buying a house

[AnOther]

I'm sorry for your loss and I can empathise with your feelings but as others have said I don't see the basis for a complaint. I also don't see the fact that they are expats being indicative of anything.

It's not the vendors fault that you are in another country and need to make an expensive special journey to view a property which you may have turned down anyway. If they had given you first refusal perhaps but even then nobody can afford to turn away a buyer prepared to sign a compromis, and don't forget that is all that has happened, the sale could still fall through for any number of reasons.

Even though it's only land and not a house you cannot possibly know the reason for selling and the degree of urgency which may be attached to it, for all you know they may need to sell ASAP and at almost any price to pay a mortgage on the house they do live in and avoid losing that !

[quote user="lynne"]Any how it dosent look as if its

going to happen because if the business about the house wasn't bad

enough the comments on the forum have really put me off.

It's a world recession I know and year on year we've seen how far our euros go I'm not completley green.[/quote]

Frankly Lynne if that is how you really feel and not just your frustration talking then I'm a little puzzled as to why you were looking in the first place. You don't sound really committed to France so they may have actually done you a favour !

[lynne]

Morning

Having slept on things and having added up the true cost in excess of £370 I have to accept that not everyone is like me.  I turned down an offer on my house to await the offer from a couple who were madly in love with my property.

I think it was the reaction from the French Immobiler who herself was in tears at the way things had been handled, who had the full story and said they could have waited untill today.  After all they have hedged their bets who knows I may have fallen head over heels about the place and offered them more than they have.

Wounds licked onwards and upwards start looking again.

[YCCMB]

I don't know where you live in the UK. I live fairly close to London and spend quite a lot of time there. I have a house in France in a hamlet close to a small village.

The grass (even if there's more of it) is certainly not always greener in France.

I've rarely had people push in front of me in a queue in the UK: in fact, ask people from other countries and they'll almost certainly tell you that the British are renowned for their discipline in queues.

In France, in the back of beyond, there's still crime. Whether it's petty theft, burglary, theft of farm equipment or (in the case of my immediate neighbours) several tons of potatoes, it's happening. As are murder, rape, poverty and violence and so on.

If you don't speak much French, and move to France whilst keeping the UK media as your main source of information, you'll probably never even notice any of the above.

The French health service is a postcode lottery just like the UK, and if you're not at state retirement age (or within 2 years of it) and /or if you have a pre-existing medical condition, you're going to find the lack of an NHS to be a bit costly. In fact, you could stay in the UK and take out private health cover and still be in pocket, I should think.

We have metered water in both countries. It's cheaper for us in the UK. We have similar-sized houses in both countries. Our local taxes are a little cheaper in France, but only a little. My car insurance in France with a full no-claims is more expensive for 3rd party fire and theft than I pay for fully comp on my UK car. As I said earlier, this is comparing Greater London costs with Back-of-beyond costs.....

And, if I understand things correctly, (if not, be sure someone will correct me) if, in France, someone comes along and offers you the full asking price for your house, you are obliged to accept their offer. So, if the house you were planning to visit had such an offer, then the vendors would have had to accept it, whether you were going to visit and view or not. I believe that you would not have been able to simply offer them more....

[Russethouse]

What I don't understand is why you just didn't go anyway and have a look round, maybe widen your parameters ......are you being very specific as to what you want?

Or maybe you are all 'property searched' out.......For now....

[NormanH]

[quote user="lynne"]NormanH is that euro's or the good old GBP[/quote]

Euros

[Chancer]

Norman €120 per month for water is far too much for a one person foyer, are you perhaps still being shafted for the water leak or misread meter or whatever it was?

My average consumption at 2012 prices (they have gone up loads with all the taxes) is €77 per year and working on the premises I am using my WC, washing up etc throughout the day (not waiting to take a dump at work like my neighbour) plus cement and concrete mixing, rendering, jet washing etc. I am carefull not to waste water though.

I was quite pleased to have got down to 21m3 per year but was blown out of the water by a neighbour who uses only 6m3, he who wont use his own toilet, or shower either by the aroma! He gets his daughter in law to do his washing and I expect he takes his dirty dishes to work to clean!

How much is water and sewerage per m3 in the UK now? I know my water rates were always pretty high, £32 per month doesnt sound terrible by comparison.

