Claiming from an Estate.

[opas]

I have had some very upsetting news this morning.   I will cut a long story short.We have been trying to contact a builder who we accepted a Devis from and paid a deposit to in April.  There wasn`t a definitive date for commencement of the works as we hadn`t completed on the property. We had used this French Builder for other works on the house we live in and were very satified with his works .

We finaly signed on the house in August and Mr O thought that he would be on his holidays but dcided to phone and leave a message ........the line fixe was no longer available. Phone portable.......number no longer in use, Alarm bells. Email, no answer. Avisit to house, mail still in letter box and house closed up.

We have called this guy every name under the sun as we thought he had done a runner with our money. This week we were going to the mairie of his village . Today we decided to have a drive up to his village as it is Sunday and would perhaps be more people about. The mail box had gone and the house repainted (it  is a rented property). We knocked on next door, his neighbour told us that Jerome had died in late April/early May .Killed instantly on his motorbike.

We are planning to go to our Mairie tomorrow as we need a card for the Tip and will ask for advice on where to go to claim money back from this estate, we also feel we should go to our notaire.

Can anyone give us some advise on what we should do.?

I am gutted that this young man(31 years) has died and feel terrible for the bad names I have called him, but I cannot let this money dissapear.

[Benjamin]

Your money has probably long since been spent on other things by now.

Why be a cheapskate and ask at the Town Hall. You should be seeing a Notaire or the Huissier.

Benjamin

[opas]

Benjamin, your responses are getting stranger by the post!

The money hadn`t been in the business account for more than a week when he died.

 Town Hall? do not believe we have one of those  Have I not said in my post that I am going to the Notaire..........so I go to the huissier, what do they do if the money has been spent. His  greiving young lady has moved along with his young family, The business was in his name not hers , so any money owed is by him,not her and removing her sofa and television would not make me feel any better( and probably wouldn`t cover thecost of engaging the huissier). His business must have had insurance. He had a Siret no and a bono fide business.

I was the doubting Thomas , now I feel lousy as the poor lad is dead.

Notaire in the morning as mentioned in my post..

[Llwyncelyn]

This response is as a lawyer but not one who knows anything about the code civil of French law.

When we first came here we were asked for 30% deposit up front and I resisted but at that time there was an UK guy in the area (well known on this forum) and who was basically tucking people up right left and centre.  He later was chased by the gendarmes.

It was against that background that the artisans asked for deposits.  I relented but still with some worries if these guys go walkabout or whatever where does that leave me.

Fortunately they have been in business for a long time and had great reputations.  They did the jobs on budget and were paid immediately on invoice.  Today no deposits are required for one has demonstrated that you pay your bills!

As one other contributor has mentioned your builder seemingly was in a small way of busines living in rented accommodation with very little in the way of assets?  Perhaps and here one does feel sorry but you deposit may have found its way into paying for day to day living expenses for material on other jobs or whatever.

I have to say that in the UK the advice to you would be that unless there are assets in the estate then you have to take a deep breath and put it down to experience.  If assets and with a cover (here I mean if you say gave £5K and the assets were say £12.5K then go for it but the nearer to £5K then it is just not worth doing.  Its only lawyers that benefit.

If I can help in any other way please send me a pm.

 

rdgs

[opas]

I also accept that maybe our money has gone west, but I shall explore all avenues first.

This morning I visited the mairie of the Deceased. He was most helpfull and whilst we were there phoned some reletives of the builder(answerphone, he left messages for them to contact him)   he also said he would phone one of the late mans friends to see if he could get the name of the notaire who is dealing with his affaires.

Mr O phoned our bank and they suggested doing what we had already done and also mentioned that it could take a long while to recoup our money, we both had this thought already..    Our own mairie suggested we contact the Chambre de metier and commerce, that is this afternoons task.

We visited our notaire this morning , but they were busy and we ended up speaking with a junior partner(she was useless during the purchase of our house and proved to be as useless this morning..........thankfully we had a senior partner for the signing) so she could also only suggest going to see the late mans wife!!!!!!!!!  we shall make an apointment with the senior partner if we get no joy from the phonecalls of the late mans mairie.

Thanks for your help so far and will keep you informd of the outcome.

[Benjamin]

maire - nm mayor

mairie - nf (batiment) town hall, city hall

Collins Robert ISBN 0-00-433451-5

Benjamin

[Llwyncelyn]

Benjamin do we really have to have lessons in French on this forum and to try to show how far advanced we are in our studies or indeed ability?  Or to be blunt how far advanced we think we are?

This contributor has a problem and needs help and that surely is what our forum is here for?

There is more to a person that his or her ability to speak French.  Civility comes to mind as being a pre-requisite.  I could for instance argue the law with you pointless you probably have no knowledge or interest. So what benefit would I enjoy.  None whatsoever.

Again some of us speak other languages than French and perhaps our native tongue is not English.  I was born and brought up in Wales of Welsh parents and thus my first language is not English.  I am more than happy to engage in a dialogue with you on the use of grammar in Welsh.

