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Everything you always wanted to know about France |
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I got a lot of criticism for using the word "handicapped" in the last newsletter. I am sorry if this offended anyone, my excuse is that the only relevant word used in France is handicappe and I was not aware of the big changes in the use of PC English in the last 20 years. Interestingly the people writing to me from wheelchairs had no qualms or criticism and used much stronger words to describe the frustrations and pain of their own situations. If anyone has a rental property or services designed for people with restricted mobility or ability - I will give them free publicity across our sites and will try to make some special sites to publicise these services. Meanwhile if anyone knows who manages the Ian Dury estate, I would like to use words or titles from his songs to publicise and promote some ideas. Also if anyone want to work with me on this project please send me an email, programming skills, time and money will be welcome. == It seems that "harvest mites" are a very common problem in France. If you own a rental property and a guest complains about fleas or bed-bugs then the odds are it is these pests which they picked up on a walk - if you are staying in a gite and get bitten - don't automatically blame the owner or hotel - get some gunge from the chemist. == We have some powerful websites for rentals and real-estate which have been successful Internet marketing tools for over 6 years.I am looking for a partner or partners to help me develop some new software and ideas, preferably in the USA or the UK as developing a business in France is severely handicapped (that word again), please email me if you are interested. ======= In this newsletter issue 103... 1. Is It Safe to Rent From Private Owners 2. Time-Share or Leaseback 3. Where to Stay in Pezenas 4. Currencies Direct are the Best Buy 5. Help With Renting 6. Above ground Pools 7. Rabbit and Pork 8. Travel Help Line 9. How do I find the right property ======= 1. Is It Safe to Rent From Private Owners I am about to rent a property which I found on your website. The owner has asked for me to make payment in full to her bank account. Would I be covered by your company if, say, when I arrive the property doesn't exist or they keep the money and I can't get a key etc David === Hello David, We are a publicity site, please read the disclaimer on http://rentalsfrance.com/contact/ Contact Us I assume you and the owner have agreed a contract covering your stay in their home and that you have a holiday insurance that covers cancellations. It is perfectly normal for the full rental money to be paid 6 weeks in advance of the arrival date. In our years of running an Internet business we have come across only 2 owners who behaved dishonourably and this was to do with not returning the damage deposit, quite unjustifiably. I have never heard of a house not actually existing ! We were in fact told about these owners by renters who had booked through other sites and wanted to share their experience with us. We immediately ceased all contact with the owners involved. It is really not in the owner's interest to upset clients and I think you can be confident that all will be as described. Have a great holiday, regards Tony ======= 2. Time-Share or Leaseback We rented a lovely house through you in September 2004. It was so wonderful that we fell in love with Menton and recently went back to look for a property to buy. We did not find a property but we put a deposit on a timeshare of one month at the Residence de la Plage, are you familiar with this property? I am hoping that you could give us some advice. We signed L'Acte de Cessions d'Actions but did not receive the documents describing the society rules or description of the apartment and the inventory of equipments. The real estate agent told us that we receive these documents after we send the rest of the money. Is this correct to your knowledge? Are there French laws that regulate timeshares? Any information that you can provide would be so helpful. Thank you so much for introducing us to Menton. And thank you in advance for any advice or information that you can provide. Regards, Denise and Matt === Hello Denise and Matt Time share sales are illegal in France (where you only lease a property for a fixed period and then have no title) - as you are looking at the Residence de la Plage project, I assume you are looking at a leaseback sale under the loi Robian - you buy the freehold with a contract to a management company for a minimum of 9 years. You can get a guaranteed return, usually of 5% (less if you opt to use the property yourself for a few weeks each year) of your investment, but do be careful as the resale value is only that of a secure rented property, not the freehold value (we have not found any resale market for these investments). Also at the end of the lease - you are unlikely to have any rights to permanent access without paying penalties to the management company. In addition, to get exemption from the VAT on the purchase (20.6%) you have to keep the property for 21 years. You also have to keep the property for 16% to be exempt from Capital gains tax. Real estate agent commissions are high so they are most unlikely to tell you the hard facts about Leasebacks. You had 7 days from paying your deposit and receiving the contract to withdraw from the