Sold!!

[Pickles]

Well, it has finally happened. Our sale has completed, we have removed our chattels from the flat - and there were a damn sight more of them than we ever realised - and we have left our flat in Montpellier for the last time. Set off the next day ... into a snowstorm on the A750/75 ... and ambled back up to the UK with trailer in tow, the dining table on the roof rack and the car packed up to the roof. Arriving at the Chunnel, the Border Agency person checking our passports queried what we had on board and we ended up saying "personal effects that in hindsight should probably have stayed behind in France - basically junk!"

So ends twelve and a half years of French second home ownership.

We are absolutely, totally knackered.

[NormanH]

Congratulations on your sale, and many regrets that I wasn't able to  help out with the chattels.

Is this the end totally of your involvement with La Belle?

[Pickles]

[quote user="NormanH"]Congratulations on your sale, and many regrets that I wasn't able to  help out with the chattels.

Is this the end totally of your involvement with La Belle?

[/quote]

Thanks, NH - your hospitalisation was unfortunately timed (when is ever a good time?) but these things happen and you have to focus on recovering your health, which is far more important. The last few days were a panic but that was because Plan B was built around a new depot-vente chappie, with a place literally across the road, who mucked around a bit (though he is a very nice chap) and we ended up moving far more stuff than we had expected. Fortunately one of our (now-former) neighbours has lent us his cave to store the excess for a few months so we will return to sort through the remains next year at some point.

We still have a parking space in the residence which wasn't sold as part of the apartment sale, so that will be sold next year, and we still have a couple of commercial investment properties that we bought to give a Euro income to pay for the running costs of the flat, so we are still very much in the French tax system for the next few years or until someone decides that they want an investment income!

The money that we will not be paying in TF, TdH, charges de copropriété etc will pay for quite a few nights in gites and hotels in France and elsewhere, so we will still be visiting France and seeing a few other regions as well as returning to our favourite restaurants in and around Montpellier from time to time.

We view the whole experience very positively: it was the right thing to do at the time, we were able to make good use of it, and now's the time to move on.

[mint]

I am happy for you, Pickles[:)]

But don't leave the forum, will you?

Your posts are often informative and interesting.

So.................you are knackered but relieved and loaded (and no, I don't mean the chattels [:D])?  Not a bad position to be in?

[Pickles]

[quote user="mint"]

So.................you are knackered but relieved and loaded (and no, I don't mean the chattels [:D])?  Not a bad position to be in?

[/quote]

During the marathon 3-hour signing session at the notaire's office (note to self: you COULD have done that by procuration and SHOULD have), there was some discussion about capital gains tax, social charges on non-residents, forced use of SARF as a fiscal representative (the notaire pointing out that SARF was getting more for "checking the notaire's tax calculation" than he was) until even we were forced to point out that at least there was a capital gain to tax ...!

[Gardengirl]

Congratulations Pickles, I'm pleased it all went through OK for you. Did you have to wait a long time for the sale? Now you have the job of finding what to do with all the extra stuff you weren't planning on keeping.

[Pickles]

[quote user="gardengirl "]Did you have to wait a long time for the sale? Now you have the job of finding what to do with all the extra stuff you weren't planning on keeping.[/quote]

It basically took just under 18 months to sell, but we weren't in any hurry. However, I also suspect that the agent had thought that the margin for offers that we would consider was smaller than it actually was.

Some of the excess stuff that we brought back is going to go straight to Oxfam. Quite a bit of the rest that remains in our neighbour's cave will end up at Emmaus - we just didn't have time to sort it and organise collection.