Cirrus

It is not a Liquidation Judicaire - I have checked that. The exact wording is that the company "a été dissoute amiablement". The new owners have changed the name of the company, and it appears to be continuing to trade - the office is still open and staffed, website is still open. Would they need to go into voluntary liquidation to change the name of the company?

Three years ago in October 2007 I took my former employer to the Prud'homme for unfair dismissal. After about eighteen months of litigation, I won the case and was awarded damages. Unfortunately there was a simple error in the Prud'hommes judgement, so that about a third of the damages were omitted from the "condamnation". My former employer paid the major part of the damages, but failed to pay the omission from the "condamnation". I was therefore forced to litigate again for a "rectification material" - normally a formality. My former employer even sent a letter apologising for the error and promised to pay by November 2009. My avocat therefore advised withdrawing the further litigation, which I duly did. However, my former employer sold the company just before the deadline for his promise. The new owner disregarded this promise, so I had to resubmit the appeal for "rectification material". The new owner used every trick his lawyer could find to delay the appeal for nearly a year. Finally the appeal came before the Prud'homme yesterday (25 Oct 2010 - three years after my initial claim!) - and I won again, this time with puntive damages awarded to me. My lawyer has done a search on the solvency of the adverse party, and has found that they went into voluntary liquidation shortly before my final appeal was heard. So what are my chances of finally receiving the sums owed to me? My suspicion is that the voluntary liquidaton was not related to my appeal, and was more likely because the new owner wished to merge the French company with his existing German company - their websites are now unified. However, this is only a guess on my part. So if the French company has gone into voluntary liquidation, will the debts be passed to the German parent company?

hello, I live in France permanently. I have been offered an employment contract either on Austrian contractual terms (income tax and social charges paid in Austria) or on an "offshore" basis where I take care of my own tax and social charges. I know how to work out the tax that I will pay using the impot.gouv.fr site, but is there a similar site that I can use to work out my social charges?

This unfortunately does seem to be the way it is going. We made a proposal that we would accept his illegal construction to date, as long as he signed an agreement not to undertake any further construction without clearing it with the lotissement committee. He refused.

Does anybody know a bank that will accept fax or internet trnsfer requests from UK to France? My existing banks (Natwet and Nationwide) are now hopeless - Nationwide insist that I present myself personally at the UK branch, and Natwest will only accept a request by letter. Even the latter is too slow to take advantage of occasional brief improvements in the exchange rate.

I do have written permission from my old neighbour, but as you point out maybe this is not enough. But somebody told me that there is a time limitation (2 years?) for making a complaint about a contravention of building regulations. Can anybody clarify this? I am indeed trying to negotiate some sort of amicable settling of this conflict, but he is not a reasonable person at all. He is well known in the town as somebody very difficult to deal with, and indeed was very unpopular at his last place of work and in his last neighbourhood. Our fear is that if we do not get some constraint on him now, then he will see this as a green light to do whatever he wants.

I have a new neighbour who has flouted all our lotissment construction rules by putting in an oversize pool without permission from us or the other adjoining neighbours, elevating his garden and concreting it over completely, chopping down the dividing hedges and building wooden fences in their place. We sent him a registered letter when he started, explaining to him that he needed to get permission for alterations from the lotissment committee - but he ignored this advice. We now have no choice but to take legal action against him. His response is to threaten to initiate legal action against me and the other adjoining neighbours. He points out that my pool is less than the regulation three metres from his property - which is true. However, I had written permission for my pool from the previous neighbour when I built it in 2002. Will my obnoxious new neighbour have any claim against me?

I pay my taxes here - how long am I legally obligded to keep documentation such as bank statements to support my tax declarations? I heard from one reliable source (a tax adviser) that the last seven years are required, but from another reliable source (a lawyer) that only the previous five years are required. I note also that EDF bills state that the documents has to be kept for five years. So who is correct?