contract - if this time has passed than you are legally bound to continue or pay losses incurred. The deposit is usually 5% and you will be liable for stage payments up to the completion of the building. As an investment the Leaseback plan can be a good thing, especially if you pay income tax in France, but it is not a way of getting a holiday or retirement property - it must only be considered as an investment like stocks or shares. We have put some information on our site at http://frenchpropertydigest.com/ FrenchPropertyDigest Hope this helps Bonne Chance Tony ======= 3. Where to Stay in Pezenas Can you recommend any hotels in Nizas or Pezenas? Also, is there a good website for the towns in this area; what's going on, concerts, fetes etc. thanks, Jim === Hello Jim I can strongly recommend Hotel de Vigniamont, a truly remarkable place to stay in the heart of Pezenas. This 17th Century Hotel particulier has been lovingly restored to provide a luxurious selection of rooms and suites. http://hoteldevigniamont.com Hotel de Vigniamont Their links page (although they do not mention us!) has some good information Bon Voyage Tony ======= 4. Currencies Direct are the Best Buy Definitely do not buy any currency from your bank, the foreign exchange shops in the high road or through travel agents. The rate of exchange you can get can be much better, safe, secure and simple, takes 10 minutes and can save you a lot. To read the rest of this article, please go to http://www.fblog.com/?q=node/view/126 Best Currency Deals ====== 5. Help With Renting Tony, We are thinking of renting our property in France your website looks interesting but do you also manage change overs. Terry === Hello Terry The cleaning, change-over and "help" person must be very close to your property, we recommend no more than a 10 minute walk, and has to be available all the time for help in emergencies, so it is a very local service. Agencies who offer to give this service, with very rare exceptions, cannot provide the personal service demanded by renters and we try never to list this sort of property on our sites due to the problems and complaints Our skills are in marketing and getting you bookings - the last thing you would want is our software engineers cleaning the kitchen or making a bed, everyone would be poisoned and you would find the sheets at the top of a tree or at the bottom of the pool due to a software problem. If you want clients for your property - we are the best in the business best wishes Tony ======= 6. Above ground Pools Tony I have a kit pool bought from a supermarket and erected in my garden by a friend. It is 4.5 meters diameter and 1.2 m deep. It is easily dismantled and last winter I kept it in the garden shed. Because of the slope of the garden, part of the pool is surrounded by earth. I have plastic fencing around the pool with a narrow opening straight onto the patio, just wide enough to take the step ladder. Do I need to comply with the stringent pool laws? The house is my permanent residence and is never rented out. Carol == Hello Carol Above the ground temporary pools do not come under the pool safety legislation yet and you do not need to fence them or fit "approved security devices" Best wishes Tony ======= 7. Rabbit and Pork Tony I believe most French school children learn English as their first foreign language, but when I ask the young people in my bank or insurance agents if they speak English they almost invariably say they don't. I am happy to speak in French but I am just interested in why they won't even have a go at practising their English. O.K, my grandchildren, who have all learnt French at school, won't risk speaking it over here, but I thought that was a peculiarly English failing! I am spending too long reading the archives - they are addictive, so I will have to start rationing myself. Best wishes Carol === Hi Carol The language thing has always interested me - the attitude in France is "why should we speak English to foreigners visiting us in our own country? - they do not speak French to us when we visit them in their country". All French people are brought up in the firm belief that France is the most important country in the world, with the oldest heritage, has contributed more to science, philosophy and art than any other country and is the most civilised and important country in the world. Until very recently the French language was the most important "diplomatic" language in the world and the fierce pride the French have in their rigid (yet fossilised) language makes it difficult to encourage the use of any other. Interestingly French people admit that their language is very difficult to learn and to speak "correctly" because of this, and the ludicrous Frenchification of International words, makes the language increasingly odd and bizarre to many people. The French also are not great travellers and most never leave their French speaking environment - rather like the map of the world in 'The King and I" - they see France as the biggest country and the rest of the world is clustered around it. History is "adjusted" - the battle of Trafalgar is described in French history books as "An inconsequential battle at which an English admiral was killed". I have already mentioned a friend who came to our house when the children were watching the Disney cartoon " The Little Mermaid" - he said "Amazing - they have translated the Disney cartoons into English" - he did not believe that Walt Disney was an