selling up

[Coops]

Probably been answered elsewhere before but here goes

I am selling my property in Brittany after 3 years of use as a holiday home.I have a couple of queries for which I would be grateful for some advise on

1)Do I have to make arrangements with a French tax official with regard to the CGT that I will incur on the sale or does the notaire sort it all out?

2)I believe it is possible to sign the compromis in the UK and post to France,has anyone else used this method.I want to elect this method as I can't get time off work and also my buyers are in the U.S.

3)How do I go about bringing the sale proceeds back to the U.K.I used HIFX to exchange the money and send it out for the purchase.do you do the same to get the money back to my U.K account.

All advice very welcome

[Baz]

[quote]Probably been answered elsewhere before but here goes I am selling my property in Brittany after 3 years of use as a holiday home.I have a couple of queries for which I would be grateful for some a...[/quote]

1) The notaire calculates CGT and deducts it from the proceeds.

2) You give Power of Attorney to the Notaire, this is best arranged when in France. However, if this is not possible the Notaire can send the papers to the UK and a Commissioner of oaths will have to witness your signature, the charge will be around £60. Once the Notaire has Power of Attorney he will complete all signings and will arrange monies to be paid directly to your French Bank.

3) Returning money to the UK is best done through a Money Broker such as HIFX, I have recently used Currency4less who performed the transaction very well. You will probably find your French Bank is slow in carrying out your instructions and I would suggest you make enquires now as to what are their requirements for releasing your funds. You are likey to find the Bank will want all your instructions sent via the post and will not allow emails or faxes. Also because the French banks are slow when you give your money brokers your  instructions you are advised to buy forward your Euro for about 1 month to ensure you know what rate of exchange you are going to get.

Baz

 

[Ssc]

Regarding question 2, you said compromis, which is easily dealt with by post, without the need for the signature to be witnessed. If you meant the actual acte de vente, then answer 2 applies.

Tony

 

[Will]

Regarding point 2, do make sure you use registered or recoded post as it can be important to establish when the letter was sent and delivered.

Point 3 - I don't know about HIFX but many of the currency exchange companies will send money from France to UK as well as the other way round. Alternatively your French bank should be able to arrange a sterling transfer for you using IBAN or SWIFT or similar. It all depends on the amount and the exchange rate you are looking for.

[Lizs]

Hi

We are selling up too

Would be interested to hear more about the money transfer bit. We are with banque populaire and will need to transfer the proceds of the house to our e savings nationwide account any help gratefully received as i am a complete novice

Lizs

[BJSLIV]

Whichever method you use to move the money from France to the UK you will need to have it sent to your Flexaccount rather than Esaver, once it is safely Chez Nationwide you will be able to transfer it yourself, from the one account to the other.