Stan Streason

Again i agree whenever and whatever you book through Ryanair you must use caution. but even as a gold club member at Hertz i still find it cheaper to book a car with Hertz using the Ryanair link rather than booking direct from the Hertz website!! Shoop As a gold card member try and find a discount code to attach to your account, it will be there for evermore. I was an Institute of Directors member for a year and have received their "discount" ever since. I then end up with Hertz prices under Ryanairs.

Look at Country Kiln. Their prices are very reasonable and they delivered to France (17) for £130, so the whole thing was much cheaper than buying locally. That said I have had a Jotal in UK for 8 years and it has been brilliant. http://www.woodburningstoveslimited.com/

[quote user="Anton Redman"]Under the old system the premium channels for Sports and Movies were paired to the box but the cheaper subscription to Discovery etc were not paired. Which channels have you subscribed for ? [/quote] that would explain why when I put my UK multiroom card in the machine in France it gets everything but the premium sports channels.

I wont try to justify the charges because I dont know. I just start from the basis that most people are actually honorable and do a good job, that they would only bill what they have done and their charges have been agreed with whichever creditor was charged with the task of agreeing them. If one starts from the opposite position then there will never be reconciliation.

I will comment about what I know. Of course insolvency practitioners do not necessarily have 200 people sitting around doing nothing but they still have to find them if necessary.  It is easier to squeeze 200 bodies if you employ a thousand than to find one if you employ two.  Many practitioners suffer periods of redundancy themselves in their junior years when times are good for everyone else. Austin Mitchell has been making a rent-a-quote name for 20 odd years slagging off accountants.  Any other name but his in the article would have commanded more respect. There are some interesting comments after the article, however they seem to come down on opposite sides which will never meet.  You either believe that someone should earn what he is worth (how many people in the world could undertsand enough about Lehmann Brothers to liquidate it?) or that its not worth bothering to train, work hard and be exceptional because anything over £30,000 is crooked.  Its surprising how no one seems bothered that a nobodies like Jade Goodey or Jordan (or an x factor winner) can earn millions in a couple of years but someone exceptional in their business field working a lifetime and reaching the top of their profession somehow is not entitled.  Yet I would bet that more of the "celebrities" income is earned from the less well off sections of our society than that of a top business professional.

Satellite and Sky Gnome. They are still available on Ebay. Mine works well, can be taken into the kitchen and down the garden. Also gets the cricket. Sitting by the pool listening to Test Match Special is a wonderful thing.

I'm not going to get into an argument about so called circa or "not abnormal" charges. If Ernst & Young charge £700ph for a partner I cannot see any of the competition charging nearly 30% more. Where did the £200 for secretarial services come from? Unfortunately you gave an overall background on the vultures without actually presenting any facts on a thread where it patently is not the case. Why do the big jobs go to the big firms? Because smaller firms dont have the skill or probably more relevant the resources. How many firms have 200 people sitting around so they can go into every Woolworths store at the drop of a hat? Administration, especially when continuing trading for a period is very labour hungry. Smaller firms just cannot cope. You cannot say "just delay everything a couple of weeks and we will get around to it" or "it will take us a couple of months to secure the assets and deal with creditors and staff because we only have one person spare". The first couple of weeks of an administration are key with dozens of people working 15+ hour days 7 days a week.

actually I knew nothing of the facts behind speedferries before starting on this thread. Before anyone else starts bandying about blame, all the facts and reports are on the Speedferries web-site including a detailed analysis of administrators time costs. This shows that at partner/director level (£700 per hour not 900 as previously stated) only 55 hours were charged by far the largest amount on employee matters. This is out of just under 3000 hours charged in total. Reading the reports briefly it seems like the company was always undercapitalised and when fuel costs and currency costs went against them, losses spiralled. The ship was actually impounded by the French for over £1m of unpaid fees and therefore income had stopped. The bank could not stump these up as it would have been deemed to have been a preference in any case. Even some secured creditors remained unpaid. I have no idea who the purchasers of the ship were but read the reports - the company received only derisory offers to be sold as a going concern and the offer finally accepted was the biggest one available. It was still £8m. Bank of Scotland received about £6m of the £10m owed to it so they effectively funded the administrators.