[mint]

[quote user="woolybanana"] . As to why some return,well, there are tons of reasons from missing grandchildren to being deported, like Norman![/quote]

What, they're just going to push Norman in his barrel into the Med and hope that he washes up somewhere on the south coast of England?[8-)] 

[Quillan]

I think that France has problems just as the UK, some are the same yet some are different.

Crime in France, even rural France is the same. Recently we have had another load of chicken rustling, last year we had people stealing veg, I suspect we will see that again this year as unemployment, especially in rural areas increases.

Electricity, last time I looked was about the same per unit but in France we pay a standing charge which could be as much, or more than, 600 Euros per year which makes it overall more expensive.

Getting your eyes tested could take, in many areas, between six months and a year yet you can walk in off the street (in my area, I have done it)  to see a dentist (and not a private one either).

Murders and big crime, just the same as the UK. Just because there is a high profile case in France being followed in the UK press it is not the only one. One thing I was very shocked to discover when looking through a gun permit book locally that there is a high figure of women owning pistols. Guns in general are not so restrictive and not having borders with ex Eastern Block countries since they joined the EU means that all sorts of weapons are for sale to criminal gangs in France.

Many cities and big towns have 'no go' areas where even the police will only enter in numbers but you have that in the UK as well.

As mentioned if you have a private pension and are under the UK age to get a state pension then the max you will get is 24 months of cover on an S1 but if you have retired already then that could probably be zero months so as said either a private insurance or your going to have to work. Working in France for an Expat is either your own business or teaching English (if you have the qualifications) basically but then your going to have to go to a big city do make any decent money.

Wait till you start cooking with your Jamie Oliver cook book or whatever, half the herbs etc you just can't get so you need green fingers to grow them.

Selling up in the UK and buying over here with no plan nor plan B is very unwise.

Mind you driving a camping car round Europe can be extremely perilous, or so I hear. We had a couple stabbed and robbed last year just down the road whilst sleeping in their camping car.

[EuroTrash]

It's tough luck about the house, but I don't think you can reasonably expect a buyer to say 'no' to someone who has a pen in their hand ready to sign a contract. A bird in the hand and all that, what percentage of viewers make an offer, so the odds on you deciding to buy must from their point of view have seemed pretty negligible. And from your point of view you might have looked at it and decided not to buy it, would you still say you'd lost £250?

FWIW, I did buy a campervan, and I had extended trips to France in it, and when I decided it was time to buy I spent about 3 months touring the region where I wanted to live. It was very enjoyable, it gave me plenty of time to look at places and get a feel for them, and the house that I ended up buying has turned out pretty much perfect for my needs.

As other posters have said, if you're planning on moving here as an inactif (i.e. early retiree) make sure you've got your health care sorted. And don't move here thinking life is cheaper - I don't find it cheaper, apart from being able to be mortgage-free which of course does make a big difference. But if France is where you want to be, don't let anyone put you off - it's your life, do what will make you happy.

[Debra]

Could have been worse - you could have flown over, loved the place, made an offer, had it accepted, drove to the agent's office to sign the compromis de vente - to be informed that the vendor had received another offer and had decided to sell to that buyer instead, because he preferred their nationality!

[YCCMB]

[quote user="Chancer"]

How much is water and sewerage per m3 in the UK now? I know my water rates were always pretty high, £32 per month doesnt sound terrible by comparison.

[/quote]

Thames water:

Water: 117.82 pence/cu.m

Waste water: 59 pence/cu/m

Standing charge depends on pipe diameter  but the basic (normal) price is £27.

That's for metered water.

[Chancer]

That is a lot less than I pay in my commune, the water and waste with all taxes come to just under £3 per m3.

The standing charge is less though at €5 per annum

Waste water treatment costs €2.11

Water with all the taxes for, pollution and modernisation etc costs €1.44

So water costs nearly twice as much in France and in the UK the big users are subsidised by the low users standing charge.

[ebaynut]

Also not all houses in the UK have water meters. We don't have one and pay a total of £261.32 this year ( April 12 till April 13) for as much water as we need.

In some years when the summer has been dry, it means you can water the garden all you want, with no worry of the cost. This year of course not needed.

This is for clean water only as we have a private system for the waste.

[Quillan]

[quote user="Chancer"]

That is a lot less than I pay in my commune, the water and waste with all taxes come to just under £3 per m3.

The standing charge is less though at €5 per annum

Waste water treatment costs €2.11

Water with all the taxes for, pollution and modernisation etc costs €1.44

So water costs nearly twice as much in France and in the UK the big users are subsidised by the low users standing charge.

