Unfurnished house, 4-5 bedrooms, self employed, Nord pas de Calais area

[NikkiPilkington]

My partner and our 3 children are looking for a property to let in the Nord pas de Calais (59 and 62) areas of France.

We are looking for a house with a garden, any area considered as long as it has good Internet connection (we both work from home on the Internet). Our companies pay us a salary and we have bank statements and pay slips to prove this.

We recently entered discussions with a landlady through an agency, but despite us giving her:

* copies of 3 bank accounts

* copies of one years pay slips (bear in mind our income won't change once we're in France as we will both still be running our businesses)

* receipts from our current landlord proving we have paid rent for the last year on the property we currently live in (in the UK)

* a reference from a Belgian property owner (we rent her house in Bruges regularly as we spend time in Belgium on a monthly basis)

* copies of our passports

She didn't seem happy. She said she would need a guarantor, and as we don't have one in France (we would have no problem getting one in the UK) we've hit a stalemate.

Our needs for the house are:

4 or 5 bedrooms

Garden

Preferably a cellar but not absolutely necessary

Preferably a garage

We have a fairly high budget and are willing to sign a long term lease.

Does anyone have any advice about how we can find a private landlord that may be more impressed with what we CAN supply, rather than worrying about what we CAN'T?

All help gratefully received, as time is drawing close....