[quote user="Iceni"]Interesting that no-one seems to blame the company directors and managers for running Speedferries so badly that the company sank. John[/quote] If they did it will come out in the administrators report and they will be rightly blamed. My argument is that this should not be the default position before the facts are known

Give me strength. Seeing something on TV or in the Mail does not mean that it is the universal truth and you should base your opinion on it. I will restrict myself to a couple of points. I have been a practising accountant for over 25 years. In that time I have been with one of the triple barreled names (although it was only double barrel when I was there) I have been with just a slightly smaller firm (but with a large insolvency department) and my current firm is much smaller and does not do this work. In all this time I have probably had 6 clients go into liquidation. In every one it was a heartbreaking decision forced upon them for differing circumstances. In each one the director/owners lost their livings and in a couple of cases all of their assets to meet personal guarantees. Branding them (and thousands like them) as crooks is just plain wrong. As for administrators, most banks have panels of firms they would be prepared to appoint which have pre agreed charge out rates. Insolvency practices do make money in what for everyone else are difficult times but they dont make money when everyone else is making hay. Quoting one isolated charge out rate is pointless unless you also know how many hours were charged and what type of work it entailed

[quote user="Dog"]I have had various run ins with Administrators often they are from big accountacy firms with triple barreled names. I have stood up in creditors meetings and voiced the opinion that the administrators are crooks. They have said that if I repeat this they will sue me so I always repeat the phrase. I was never sued. They use the insolvency law in very closed ways to make lots of money themselves. It is always rather interesting the companies that have no money and go bust can always afford the very best liquidators. One trick they employ is to charge very high fees and return money to the directors/owners of the bust company out of this fee after the company is quietly wound up. Now you understand why the most expensive insolvency firms are employed. It is these sort of abuses and lack of morals in business that resulted in the banking crisis. Just go bust - don't pay the creditors - someone else will pick up the bill - we don't lose and phoenix next week. The banking crisis will happen again because not one of them is being held responsible. Limited liability for directors should end and company liquidations and winding up should be done by the CPS.[/quote] Showing your predudices or not? Yes big accountancy firms only employ people with triple barreled names - they are all crooks and its all a conspiracy with the banks. It seems to me that you are the one going around making accusations yet not backing it up. If administrators are doing what you say then its illegal and if you can prove it then report it. If you cant then its just unfounded rumour. You clearly believe that anyone who fails in business is a crook which is totally incorrect. Unfortunately the stigma attached to failure in this country is so great that people rarely get the chance to learn from their mistakes. The situation is not so bad in America where many of the most successful entrepreneurs have had a failure or two in their past. Great remedy for future growth. End limited liability, prosecute all risk takers. Let the state do everything

No it doesnt. As well as having 2 cables to the dish you need to be paying the £10 per month additional fee to Sky for the service (and then they will insist on phone line etc)

[quote user="johnnyboy"]Blimey Stan,do you live in a chateau or suchlike? Our house is a barn conversion of approx 230sq m, albeit in a tiny hamlet,but our TDH is going to be €734 for the year. [/quote] I was thinking about both.

I post this here because it is as much of a tax question as a renovation one. At the back of my house I have 2 rooms of about 10sqm each.  There is an existing door from the kitchen but because of the levels the rooms (which are currently earth floored) have about a 3ft drop (currently no steps.) One of the rooms has a small bricked up window and I want to put in a door to the back garden.  One room will then be used as the equivalent of the garden shed with access from outside and the other as a utility room for washing machine / storage etc. with access from the kitchen. Assuming all paperwork is in order, declaration de travaux approved etc can anyone give me a rough guess on how these 2 additional rooms would affect my tax bills if at all..  These are "nice to haves" rather than "must haves" so dont want to let myself in for a big extra annual liability. Am happy for the answers to be as vague as "not much" or "its a real consideration" etc. Thanks

[quote user="Martin963"]Secret actually is to check the TV is capable of tuning system L. [/quote] Please dont take this the wrong way but for the majority of us its easier to go to the manufacturers website, download the installation instructions and see if a country option is included (or even see if the man in Curry's can show you) rather than hunt for system L.  I wouldnt know where or how to start to do that. Whilst not particularly pushing Samsung though the gist of my post was to say it is certainly possible with their TV's (and series 4 is not particularly recent - they are up to 6 or 7 now).