However Benjamin do not adopt a personal attack on this contributor for a lack of understanding of French.  You have an advantage here so use it well.

[Dick Smith]

"I visited the mairie" = "I visited the town hall".  Seems OK to me.

"I asked the mairie" = "I asked at the town hall" - seems OK in colloquial terms. Don't see Benny's problem, to be honest.

But please spare us any discussion of Welsh grammar...

[opas]

Thanks Llwyndelyn, but I think I have a decent a grasp on the language . The poster Benjamin is a nit picker.

when I say Benjamin that I am going to the Mairie , I know I am going to the building in my village or to the building in the dead builders village. When I get there I know I will speak with the Maire. 

Any other points you wish to pick up feel free, But use the Education or French language sections available on this forum, but I think you will find that more educated folks than you have had a go at my grammar  first whether it be English or French!.

If you do not have any constructive advice ..........say nowt!.

[Llwyncelyn]

I thought I was supporting you?  Obviously not so as you now say say nowt.  Now that is a good old fashioned northern statement which is itself short on logic

Best of luck and I will let Benjamin and you decide who has the upper hand on the use of the French Language and I will just say nothing nothing whatsoever.  Here I think nothing is the correct grammatical term and perhaps nowt is better applied in Pudsey or 'ull

[BJSLIV]

I think the "say nowt" was aimed at Benjamin!

[Sunday Driver]

[quote user="Llwyncelyn"]

.......say nowt.  Now that is a good old fashioned northern statement which is itself short on logic

[/quote]

'Ear all, see all, say nowt
Ate all, sup all ,pay nowt,
An if tha ivver duz owt fer nowt
Orlas do it for thissen'.

Logical folk, us Norvern Monkeys....

 

 

[Llwyncelyn]

Let me move and immediately move to unreservedly apologise.  Having now read the comments it seems the I was not in the firing line but Benjamin.  I therefore should have re-read and thought long and hard before I went into dialogue.  I did not do so and I am truly sorry.  No excuses none whatsoever not even wine just a long report which has to be back in the UK over the week end.  Even that is no excuse so sorry once more.

Incidentally my best friend comes from 'ull but he married a red rose girl.

[opas]

[quote user="BJSLIV"]I think the "say nowt" was aimed at Benjamin![/quote]

Dead right, and sorry to have upset you Llw                       sorry cant spell that from memory, no offence meant to you at all.

From the place famous for Batteries....I told 'em Oldham.

[Iceni]

[quote user="Sunday Driver"][quote user="Llwyncelyn"]

.......say nowt.  Now that is a good old fashioned northern statement which is itself short on logic

[/quote]

'Ear all, see all, say nowt
Ate all, sup all ,pay nowt,
An if tha ivver duz owt fer nowt
Orlas do it for thissen'.

Logical folk, us Norvern Monkeys....

[/quote]

To misquote the old saying "you can always tell a northerner, but not much". [:)]

John

not

[Nick Trollope]

[quote user="Benjamin"]maire - nm mayor

mairie - nf (batiment) town hall, city hall

Collins Robert ISBN 0-00-433451-5


Benjamin
[/quote]

Isn't that an American dictionary? (French-American English).

My understaning is that a "city hall" doesn't exist in France (or the UK) and that a "Town hall" is "Hotel de Ville".

Happy to accept that this adds nothing to Mrs O's thread, but I can be as pedantic as the rest of them......

 

[opas]

A quick up-date.

As mentioned we spoke with the Maire at the late builders village, and his return phone call came today. He gave us the name of the Notaire dealing with the succession, which turned out to be at the other branch of our Notaire. We have spoken with our notaire today(the Senior one not the useless junior one) and she has put a claim in on our behalf.

That said , apparently nothing can begin to happen until 6 months have lapsed after his death.

We are hopefull but holding our breath.

Thanks to those who responded.

[opas]

Yesterday we received a letter from the Notaire, it informs us that the dossier of the deceased has been passed to the Service des Domaines at the Tresorerie Generale.

We shall just have to wait again now.

[opas]

Well ................

yesterday Mr O took aphone call from the place in Montpellier that sorts out all the affairs. we have to send a RIB off and are getting roughly half our money back. We had long since written it off as a loss, though we had been talking this week about contacting them to see what had happened.

nice suprise.

[Clair]

Blimey!

I was just looking at the date of your first post on that thread... Better late than never![:)]

[Jo]

Ditto!!!

Was wondering why I hadn't seen this post develope[:D]

[BIG MAC]

What is a RIB as used in the last post but one?

[Clair]

RIB = Relevé d'Identité Bancaire

Found in your French cheque book or printed on request at your bank or from your online account.

It shows your account details: account number, bank reference, IBAN, SWIFT...

It is used to provide a utility company or insurance company (for instance) with your bank details for payments in or out of your account.

Sample RIB:

[BIG MAC]

Thinking I should try  offering you a job Clair.....Thanks!

[cooperlola]

[quote user="BIG MAC"]Thinking I should try  offering you a job Clair...[/quote]But she already has one.  Helping all us dimbo expats/imigrants out with....  well, just about everything really.