle and will give you an idea of the costs involved which were not cheap! First of all I took it to have the controle technique which it failed! Not surprising really. The headlamps failed as even though I had beam benders on they do not conform. It also failed on a rear tyre. Not too bad I thought. Went to Citroen for changing the lights. 590 euros! Changed the rear tyre ourselves and went back. Still no good! Although both rear tyres were legal they were not a matching pair and needed to be, another 280 euros! The attestation from Citroen cost 120 euros. The Centre D'Imports was straight forward just took the registratin document along and was issued with the form. Went to the sous-prefecture with all the documents and was then charged 191 euros to have them sent off! However it has now got it's new plates and the Controle Technique lasts 2 years. The only problem being it is still right hand drive!!! My advice for what it's worth is buy a french car!

I can't quite seem to get straight in my head whether you need a siret number if you are doing occasional work or whether you can just be paid by the cheque d'emploi or whether you need both?? Does it differ on the type of work you are doing? If you are doing self employed gardening must you have a siret number? If so how do you get one please???  

Can anyone please help me out with whether I need any permission off the Mairie to open a Chambres d'hote or any other permission I may need?? I understand as long as it falls into this catagory and not a small hotel that I don't need any internal regs like fire exits, alarms etc although I personally will put them in anyway. Thanks.