Jump to content
Complete France Forum

No income- what would you do


idun

Recommended Posts

So you move to France and own a property and then find yourself  with debts, no income at all and children, what do you do??????

 

Me, well, instead of getting into further debt, or using all the social welfare things, I would sell up, that is what I would do. Because compared to most of the french population who cannot afford to buy anywhere at all, I would be in fact be 'rich' because I owned a property. So I could not/would not take the french charity route.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Even if there was still money left to pay on the mortgage, I would sell up and get out. This was sparked by the program last night, but it was something I have pondered over many years, because one never knows what the future will hold.

If the program is being mentioned, well, where was the potager? Where was the decent if not good french?

 

One good thing the program did was spark me into believing that someone I know is being conned and I called them last night to check up on every aspect of their current negociations.

 

And another thing that struck me was absent fathers who apparently do not help financially with their childrens keep. Maybe a ziziotomy would be the answer, I would be in agreement that a DNA test was done to prove that the kids that were supposed to be provided for were theirs. But then, pay up, or have a bobitt. Stop future breeding wouldn't it, and why should they have more kids, if they do not take responsibility for the sprogs they have already produced.[Www][Www][Www]

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not seen the program yet but I did see one about British people loosing their homes after being unemployed for as little as 3 months. The banks are vey quick to foreclose nowadays. The way I would react would depend a lot on the particular circumstances. There is not much point in selling up and going back to the UK if you can't find a buyer for your property and there is no job for you in the UK and you don't have anywhere to live there either.

It's so easy to say what you would do if it's just a hypothetical case but when cold reality strikes who knows how they would really react.

All those in this unfortunate situation have my sympathybecause you never know what is around the corner

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I saw the program, your talking about the woman getting the food from the charity, had her son visiting at the same time who went with her.

[quote user="Rabbie"]

It's so easy to say what you would do if it's just a hypothetical case but when cold reality strikes who knows how they would really react.

[/quote]

Exactly my answer as well Rabbie, you just don't know whats round the corner and how you would react. The old saying about if your drowning don't struggle, yeah right, you try telling that to a drowning person.

One issue of course is the drop, relatively speaking, in French house prices and the ability to sell quickly which is not always there.

The other side of the story is of course you don't know all the facts, just a very quick synopsis. On the same program was a couple who bought a franchise in the US to rent mobility scooters in a shopping mall. After they signed and handed over their life savings they were told the extremely busy one they thought they were getting had already gone and the one they got instead had an empty car park and no visitors. If I was doing the same sort of deal I would have demanded that the name of the shopping mall be put in the contract with a guarantee that it was what I would be getting else I wouldn't have parted with my money. Some people are just not business minded and others just fall foul of bad luck.

As to me personally, well luckily I am not and probably will not find myself in that position but if I did I am not sure what I would do. One think though is seeing that for eleven years I have been contributing to the French state I would have no qualms about getting as much back as I could.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My friends daughter moved abroad and did very well, and then the con men moved in on them. A long con too, got their confidence, everything going so well and then they lost everything after 15 years of running a good business and working their socks off.

They packed up, returned to the UK with young children, went into a B&B that the council provided, then rented accomodation and then bought an old council house, then a house. Both worked, and started afresh. That is what they did, this was several years ago, and as I said, I often wondered what I would do in those circumstances, being so far from home etc......... and when they moved back to the UK, I thought to myself......... that is what I would have done and I know I would have.

I suppose it is in my nature to walk away and not particularly look back. If it isn't in someone's nature, then I imagine it would be harder.

 

IF the two english women hadn't owned their property outright, then surely the mortgage company would have foreclosed, so my assumption, as it was not mentioned, was that these properties were owned. And that meant that these women were not poor.And no mention of the concerted effort to get their french up to standard either from what I could see, and that surely should have been a priority, so that they could work if their intention was to stay. Maybe they would have been better off if their best friend had been french......... who encouraged them to parlez-vous!

Interesting though, the comment that some british men in that bit of France, would invite them round to eat when their missus was back in the UK......... what charmers eh!

I didn't understand the couple in Spain at all and the ones in the USA, well, as they say, do your research properly.

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Trying to do a quote from your post above, idun, just the last but one sentence - seems not possible on here to erase the rest.

I would also try to sell and go back, but as you know yourself it takes time, and sometimes might even be impossible.

The last but one sentence - this is one of the things I read before we came was very widespread in France, but in fact I've seen very little of it. On the other hand, when I was "separated " in the UK I had some offers from married men [;-)]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Then there's the other issue.. I learned today that a house round the corner from me that has been in the market for a while at 185K (Euros) has recently sold...for 65K

It's a biggish house with a 3 year old fosse..but belonged to an elderly couple ( he died, she committed suicide shortly after..a familiar French tale).

It's obviously OK if you can get out with some equity refunded, but many people do seem to think that if they bought for x and spent y on renovations, then they will only sell for x plus y plus a percentage for their trouble.