American. C'est la France Tony ======= 8. Travel Help Line You are traveling through a country where you don't speak the language. You have a problem, someone is lost, you are stopped by the police, miss your passport or want to change your room. Even just book a good restaurant or buy a bunch of flowers. What if you could call someone (like on "Millionaire") who is fluent in the language and tell them your problem and then ask them to help or translate. Well, this service exists. I came across this brilliant and valuable service. The team speak five languages - English, Spanish, French, German and Dutch. To read the rest of this article, please go to http://www.fblog.com/?q=node/view/124 European help-Line ======= 9. How do I find the right property Dear Tony, Many thanks for this Newsletter and all those that have come before. Some have been very helpful and most of them informative. My wife and I have been looking quite hard at the Gers region of France to find a property which we could use as a holiday home and eventually retire into, whilst being able to earn a few pennies by having a Gite business (no high expectations here I assure you!). We had a few ideas to make the Gites more attractive and the sort of property we were looking for was a small farm with about 2 hectares or more. We found the "perfect" property just west of Auch - a farmhouse which had been 25% redeveloped from uninhabitable, with two substantial barns that could be converted into Gites and which had be re-roofed, standing in 11 hectares. However, it turned out to be owned by an Englishman asking 455,000 euro way over what the local market would have asked, surely? In general throughout several months of research we have found that agencies on the Internet and particularly those in English aimed at the UK market, are overvaluing French properties for sale very significantly. To get true local value for money, would it be best for us to decide where we want to be, then go there and talk to the local Notaires and other local people (bar/restaurant owners, hotel owners and other locals to whom one has easy access) in order to find out what is for sale? Are there other good or better ways to find such properties. On a related issue I recently subscribed to a Web Site which gives details of auctions throughout the UK (general, cars, property etc.). They had a link to hotpropertyalert which I see you also have on your web site. My comment here is that this looks to be good to be true (i.e. horribly exaggerated or misleading or whatever). I asked them for their free trial issue of their newsletter and was disturbed to find in it a picture of a 2nd (much smaller) farmhouse we had found in the Gers, which was being offered for sale at 250,000 euro by the Dutch owner (again through UK facing agents). This is hardly the hot property bargain they claim to be finding. Can you kindly reassure my wife and I as to how genuine this site is, what its track record looks like etc. How much research, if any, have you been able to do on this site yourself? Thank you again for all your hard work. Yours gratefully John === Hello John My advice is to do exactly what you have suggested, make a lot of visits to many parts of France - find the village or town which you like the most - then: sit, look talk and explore all local avenues to find property for sale - the Notaire, boulangerie, cafe, local groups of people with similar interests to yourself and then the estate-agents, (but forearmed with local knowledge and contacts). If you are also thinking of generating income from a Gite business - then you must be totally detached from any personal "feelings" and do proper market research as to the success of other Gites in the immediate area and due diligence on any claims the vendor is making. Then divide what your research suggests in half and see if it is viable. In my opinion the "Gite Business" is in decline and people are looking for more up-market properties for holidays. Gites are following the decline of campsites, holiday-camps and chalet parks into history. I am sure there will always be enthusiasts, but it is no longer a growth industry except for people opening them and selling them. The Internet is a valuable research tool, but must be used carefully for property purchases. The properties listed are, by definition, those belonging to people looking to get the maximum profit from a sale as they are reasonably sophisticated to be using Internet marketing tools in the first place. A site in English is obviously aimed at the foreign market and the seller is assuming that they can ask a premium on the price. There was a saying I have heard in Languedoc, "Advertise a pile of stones in a field and Brits will soon be queuing up to buy them for a holiday home" - the joke is that a lot of the properties local people sold ten years ago at what they thought of as a ludicrously high price to foreigners are now selling for ten times as much - this is unlikely to happen again in the near future. I had completely forgotten about the hotpropertyalert site, I think I only referred to it in a reply. I do not like it and I am very dubious as to the credibility of the adverts, they certainly do not look good value to me - my simple rule is that I believe anyone selling a property will say anything to get the sale and that if I assume that everything they say is a lie then I must make a decision based only on what I see and discover myself. Bonne Chance Tony ======= |
