Moving to France - Information sources?

[snobbyafghan]

This is not strictly motorhome linked but I know there are people here who've moved to France and there is a wide knowledge base on all sorts of subjects here.

 

I suppose there is a tenuous MH connection - if we hadn't toured France in one, we wouldn't be planning to move there.

 

Anway, can anyone recommend any good informational sites dealing with the practicalities of moving to live in France. I've been to the French Embassy site, which is a start, but I'd like something with input from people who've already done it.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Doug

[Guest JudgeMental]

 

heres one to start with. Brittany, but I think there is links to other regions...

 

http://brittany.angloinfo.com/

[J9withdogs]

JudgeMental - 2007-10-28 1:24 PM

 

heres one to start with. Brittany, but I think there is lonks to other regions...

 

http://brittany.angloinfo.com/

 

You sound just like the policeman out of 'Allo Allo', Judge (lol)

[Guest JudgeMental]

I have no time for such frivolous pursuits, don't you know

 

So thankfully no knowledge of the gentlemen you are comparing moi too.

 

I find that whatever country I visit i get mistaken for a local. In Italy last year Italians kept babbling away at me in Italian. likewise whereever else we visit.

 

even the kiosks on motorway tolls - they babble on in bl**dy french!

 

when I tell the wife and kids I have been mistaken once again for a local, they laugh at me - I can't fathom why.....

[A W]

I'll send you a PM with all sorts of sites.

It depends on the area you are heading for.

We use the site quoted previously and there is also a version for Normandy.

If you have a RHD motorhome with the habitation door on the English nearside there is no way you will be able to register it here.

Good luck

[michele]

Try Randoneur ,

They live in France and I,m sure they wold gladly tell yo how they done it .

Also Vixter & Voh to name just a few . Good Luck ;-)

[Brian Kirby]

There is/was an excellent little book called something like "Buying a home in France".  Don't know if it is still in print, and my daughter has snitched my copy co I can't quite author or publisher.  However, a bit as "Go Motorhoming Europe" is to motorhomes, this book is to buying houses. 

Lots of information on the do's and don'ts, and a lot of useful warnings on the pitfalls of the French legal system, the Notaires and what they do and don't do, and the Code Napoleon as it applies to inheritance law.

Boring yes, but if you ignore it you can come a real cropper, especially with the inheritance laws!

[snobbyafghan]

Thanks for the responses so far and particularly the pm from AW (are these abbreviations confusing anyone?).

 

I should say that it's Brittany with particular reference to Pontivy that we are interested in (at the moment).

 

Doug

[alanmac]

There is a monthly magazine,French property news,also web site,www.french-property-news.com this as well as showing properties for sale covers over a period of time articles on purchase,legal requirements and many other subjects which we found useful when makinf our purchase 5 years ago.

 

If you do decide to subscribe be aware that they, unlike most magazine subscriptions, do not tell you when your subs are due for renewal. You only notice about 3 months later when you realise that something has been missing !.

 

I obviously need a better diary system. Hope this is of use

[Vixters other half]

Hello Doug

Welcome to France or Brittany to be precise, Pontivy is a nice town and the region is full of delightful places to visit.

 

The info sources mentioned are all very useful and so is "Living France" magazine.

 

We came over to Brittany in March in the MH and toured Brittany central unti we found what we wanted.

M. Sarkosy is changing a few of the rules here and the inheritance laws are to change, but there are ways of safeguarding your property from the inheritance laws.

 

When you start looking for a property location is more important than size, land or buildings. France is a big place and some of the idyllic country cottages are miles from any where. Thats fine fora two week holiday but to drive 10 miles for a loaf of bread every day and in all weathers is a different thing altogether.

 

We live on the edge of a small village of 1400 people, very rural area, but, it has a bus service, local shops and bars, a garage filling station and doctors surgery. All these things are within walking distance and while we are both fit and healthy we can go to the supermarkets in a car, perhaps later when we are not so mobile the village ammenities will be crucial.

 

Come over and explore off season to see the other side of French living in the cold and wet. There is a camp site near us that is open all year and you can then take a measured approach to house hunting

 

If you have any specific questions drop me a PM

 

Rgds

VoH

 

 

[tonyishuk]

Try

 

http://www.livingfrance.com

 

Intesting site, informative forum. Forum is a little hard to find but do a search on the site and the registration pages will open. ( Forget that !)

 

Rgds

 

Edit

Oops ! Checked the link (OK) Forum is entered by bottom para on RHS of the page.

[empress]

Another two sites that may be of some help:

www.internationalliving.com/france and should you be tempted by the Vendee, www.inthevendee.com

 

Best wishes, Empress

 

[eljay]

Hi,

 

Yet another web site forum which helps many people and is not assocated with one particulr area or region is

 

http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/

 

 

We love it here and only wish we had made the move years ago, but that four-letter word - w*** - seemed to rule our lives until health problems made the break for us. Now fully mended, thank goodness, and spending our time getting our house and garden to its potential.