I don't know what I'd do if I had no income. I've been fortunate never to have found myself in at situation. Mind you, one of the main reasons I haven't is that I've always been so scared of doing so that I've moved mountains to ensure that never happens. That, and deep down I'm totally risk averse!
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looking at the state of the property one of them lived in I was gob smacked to hear that they were going into property management.  [:D] The couple in America must have lived in cloud cuckoo land when they entered into an agreement and handed money over to someone without tying up all the loose ends. The couple in Spain, well I had a great deal of sympathy for them as their predicament was caused by ill health. But there you go; if it was about good news the viewing figures would be very low.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

And sometimes we have to start again from scratch. I always understood that that could happen in life. There were times when I would wonder about 'le pire' because, sometimes work would appear to be precarious, so consider plans for all of us, sometimes we, like every married couple I  know would row and sometimes so much that I would have happily gone and lived in a bed sit with the kids, and sometimes without them!

Living a life in another country far away from friends and family and support can sometimes be claustrophobic and suffocating, being so mutually dependant all the time. So as normal people with our own minds, we sometimes do not get on. And when things appeared to be going wrong, I would work out what I would do.  Fortunately considering our intensive life in France, it didn't happen much, but at those times, I would consider what options were available.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Worse if it happened to be on UK plates still [Www]

I really didn't get the Spanish couple, if I were in such dire straits but sitting on a mortgage free property allegedly worth something like €500k  I'd sell it for whatever I could get regardless. EVERYTHING will sell if the price is right so they could have solved their problem almost overnight and still come out of it with a decent sum.

I felt sorry for the US couple but found it hard to muster too much sympathy for them.

Still, there but for the grace and all that.............!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I cant help thinking some of the EU  5 Billion given last November to Egypt would have been better spent  helping those referred to below . They are going to need more help than the items we put in their carts when they are at the supermarkets  asking for food donation .   I  assume  people will be finding it harder to give now . 

http://www.france24.com/en/20121229-france-poverty-restos-du-coeur

This from 2011  EU ruling will only make things worse

Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country is one of the top recipients of the

aid with Italy and Poland, said it was "unacceptable for Europe to

abandon its weakest citizens."

At stake at the Brussels talks was the future of the food aid, which

is to be pared down from a yearly 480 million euros to 113.5 million

euros for 2012 and 2013, due to a ruling handed down by the European

Court of Justice.

Acting on a request from Germany, the court stated in April that the

programme could only use supplies from existing EU food stocks to feed

people unable to afford proper meals.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I felt sorry for all the people who featured in the programme. For the two women in France who had been deserted by their husbands I'm not sure what else they could have done. The housing market seems completely dead in our little bit of France; the same houses have been on the market for ages.I did feel a little critical of the couple in Spain as I couldn't see what possible need they could have had for a ten bedroomed house in the first place. Nevertheless all of them had a dream which didn't work and so I sympathised with that.

On the subject of men inviting one to dinner - it's amazing the number of men, even people who you regard as old friends, who want to 'help' without their wives knowledge of course when you are widowed.

Hoddy
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Now watched the program.

Had the most sympathy for the two women in France. At least they were making an attempt to get their lives together again.

The ones in Florida could have been more diligent before losing their money but it was an honest mistake.

The ones in Spain should have sold earlier gieven their health problems

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It seemed to me that the problems experienced by the people concerned in the programme were not specifically because they were ex-pats, just that were having problems in their lives, happened to be British, and were living in another country. If you looked beyond the fact they were in another country the same scenarios are most probably being acted out by brits in the UK and French people in France. A bit of a non-programme really. 

All of them appeared to struggle with coming to terms with their respective problems, mainly because they had led an uncomplicated life previously.

As far as the situation goes with married men inviting themselves round for dinner at single ladies homes, when their own wives had gone off for a few days, it certainly doesn't happen the other way around. Now, if there are any offers, I am partial to a nice "Kate and Sidney" or shepherds pie, but I do like to be home well before 10pm!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Unfortunately if the absconding husbands of the french women are also on the deeds as joint owners, the property cannot be sold without agreement by both parties which explains why they are trapped there. No sympathy for the idiots in Florida, who pays for something they havn't seen in working order, buys a huge horrible Florida clone house with a mortgage and fairly new car before the business has even got off the ground, eyes full of dollar signs and commonsense forgotten. All parties seemed to leave their brains behind when they bought and mostly quantity not quality too!
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the link, the ITV player is excellent much better than Pluzz.fr, shame I cant use it in France.

I only managed to stomach 10 minutes nonetheless, the highlight for me was: "and he said, its all gone, we have nothing left" whereupon she asked her millionaire (no longer) husband to leave [:D]

Glad that they have the support of the foodbank, I get by on the same amount as what she claims to touch in benefits and dont recieve from the food bank, I give to it, not a lot but I have also helped out there.

The poverty level in France is IMHO a meaningless figure and is calculated at 80% of the average income, since several decades now it has risen as fast as the general standard of living and I can live comfortably and well on just over 1/3 of it, some of the people I see at the food bank really do need the help, others like myself probably not at all and they dont see any problem in driving there in a big 4*4.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mercs,Audis and Discoveries outside the food bank in town each week when I go by, obviously some people find no problem in turning up to collect charity in them, I would I am afraid and we all know they are not cheap to run or insure, so money must be there somewhere for them to continue the use of such vehicles.

Still do not understand how the millionaire wife had no idea the money was disappearing from the bank account unless keeping an eye on the family finances was below her, most women I know have the family purse strings firmly in their hands and I certainly kept an eye on our accounts all my married life.

I also give to the Bank alimentaire when they are collecting and I have received food boxes myself that I did not apply for but still very welcome.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...