Mobile home park

[monaco]

I am looking for a quiet mobile home park somewhere in the South Eastern France area.  I am a retired English woman and I have lived in France for five years, both owning my own home in Aude and renting in the Dordogne and Lot.  I had to sell my house and use the proceeds to pay off my daughter's debts after she lost her business following a botched operation in a private hospital.  Her medical negligence claim is nearing a settlement and she will be able to pay me back about £30,000.  I am too old to get a French mortgage  at 66.  I don't think I will be able to afford to buy another house but I believe that mobile homes can be kept indefinitely on French sites providing they are maintained in good condition. I want to live somewhere very quiet, even isolated, and I could vacate for two months a year and live with my daughter in the UK.  There is a lovely park near Le Vigan in  Lot but I would like to be able to visit the Alps, Italy, and other parts of Europe so I hope to find somewhere closer to Provence.   Ideally, I would like the use of a communal pool.  My other plan is to rent for the long term - I believe French leases run for 6 months or five years.  I would prefer not to live on a site where the other owners could rent out their units as this would be too noisy in Summer. I can afford to pay up to 600 euros a month for a very small house to rent, or 200 euros a month for site fees on a mobile home park.

I am spending a lot of time on the internet, usually just putting into AskJeeves the name of a particular town and 'immobilieres'. 

My other question refers to my present lease, which is in its second year.  I gave the English owners £1,000 'caution'.   Ought I to receive interest on this sum after two years?

[chessfou]

[quote]My other plan is to rent for the long term - I believe French leases

run for 6 months or five years.[monaco][/quote]

Standard French lease is for three years (but tenant - only - can give three months notice at any time).

[quote] I can afford to pay up to 600 euros a month for a very

small house to rent [monaco][/quote]

FNAIM (the national federation) has a very good web site here:

http://www.agences-immobilieres.com/reseau-immobilier/fnaim.htm

click on "voir

le site" (in blue near the centre of the page) to get to the search engine for FNAIM's 8700 agencies.

For example, currently in Isere (dept 38) they have (3 or 4 pi\eces) 43 houses (all above your budget) but 93 of the 200 appartments are within reach, while Alpes-de-Hautes-Provence (dept 04) currently lists a 2-bed village house at €580.

If you need to check a departement number there is a map and a list here:

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A9partement_fran%C3%A7ais

PS. The FNAIM site is by far the biggest and best I have ever come across but even they only show the tip of the iceberg (and almost every agency will have far more on their books than they put on the FNAIM site).

[quote]My other question refers to my present lease, which is in its second

year.  I gave the English owners £1,000 'caution'.   Ought I to receive

interest on this sum after two years?[monaco][/quote]

Just depends what it says in the contract but normally there would be no interest.

[Logan]

Have a look at this place.

http://www.hotspotz.co.uk/france/mareuil/index.htm

[Teamedup]

I have never heard of anyone getting their caution back in full, never mind getting interest on it. One of my neighbours has just given up her rented place and she isn't expecting any of it back. My son is thinking of moving and isn't expecting much either. Also they have three months to give whatever they are going to give back, back.

[monaco]

Thank you for your replies.  I do not believe I will have any problems in getting my caution back.  The English couple who own my gite live on site and we have a very good relationshiop.  I have caused no damage or breakages and as I am compulsively clean and tidy the place will be immaculate.

[Teamedup]

It isn't that. We had a very good relationship when we rented, in fact our landlord insisted that we use his appt on the côte for free the year after we left. And yet still we didn't get back the full amount, something to do with the bail.

[monaco]

I rented for 14 months in the Dordogne, again from an English couple living locally, and we agreed that I would just cancel my standing order for the rent for the last two months to cover the return of my deposit.  I will suggest the same to my present landlords.  I don't think either of my leases ha ve been legally binding in France, as they are for one year at a time.  MY present home is really just a holiday letting that I have taken for 52 weeks!  I don't pay taxe fonciere or taxe d'habitation (I did in my last letting, which was for a complete detached house) and the gite is one of three.  The other two are currently let for the winter by English couples looking for houses in Lot.  On neither occasion have we used a notaire and the agreements are just the standard holiday letting document.  The three gites are metered together for electricity and water, but I am the only occupant paying towards the electricity on the basis of the number of bedrooms. That is, as there is a three=bedroomed and a two-bedroomed gite as well as my one bedroomed gite, I pay one sixth of the electricity bill.  This doesn't seem fair but it is not a great expense.  I also have to pay for my bottled gas and logs.

I made sure that I went carefully through the inventory of my present gite with the landlord, pointing out any damage that already existed.

My landlords like to receive the rent in pound sterling paid into their UK bank account - I don't think they would like to get involved in any legal disputes!