 

J

 

[snobbyafghan]

J

 

You sound very positive which is encouraging. We are faced now with having to make a decision in the next week or so on whether to actually go for this - after being on the market for 6 months, our house is now under offer and the buyers want to be in by Christmas.

 

We told ourselves months ago that we'd move to France, but now we are face-to-face with the possibility, it doesn't seem so straight forward.

 

It's not so difficult for my partner - she's retired but I'm self-employed. Although I work in front of a computer and so can operate anwhere with a broad-band connection, the nuts and bolts of being counted as working full-time in France seem rather daunting - certainly damned complicated.

 

So I'm frantically trying to make sense of it all...!

 

Doug

[g4oip]

Cheapest way is find the area that you want to live and go and talk to the marie and see if they have properties on the parish that have no families to pick up the homes as they have to be passed to family lines [applies to brits as well usually] and see what offers the Marie will accept to take the upkeep off their hands and it will be nowhere near what rip-off estate agents charge. Also if maintenance is req'd they will sometimes allow equal spend i.e. you spend 25k doing the place up to local standards they can grant an equal amount. Be warned tho. best to be pretty good at speaking French and talk to the locals as well they usually love a good gossip.

[Guest JudgeMental]

 

above all dont panic, Plus if its not enjoyable its not really worth doing is it.

 

Try renting for a while either here or there....

[yesmad]

Why not rent a property in France first, that way if it's not for you, then you can return back to UK no problems. If you are taking your m/h to France and it's RHD then be aware that you will not get it French registered without an awful lot of hassle due to the door being on the wrong side. We have friends who have just gone down this route and we were thinking of doing the same, but we have now decided to keep a base in the UK and buy either a m/h or a caravan and tour Europe and head for the sun in winter. Our friends have decided by the way not to register as living full time, but as holiday makers as you have to pay tax straight away and don't forget their VAT is higher at 19.5% I think. What ever you do I wish you all the best and most important be happy as life is too short.

 

[terry1956]

Hi, don,t forget that if you don,t pay tax in france, then you will pay 33.33% when you sell your house here, If you pay tax for one year then you don,t. As to the motorhome thing, YES you can regt a RHD camper van here, We did it last year, The door was on the wrong side and it did not have a full makers cert for the camper part, The way round it was to take out the rear seat belts complete with anchor points, and have the cart gris state it was only for two people, ie the ones using the two front seats,

But after drawing lots of plans, getting the gas/elec checked easy job, the chap just looks at the gas reg to make sure its french, used the one from the house with gas cyclinder. and thats that.

We just did a Hymer B544 and after waiting 3 months for Hymer.fr to send us the build cert and fiat to do same, we got the cart gris yesterday, no gas/elec check etc.

House prices don,t go up to much, so a house here is not a great investment, and I know many brits who wish to go back to the UK but can,t buy into the housing market, The cost of rental is very low and you only pay the local tax, so it works out a good deal, I would do this if you can, and do a year or so just to see if it works for you.

We are returning for a number of reasons, but have a house in the UK, but find that keeping two large gardens under control is a pain, so one house as to go, It will take around 2 years to sell up, so we will enjoy travel in the hymer for the that time.

Be very aware of forum,s there are a lot of people on them who see french with a pink tint, But if they could would return. Large groupes of fish and chip east ender watching brits are all over the place here, all trying to live in each others pockets, sounds just like a groupe on the UK.

who don,t talk, or want to talk english.

Michael

[snobbyafghan]

Steve

 

Renting is what we thought we may do first.

 

I don't understand what your friends are doing. I thought that if you spent more than 183 days per year in France you had no choice but to register and be part of the French tax system. No?

 

Doug

 

 

[yesmad]

I am not sure of all the ins and outs of it all to be honest. I know that they have sold up here in the UK and they did rent, but have now bought a property, but are keeping there heads down I think, just to see how they like it. I know that they are covered medical wise with the European Health Insurance card for two years and after that they will have to join the French system, which I am told is no more expensive than say joining BUPA.

[terry1956]

Hi, re spending time in both countries, yes it is done by a lot of people, after all there is no pass port controls in force between both countries.The heath reforms here in France mean that if you live here full time and work then you pay into the france system, If you do not work in france, and are under the age of 65 for men 60 for women then you must have heath insurrance, This will only pay 70% of the cost of heath care, Top up insurrance will pay the other 30%. NOWEVER people with an illness at the time of taking out heath insurrance will find it very hard to do so, There are a few people out here at the moment who are facing big bills.

