I was thinking of Chancer

[Quillan]

When I read one of the 'spam' emails I have been getting for weeks now. Seems the French are pushing a tax saving scheme in which you buy into accommodation for students. Aparently you get tax relief on your investment plus a guaranteed interest rate of 4.9% tax free and can reclaim the TVA. I am sure somebody will say this scheme has been around a while but I seem to be getting a lot of emails from different companies wanting me to invest. Seems the big investment companies have been watching Chancer and have seen an opportunity to make a lot of money. [;-)] I wonder if I could sell off some of my rooms and get in on the big money. [I]

[Chancer]

Its an idea that has been fermenting in my head for a long time, it started when I typed "eviction meublée" into Google France without realising that in France its "expulsion".

Anyway by that fortuitous act I found that there is a mechanism for sucking in mug punters into leasing apartments from me to rent directly to students etc, they would take the profits (assuming decent occupation) and organise all the rentals I would just look after the building and sit on the money that came in every month even if they didnt manage to rent them as well as I had done, that is what happens in most cases when a business is taken over here.

The eviction term comes in if they decide that its not for them, they cant make enough money, the tenants are wrecking the apartments and its their responsability, they have to pay me for all the repairs that their tenants do, if they want out of the lease they have to pay the buiding owner (me) and indemnity d'eviction".

It all seemed to good to be true and knwoing how the pigeons get sucked into Robien type investments it would work really well in a university town, it has always been in the back of my mind that if I cannot sell this place for its true Worth then I could lease out all the individual apartments to investors and wash my hands of the day to day running, I even know the perfect person to bring in the investors, a notaire that I've known for years that was struck off after being involved in several rather shady Robien type investment new builds, he was allowed to study again and re-sit his Professional exams and is practicing once again.

I tell you one thing no way would I invest in something so dodgy for only 4.5% which is the headline rate they are boasting, so of course its a lot less than that, when you want out you lose everything and have to pay an indemnity.

However its an attractive option for me and it was this this and other options in mind that I constructed the building in the way I did, each apartment completely seperate with its own electric and water supply, a common entrance and stairwell, in theory they could be sold as seperate apartments with a copropriété but that would never happen around here, Paris or the Côte D'Azur maybe but after all the publicity about the robien investment apartment blocks (no such thing as bad publicity) the Notaire, his architect friend and my retired doctor friend suceeded in building 2 great apartment blocks here and selling them all to investors who had never set foot in this dump and who believed that they would make a fortune, the tenants would buy their flats for them, give them a handsome profit plus all their defiscalisation but they hadnt worked out that no-one in this economically depressed dump was going to pay Côte D'Azur rental prices.

In 2005 my pal with a similar building to mine said that when he put an ad in a shop window for an unfurnished apartment he had 40 demandeurs in a week, after these robien blocks were built most of which are unoccupied he has at least 3 months of no rent while trying to find a tenant, most of the investors in the Robien apartments lost their fiscality because they did not manage to rent them within the first year or perhaps 2 years, they were asking €1000 per month in an area where the rents were €3 - 400.

I think that you will get a lot more cold calls like this Quillan.

[Chancer]

I did the deal today and signed the contract with the parents of the first student who will be renting for 10 months leaving me with les grand vacances to profit from the tourist trade.

The lycée only sent out the list Friday and I was contacted by 2 other parents that evening, 2 others made contact during the year also so the other flat should be taken very soon, its all looking good and time will tell what problems the young ados will bring, as I will be working at their lycée as a teaching assistant hopefully I will have both their parents and the teachers on my side.

I am already taking bookings under duress for the as yet unfinished apartments for next years commemoration dates, the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the battle of the Somme.