NormanH

The problem is I think that at the beginning you aren't sure that they are not going to pay. It's easy to let it drag on so the first serious steps don't get taken for several months. I know that there are all sorts of arguments about the rights and wrongs of property, but it's clear that there are bad tenants as well as bad landlords. In my area I see lots of evidence of both (you can see the comments at the end of the article). It is a bit of a minefield even for French people of modest means, let alone for British people unsure in the language and not totally aware of the various laws.

This account (in French) tells a horror story: for those less sure in the language, I will explain briefly. A working  woman bought a house to let so she would later have a retirement income. She let it at 564 €, but the occupants stopped paying in November 2007, having been in arrears before, and have never shown evidence of insurance. She went to a lawyer and got an eviction order, but the phrase expelled by 'la force publique' was ommitted, so there was a delay in executing it, until after the beginning of November, when the new 'trève' came into force. Having hoped to recuperate her house a few days ago, she now has no hope before March 15th 2009. She is owed €7600 and has €2000 legal costs to pay.

[quote user="Pierre ZFP"]Hey Frenchie, just an idea but you may want to look at John McCain's speech too. Very dignified in defeat, it did the man a lot of credit I think.  I'm still glad that he and Moose-Head didn't win though   [/quote] I agree. I think they both came out of it with credit.

Followed it on AlJazeera International. The best election night coverage I have ever seen.

For Example: Selon la loi de finances 2008, votée en décembre 2007, 10 postes budgétaires dépassent la dizaine de milliards d'euros pour un budget total de 355,2 Md€.[5] La segmentation des postes budgétaires est définie, dans les faits, par la répartition des portefeuilles ministériels lors de la formation du Gouvernement. Ainsi, par exemple, Jean-Louis Borloo, Ministre de l'environnement, du développement et de l'aménagement durables (MEDAD) gère dans une seule mission budgétaire, dans la loi de finances 2008, les crédits finançant l'intervention de l'Etat dans le domaine de l'Environnement, de l'Aménagement du Territoire ou encore des Transports. Cela étant, la classification établie par l'État, en 2008, est la suivante [6]: Remboursements et dégrèvements : 83,1 milliards d'euros;Enseignement scolaire : 59,3 milliards d'euros;Engagements financiers de l'état : 42,4 milliards d'euros;Défense : 36,8 milliards d'euros;Recherche/Enseignement supérieur : 23,3 milliards d'euros;Sécurité : 15,9 milliards d'euros;Travail et emploi : 12,3 milliards d'euros;Solidarité : 12 milliards d'euros;Gestion des finances publiques : 11,3 milliards d'euros;Ecologie, aménagement, développement durable : 10,1 milliards d'euros; Le poste le plus important est celui de la mission "remboursements et dégrèvements". Il s'agit, entre autres, d'exonérations d'impôts nationaux et locaux ou de conséquences naturelles de l'application de la loi fiscale : c'est notamment le cas pour le remboursement de la TVA, qui est le premier programme de cette mission et qui est constitué du montant de la TVA déductible que les entreprises ont supporté sur leurs achats . Ce montant de TVA déductible est perçu dans l'impôt et apparaît ainsi dans les recettes brutes. Il est ensuite redistribué par remboursement et apparaît à ce titre dans les dépenses. Le premier programme de cette mission, retraçant une partie des crédits compris dans le budget des Charges Communes au sens de l'ordonnance de 1959, est donc une ligne de trésorerie que l'Etat assure aux entreprises. Les autres programmes de cette mission importante comportent notamment les dispositifs d'allégement de l'impôt sur les sociétés, pour partie et certaines des mesures relatives aux impositions locales, entre autres le coût du plafonnement de la taxe d'habitation des contribuables à revenus modestes. Le troisième poste de dépense de l'État (42,4 Md€) correspond principalement au service de la dette de l'État, c'est-à-dire le paiement des intérêts et le remboursement du capital générés par la dette (environ 922 millions d'euros au 31 janvier 2008 ). Cette dépense effective est d'un montant proche du déficit du budget (différence entre les dépenses et les recettes) qui est de 41,7 Md€ Source

Thanks Clair. Have installed it and will try.

The Firefox French dictionary add-on works as a spell check for both webmail and Pop mail if you are using Thunderbird. The advantage is that you don't need to type in any French accents. You type the word in without, and if you have French enabled as the language option any words which need accents are underlined in red. Click on them and the accented version replaces the original. I use this even though I type on a French keyboard, in case of error. Changing the language option back to English is simple. I even use the British English add on, as I hate having words like colour or Theatre corrected by my spell check.