[/quote]

Gosh I am lucky then. No standing charge, 32 cents per m3 for water and the same for waste except we don't pay the latter as we have a fosse. There is no standing charge. Probably explains why so many people have pools round here.

[idun]

NH is your water bill including the rented appt? and then you have your own meter for their usage and you bill them.......or it is included in the rent?

If so, that would explain it. Otherwise, you are paying far too much and need to look into it.

 

And now my slow brain, is thinking that there was a leak at your place....... are you still paying up for that???? or is there still a leak????????

[YCCMB]

I'd rather be paying for waste water than have the sword of Damocles hanging over my French fosse in the form of SPANC...with the cost of bringing a fosse up to the normes!

We opted to have a meter installed and they actually guaranteed that if it didn't save us money they'd remove it again!

[lynne]

We have plan A,plan B and plan C.  I have done my research about the 2 years before I have to pay into the scheme. I am not selling up in the UK my daughter will still be here at home, I've fortunately come into some money and its now or never.  I am suprised though by the fact the forum has such a lot of unhappy people living in France.  I must confess its a while since I've been in the South and understand it to be very expensive but having looked at Noemandy and Brittany in depth it seems to be on par with the UK.  I'll give you an example of the NHS in our area.  My young friend had a baby he lived 11 hours why because he hag Group B Strep something a mother can carry without knowing, if a simple swab test costing no more than £30 was done she could have been given anti-biotics and he would have been fine.  The NHS is so stapped for cash they wont offer them free.  Icould go on but theres not enough time.  After all its not known as Rip off Britain for nothing.

[Chancer]

[quote user="Quillan"][quote user="Chancer"]

 

[/quote]

Gosh I am lucky then. No standing charge, 32 cents per m3 for water and the same for waste except we don't pay the latter as we have a fosse. There is no standing charge. Probably explains why so many people have pools round here.

[/quote]

I remember once wearing my "mines cheaper than yours hat" saying to someone in the UK, blimey thats expensive, I only pay 85cts for water in France, and indeed having only given cursory glances to my derisory bills that is what I was paying, its all the extra taxes that have crept in that bump it up to €1.44

I actually object to paying for the pollution caused by those who arent on mains drainage and who dont have any fosse let alone a conforming one, and as for paying to extend the reseau to these houses, well if my bill goes down when theirs goes up as and when they start paying for sewage then that would be just but I cannot see it happening.

Still lucky we now have a government who wont be increasing taxes like these or thinking up others [Www]

[Russethouse]

I don't think people here are unhappy, I just think they long ago took off the rose tinted glasses and recognise that France has problems too.....

You say you want to work in some way...I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong but the instant you do I believe you lose the benefit of your 'free period'

If you are concerned about Group B Strep then I'm sure you'll know about this campaign : http://www.gbss.org.uk/. I notice that only 15 countries actually do screen routinely, which doesn't mean that the others shouldn't, but does mean that it is not just the NHS.

Several people on the forum successfully divide their time between the two countries.....6 months in one country, 6 months in the other, which may be worth some thought

[woolybanana]

Lynne, as I said before, these are not unhappy people, but brutal realists who have mainly been here for a long time and invested both their lives and funds to create something they value. Of course some would leave but most will stay if they can.

Some people are hurting, thanks to the rises in the cost of living, changes in exchange rate and local and national tax rises, and some will go back, particularly those who have half a life in UK, by which I mean grandchildren who pull at the heartstrings.

But, if you have done the research and the sums, go for it - there are tons of lovely properties around, some pretty cheap too.

But we have seen people come over and mess up for tons of reasons, so we are not going to advocate you doing something unless you have really done the spadework.

That being said, this arrière saison sun and the scandals in the village make me think I wouldn't be anywhere else!

[Quillan]

There is no guarantee you will get the an S1 nor for it being for two years. It will depend on when you last worked and paid a "Class 1 Stamp", basically working PAYE. The time from the last stamp you paid to the time you apply for your S1 will be deducted from the time the S1 lasts. So basically if you retired early two years ago you won't get an S1if you apply today. There are many other things that are taken in to account when they calculate how many months they will give you so you need to understand the system properly and even then you might not know until you apply as to what you will get. As people have said you need to know this before you make any major life changing decisions.

The other thing is your going to have to work out where you are going to be tax resident and there are rules on that also.