On coming out to france a brit as cover under their E111 for two years. Also one needs to look at any pensions and income from the UK as at the moment France is being reported for asking for tax on Uk tax paid income. The new man at the top is bring in a whole new ball park of laws dealing with rights to services etc here in France, and a lot of brits are being caught up in the mix. We have been here part time, and I am glad we did not make the move to full time for a number of reasons.

I say again, rent for a year or more, get the feel, allow time for the hoilday feeling to end and then see if you can deal with it, maybe rent your house out at the same time to cover costs back in the UK.

michael

[A W]

Some of the info rearing its head on this thread is not entirely accurate but sticking to the motorhome theme it is most certainly not possible to import and register a motorhome with the habitation door on the "wrong" side.

That's as far as Brittany is concerned and should anyone want the name and phone no. of the D.R.I.R.E. inspector I'll gladly pass it on.

There is a thead running this very day on another site from someone who has this problem

[CliveH]

I think Michael makes some very good points above.

 

From what I understand the French are preparing to "remove" the retired non-French from their health care system.

 

You cannot blame them I suppose.

 

As regards the IHT situation, yes it is different but as someone else said, there are ways around this.

 

But in my experience the biggest tax hit for many is the French CGT that applies if you sell a house in France and you are non-domicile. (as opposed to be resident/non-resident.

 

If you sell a house in France after a couple of years and you have a "bolt-hole home back in the UK - watch out!

 

The French CGT is a bit of a bugger if you are not expecting it!

 

 

:-(

[CliveH]

This is as good a explanation as I have found of French CGT and the recent changes.

 

It is taken from:-

 

http://www.frenchentree.com/fe-legal/DisplayArticle.asp?ID=1908

 

 

 

 

Is your French home subject to Capital Gains Tax?

 

This is one of the most frequent questions asked by British expatriates, since the rules were always complicated and were changed dramatically this year.

 

The basic principal is that property in France will always be potentially subject to French capital gains tax, irrespective of your place of residence.

 

As in the UK, however, your “principal residence” is exempt from capital gains tax, so this is a major advantage.

 

One of the most frequent misunderstandings is caused by the fact that you can only call your “home” your principal residence if you are formally tax resident in France. We receive many calls from people, who have been surprised to be charged capital gains tax, since they have been living in the property for some time, but they have never entered the French tax system, nor completed a tax return.

 

 

 

At least one of the most positive changes in the legislation this year improves the chance that your previous “holiday home” can be called your principal residence. Previously, if you owned a property as a holiday home and then moved into it, you had to live in it for 5 years before calling it your “principal residence” for tax purposes. This delay has now been removed. In practice, however, you should still be able to show that you have completed a tax return, while resident at that address and the Notaires, who are responsible for collecting the tax, prefer to see two years’ returns.

 

If you are subject to capital gains tax on a property sale, how is the tax calculated ?

 

The basic rules are that the purchase price can be revalued, by purchase and sale costs and any major renovation bills, although there is now no inflation allowance. The resulting figure is subtracted from the sale price to calculate the taxable gain.

 

The gain is then taxable at a set rate of 16%, for European residents, with an a extra “social tax” ( a form of National Insurance contribution) of 10% ( rising to 11% this year) for French residents. Anyone who is not a resident of a European state will pay a set tax rate of 33%.

 

However, the conditions of acceptance of “renovation work” are very stringent. This must be carried out by a registered French artisan ( with appropriate invoice) and invoices for materials you have purchased yourselves are not allowed.

 

Unfortunately, the previous possibility that you could have an “expert evaluation” of the work done, instead of producing invoices, no longer exists, so capital gains, for the “bricoleurs”, who have done all the work themselves, is now much more of a problem.

 

Moreover, if you are non-resident of France, you are obliged to appoint an official “tax representative”, who is responsible for calculating and paying the tax on your behalf. Our experience of certain of these organisations is that they are expensive, uncommunicative and act more like tax inspectors, than your own “representative”.

 

Even so, all is not lost, since there has always been a significant allowance given for the length of time you have owned a property, which has seen major changes this year :

There is no allowance for the first 5 years of ownership, but every year, from then on, allows you 10% off your capital gain, with the result that a property owned for more than 15 years is free of Capital Gains Tax.

 

Whatever your situation, these rules show that the tax position of a British resident in France is always going to take some understanding. Taking professional advice has become even more important.

 

 

 

 

 

Hmmmmmmmmm!

 

So isn't it easier just to downsize a bit in the UK and use the money gained to buy a fantastic MH or Caravan and use that?

 

 

[A W]

Interesting couple of posts Cliveh...many thanks.

My understanding(and it is only an understanding) is that those people in possession of E121's will continue to receive French health care.

If that is so it would apply to the vast majority of non-working Brits