I also use Glary Utilities  which does several things in one programme, as well as Crap Cleaner mentioned above. A useful site for freeware is here

As I said...

"Les écoles maternelles et élémentaires risquent d'être fortement perturbées le 20 novembre prochain." from Le Figaro suggests to me it's just the primary sector. On the other hand it also says "Ce mouvement sera la temps fort d'une semaine d'action dans toute l'Education nationale (17-21 novembre)" but it sounds like the strike  in the Primarieswill be the high point, so perhaps no strike elsewhere

LeMonde has an analysis in French here It begins (my translation) "When London coughs, Sarlat catches a cold"

I suspect that that may be the case...

There is one in the South who specialises in Dutch/Belgian/German clients as well as British, but I don't think he deals with your area. I suppose it's not allowed to give the link in open forum anyway.

An 'Oldie but Goldie' here perhaps less well known here

Just a point. I thought that if a house was declared as a 'résidence secondaire' the tax d'habitation didn't include the 'rédevance' . It doesn't in my case, but that may be because I already pay it on my 'résidence principale'....

Two other ways 1) If you open a yahoo email with the address as yahoo.fr  (as opposed to yahoo.co.uk for example), the spellcheck will correct any missed accents. You don't even need to put them in at the start... I wrote this without accents, and yahoo corrected it: "j'ai acheté une crème brûlée pour dessert" 2) If you use Firefox you can add a French Dictionary  from here  This has a similar effect of automatic correction.

I have had very good results from emails to the Impôts. Usually an immediate acknowledgment, and the matter dealt with in a few days.  

Don't forget that the CAF pays neither the deposit (which you probably know) nor the first month's rent

How come so many people on a Forum about France are talking about the weather in the UK? On s'en fou...

Perhaps a good reason to stay in the UK, since you obviously find it superior

For those watching the BBC serial  and can read French, you may be interested in the views of the book and the programme expressed by French viewers in this forum Make  a change from reading what British people are saying about France..

If you work you are covered by the payments you have made.(In the case of the OP apparently a year) If you are made redundant or are sacked (but not if you resign) you then get Assedic for a period (about 7  months minimum but it can be longer) and the Assedic pays your social security charges. After that you get gradually reducing cover until you start to pay again. At no point in this process (say 2 and a half years) would you be in the CMU. I am neither a tax expert nor a lawyer, but I have been there and have the T shirt. I am not,   never have been and never will be in the CMU. That is often the case with people who work or run a business in France.

Cerise is giving excellent advice here. I  worked in France from  the mid 90s, until last year and have never really got a job that reflects the sort of work I   was doing in the UK, for the sort of reasons quoted, but in fact my last decent job before retiring was training French graduates who wanted to go to work in the UK primarily London, so I saw things from the other side . Despite EU regulations UK qualifications (or indeed paperwork in general) are often misunderstood in France, and anything you can get together that reflects the French way of doing things will help. There is an emphasis on how many years of study you have done, expressed in "Bac+ and a number" , and much less emphasis on transferable skills. There tends to be a narrow specialized  view of career too, which means that a person employed in one field is regarded as unable to do other work which in the UK would be seen as close to the original. French secondary teachers of some minority subjects  for example are up in arms at the idea they might have to teach something else or re-train, whereas in the UK there are various career paths open to teachers. In terms of learning French, by applying what I found for French people going to the UK I can say that your husband should not just concentrate on technical French. I had students who were qualified pharmacists, accountants, and engineers, and I have also taught medical professionals. In almost every case the technical language didn't really pose major problems. 'Une ortite' is very like ortitis... It is the spoken language of everyday communication which will have to be used from the first day in the workplace with people who don't share the same level of technical expertise that can 'block' , so preferably find a real French teacher who has worked in a real job or in business, and not one who has only ever studied French in a linguistic way. FLE (French as a Foreign language ) exams and courses are covered in an introductory way here  

Did you go all through the process of signing up for the 'club France Televisions' with your email account etc.? Then pay either to rent (2.99 € )  or buy(8.99 € )  the programme? ( prices for the programe about the events of May 1968 as an example, payment by CB, France Télécom, INTERNET+.. I can get that far, but of course the BBC iPlayer is free, and this site , as I said above,  a pay site,so I didn't bother The Bablefish translation isn't much more ridiculous than some of the French translations I have seen suggested on here..

This is the Notaire's site on this topic http://www.notaires.fr/notaires/notaires.nsf/V_TC_PUB/CHANGEMENT-REGIME-MATRIMONIAL