I don't remember anyone saying that they are unhappy living in France, they are simply saying that it has some of the same problems as in the UK. Some of us older members have either lived here a long time or have had a holiday home here for a long time and are quite happy with our situation here but it does not pay to be complacent in your day to day life in France. Just like the UK it has its good and bad points and as long as you understand that and are 'aware' you will find France a lovely place to live.

Just as an example about things and how they differ when it comes to insurance and claiming you might find the following thread an interesting read. This is something that does not happen normally in the UK. This poor man has just lost his wife and is being hit with this at a time he is probably at his most vulnerable, not very nice.

http://services.completefrance.com/forums/completefrance/cs/forums/2794081/ShowPost.aspx

 

[Quillan]

[quote user="woolybanana"]

Lynne, as I said before, these are not unhappy people, but brutal realists who have mainly been here for a long time and invested both their lives and funds to create something they value. Of course some would leave but most will stay if they can.

Some people are hurting, thanks to the rises in the cost of living, changes in exchange rate and local and national tax rises, and some will go back, particularly those who have half a life in UK, by which I mean grandchildren who pull at the heartstrings.

But, if you have done the research and the sums, go for it - there are tons of lovely properties around, some pretty cheap too.

But we have seen people come over and mess up for tons of reasons, so we are not going to advocate you doing something unless you have really done the spadework.

That being said, this arrière saison sun and the scandals in the village make me think I wouldn't be anywhere else!

[/quote]

And lets not forget it's not just the Expats going back to the UK either as many young French people are leaving France to find work in the UK. What was it somebody posted a while back, the number of French living in London is the same as the population of Lille and they are all young people. Other cities and towns were there are large populations of French are Brighton, Worthing (I always thought that place was God's waiting room), Nottingham and I think Leicester. How true that really is I have no idea but we have lost 17 young men and women from our village to the UK and there are only about 200 people living here. Others, who can't speak English have gone to Quebec.

[Quillan]

[quote user="Chancer"][quote user="Quillan"][quote user="Chancer"]

 

[/quote]

Gosh I am lucky then. No standing charge, 32 cents per m3 for water and the same for waste except we don't pay the latter as we have a fosse. There is no standing charge. Probably explains why so many people have pools round here.

[/quote]

I remember once wearing my "mines cheaper than yours hat" saying to someone in the UK, blimey thats expensive, I only pay 85cts for water in France, and indeed having only given cursory glances to my derisory bills that is what I was paying, its all the extra taxes that have crept in that bump it up to €1.44

I actually object to paying for the pollution caused by those who arent on mains drainage and who dont have any fosse let alone a conforming one, and as for paying to extend the reseau to these houses, well if my bill goes down when theirs goes up as and when they start paying for sewage then that would be just but I cannot see it happening.

Still lucky we now have a government who wont be increasing taxes like these or thinking up others [Www]

[/quote]

And we all thought the swimming pool tax was a joke. [;-)]

[idun]

lynne, I used to be accused of 'being unhappy' in France when I first started on this board quite a number of years ago. I wasn't. I just got on with my life, like people do everywhere. And life has it's ups and downs. I just call it 'life' to be honest, as I reckon that covers everything.

When one is a member of a community, and is interested in the country they live in, then why on earth would they ever buy into the grass is greener or pink and fluffy when you really know what goes on. We could go on all day long swopping stories about bad health things and I have experienced bad health things first hand.

Rip off, well, the french are very good at rip offs. They are good at stealth taxes, my are they good at them. I would hazard a guess that if we had a proper competition about rip offs and stealth tax, that France would win.

And if you think that the seçu isn't strapped for cash, think again. It is, we have lovely CSG etc special taxes to try and fill in the gaping black hole, with I imagine little success.

I say 'we', I may live in England now, but as all our income comes from France,  my interest in France is more than just idle curiosity, I need to know what happens in France.

 

And it is called rip off Britain, but only by those that don't know about anywhere else, at least that is how I see it.

[EuroTrash]

Just to echo, France is not Utopia any more than the UK is purgatory. Being discontent with the UK does not guarantee that you will be any more content with France once you've seen it for what it is. You need to love a country and then it is easier to excuse its warts, but that doesn't mean you have to be blind to them. E.g. if I was self employed in the UK I would be paying about £12 a month in NI contributions. Last quarter in France I paid around 800EUR cotisations on roughly equivalent earnings. It doesn't make me unhappy and it doesn't make me want to go back to the UK, but you can't help being aware that it's very much swings and roundabouts, and which you choose depends on what your priorities are.