S D.  Thanks for that.  Given that in the UK everyone collects taxes in advance the concept of payment in arrears just seems so counter intuative to me. As I said earlier thats a bit of a result because I had always earmarked about €1,500 to pay out now that I no longer have to.  It normally works the other way round.  (And yes I must remember this when I sell).

There has been an element of confusion about this so I report what I did this weekend. Had purchased a series 4 Samsung TV in UK at over £100 cheaper than its French equivalent. In France I wired it all up then it entered setup. 1st question Language  _  English 2nd question Country _  France 3rd question Do you want to search for analogue, digital or both  _  Both Away it went.  After about 10 mins I have 5 analogue channels and 9 digital (although some are scrambled) and all I have is an internal antennae. So a resounding yes. Modern UK TV's (or at least Samsung's) do work in France

The attached is a cut and paste from Sky Freestat FAQ's page. Q: I already have Sky digital satellite equipment - what else do I need? A: All you need to gain access to the free channels available on the digital satellite platform is a Freesat from Sky viewing card, which costs just £20. If you’d like to access the interactive services available, you’ll also need a working phone line. To purchase a viewing card please phone Sky on 08448 244 400 I ordered one from my UK address and now have it working in my French house.  Easy no problems. As a matter of interest I took one of my multiroom cards down with me this weekend.  Although it wouldnt pick up the premium sports channels I pay for (card not matched to box) it did pick up everything else (Sky 1 SSN etc)

Taxe Fonciere and Habitacion. I know that TF is proportioned in the year of a new owner but TH is payable in full by the house owner in January. Please can someone confirm for the bills currently being received the "year" they relate to please. I purchased in Feb and paid a proportion of TF to the previous owner.  Whilst I initially presumed that this was paid in advance I subsequently understand that the current TF bills relate to 2009 and as I have already paid the previous owner, I have nothing to pay now. I had assumed I still had to pay the TH now (in advance of next Jan) but chatting to my local Mayor on Friday evening he said (but not particularly confidently I thought) that the current TH bills relate to 2009 also and is therfore payable by the previous owner leaving me again with nothing to pay now. Good news like this never happens to me so I would be grateful for confirmation from someone who has their TH bill in front of them. Thanks

The most numerous flashing lights I have seen are "beware speed radar ahead" and a big thank you to everyone (even if sometimes I was not going above the limit).

Typical of this part of the forum.  I log off yesterday thinking my question has been answered and next day!!!!! I have sky freesat and a sky gnome for getting the radio in another room.  My existing ancient tv gets about 4 french channels through an indoor aerial with booster.  It seems a shame being in France and not watching any French TV as that must help with my language skills. I will at least try to set it up now.  If it changes in a couple of years - thats just about par for the course.  I will report on here on Monday how it goes. Thanks for the input. Just out of interest I got it for £314 from Amazon and I believe the equivalent in France is about €440.

Thank you both for your answer and its simplicity - I actually understood it and I cant say that about many posts in this section.

[quote user="plod"]La Pavoni - to paraphrase a line from Midnight Cowboy "it's the only one".[/quote] Had one of those.  Good but eventually took too long, the coffee holder is too small 52 as against 58 for the Gaggia and too many things to be inconsistent with.  Really lookd the part though

[quote user="AnOther"]Most TV's sold these days will be multi standard and will work virtually anywhere. The menu option you mention may just be a language settingd and do nothing else. What you need is the setting for PAL/NTSC/SECAM the latter being the standard in which French TV is broadcast. Some sets do have a digital Freeview receiver built in but there are several variables and we would need to know the make and model of your new TV to tell you exactly what it is capable of. [/quote] Its a Samsung series 4 with freeview  LE32B450C4.  Thanks if you can help

[quote user="Jill"]  Meanwhile, we have got out our Bialetti which we usually just use for camping.  I'm thinking of getting a smaller one.  The one we have does about 3 teacups full, but I like to space out my coffee in a morning, and by the time I get to the second one it's cold.[/quote] Never really got on with my Bialetti's, I find it very difficult to get crema. However if you go this toute try their "Grillo" or "mini express".  Both of these pour coffee directly into the cup