Dave P

Thinking of buying one and was just wondering what the pro's and cons were and what extra costs on top of mortgage, electricity etc. there may be in France.

Dave

OllyK

One down side, it is full of French people

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

:


We have one that we are doing up slowly at the moment.
You REALLY need a seperate account in France to pay bills etc. Once you have that, it's relatively easy, and most stuff can be done by direct debit, with statements to your UK address.

Once you have had the account for a year, and used the cheque book/direct debit part of it, they issue you with a debit card, at your request, which is a chip and pin type, so you can buy fuel out of hours etc etc.
They also have a system called "Moneo", in which you "charge" the card with a sum from your account, and then use it to pay small amounts like motorway tolls, newspaper etc etc, without incurring costs for the vendor. Once you've used up your charge, you can recharge.

Property is readily availble in most areas, but obviously, you'll pay more in tourist type areas.
Property is available from a dilapidated ruin with no water, gas electricity or sewage, up to modern fully equipped houses, most at better rates than here.

Avoid looking at lots of internet sites: by the time you could contact the immobilier, (estate agent), the property would probably be sold.
Better to take a fortnight, choose an area, go and stay in a cheapy hotel, (or camp, as I did), and contact the immobilier direct. They will take it from there, and most have English speaking staff attached at least once they see you're interested.

When you find one you like, you make an offer through the immobilier. At that point, NO OTHER OFFERS will be received until yours has been decided on. If the answer is yes, both you and the vendor have to lodge 10% of the decided price with a Notaire, (notary), and then you have 6 weeks to complete. If either of you tries to drop out after the monies are lodged, without good reason, (failure to get a mortgage, found out there was going to be a TGV line through the garden etc etc) you forfeit your 10% to the other party.

If you want to live in the country, be prepared for no gas other than bottled, or a tank in the garden, and no main drains, just a "fosse septique" on your property, (a sort of self contained sewage system, no maintenance, and no smell).

Electricity is dearer than here, water is cheaper, and general rates are VERY cheap, as is insurance for the property and possessions. This last is a stipulation of the sale. You MUST have the property insured.

Planning permission for renovations etc is VERY easy to get, but getting someone to do any work you can't undertake yourself, takes time!

If you want any specific info, mail me, or else I could go on for ever.

Alcazar

Scooby96

Do you need permission / authority to let the house out for holiday rentals?

RichWalk

S96, wait till Nacro shows up he lives out their and is usually pretty well informed..

stu200

iTrader: (1)

I can't remember which utility it's for, but one of them requires that an inspection of the meter is made on an annual basis - no exceptions. If it's a holiday home that you'll be using for maybe three weeks of the year, you need to set aside one day out of that for staying in and waiting for the chappie to turn up.

Dave P

Have a property in mind. It's at the ski resort we normally go to and they started building some apartments last year while we were there. It's a smaller resort so they are cheap as chips at £73k + vat (although you can lose the vat by entering into a lease buyback scheme with the developer) with privaet pool, sauna and jacuzzi. About 2 minutes walk from one of the telecabines.

I'm sure there has to be reasonable rental income (we are paying Euro 800) for a week, and maybe even some capital growth as well.

Dave

Tiggs

funnily enough i am just sorting out a clients affairs whos buying a house out in france. watch out for daft napoleoic laws with regards to who gets what when you die and dont forget the iheritance threshold is low between spouses.

T

NACRO

Alcazar has covered most of it- except perhaps to add on 10% for the notary costs, the government levied tax based on a % of the purchase price and the fact that you pay the estate agent to sell you the property rather than the vendor (perhaps the vendor pays as well but in Paris they wanted €1500 out of us!) The property my girlfriend bought was new so we didn't have to pay the tax as it only applies to older properties.
One thing I would say is that the property market is very different to the UK in that it appears to be seasonal ie the prices peak and trough depending on the time of yr. For example during the recent "soldes" prices were dropped by 10% or more by the estate agents, can't imagine that happening in the UK. Capital growth does not seem to be a given although over time inflation seems to push prices up.

Also thought I'd better add just because you own it doesn't give you automatic right to exploit the property, a friend who bought a vineyard recently found that out to his cost.