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Everything you always wanted to know about France |
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News from Pezenas, Languedoc France - Number 83, - 14 November 2003
A regular newsletter from the South of France about visiting, life, living and working in France. There are hundreds of articles in the archives at... http://francevoila.com/archives/ FranceVoila Archives To unsubscibe please use this link http://www.ymlp.com/unsubscribe.php?FranceVoila Unsubscribe This week includes... We are on telly. - Horse Feathers - $1000 off a Cruise in France. - 1. A Place In The Sun 2. Prompt, Precise and Expert Translations 3. Get the Lowest Cost from the Low Cost Airlines 4. Swimming Pool Mail 5. Let Us Buy You A Drink in France 6. Cruising in France save $1000 7. Fuschias 8. Where Can I get a Property Manager 9. Property For Nothing - and Horse Feathers 10. Useful Information 11. Advertising With Us 12. Win Flights with Ryanair from our travel sites ======= 1. A Place In The Sun See us on British Televison on November 19th. In our garden in Nizas last year. You read the book (see newsletter 78), so see the film. Lust and passion in the sun drenched vineyards of the south of France. A combination of Blade Runner, Toy Story, Edward Scissorhands and Sooty meets Muffin the Mule - see Nizas burn - phone home FT - let the sauce be with you. ..."With an average of 320 days of sunshine a year, miles of glorious beaches and low-cost flights from the UK to Perpignan, French Catalonia is starting to become as popular as the French Riviera and the Alps as a holiday destination."... Did I really say that?... Showing November 19th on a TV screen near you. Is this the beginning of a new career? Will suissie our faithful dog replace Alien ?- beam me up Spotty...."Steven dear I told you my left profile - Britney, I said no - makeup makeup the sun is melting my rug" ======= 2. Prompt, Precise and Expert Translations LinguaFranca: a niche French-to-English translation house. Specialists in translating conveyances and other contracts. We use only qualified lawyers as translators. tel +44 (0) 7734 110 252 or +44 (0) 1727 866 503 fax +44 (0) 7793 649 462 mailto:sophie@lingua-franca.co.uk Sophie@Lingua-Franca.co.uk http://www.lingua-franca.co.uk Lingua-Franca ======= 3. Get the Lowest Cost from the Low Cost Airlines Three websites offering to do the searching for you. TravelJungle http://www.traveljungle.co.uk TravelJungle Claims to be able to search up to 30 other websites in less than a minute. Traveljungle was speedy and easy on the eye, and produced some impressive results. SkyScanner http://www.skyscanner.net SkyScanner Searches through dozens of other websites searching for cheap flights to and around Europe. It does not produce live fares instantly. First, it shows the results of the most recent searches by other users; then, when you click on a particular flight, it goes to the airline and gets an up-to-date quote. Skyscanner was let down by its failure to identify the airline with the cheapest fare. TravelSuperMarket http://www.travelsupermarket.com TravelSuperMarket Looks at 27 sites including those of low-cost and scheduled airlines, charters and ticket discounters such as Ebookers, Travelocity and Opodo. It claims to be able to come up with the cheapest real-time fares in three minutes, listing them in order of price, including taxes. The best was Travelsupermarket. Despite being slow and not linking directly to airline booking pages, it has lots of useful information and, importantly, it came up with the lowest fare. ======= 4. Swimming Pool Mail Hi Your site is very good... I'd like to ask more about the swimming pool issue. I have fenced in our small garden & pool so that no wandering 1 - 5 yr old child can get in. The pool however is built so close to the house (with access to the pool from the house/terrace that it would very difficult and unsightly to put a fence directly around the pool. I can put in a pool alarm sensor, but will this satisfy the law. Our villa is in a gated development of 9 houses each with their own pool, most of us have the same problem in that the pools are very close even attached to the terrace.As yet I have seen very little that comprehensively sets out all the rules. The companies selling the fences post their versions of the new law, but these also differ and in my opinion probably favour the businesses wanting to install the fences. Like you I have been searching the web for more details but as yet no joy. Hope that you can help Lynn == Hello Lynn We have the draft standards, you can buy this on line from AFNOR, but we are waiting until the definitive final absolutely completely and final publication which is due before December 16. I doubt it will be much different but why waste 40 euro for a few printed pages. Basically the fence must surround the pool, be not less than 1 meter or more than 3 meters from the pool, have a secure self closing gate which opens away from the pool and is securely fastened with a catch which is at the top and inside the gate. The fencing must be strong, unclimbable, unbendable for a child and have no sharp or dangerous edged top or places a child could get stuck. The wall of a house or property can act as part of the barrier if it complies with the distances and there is no other access to the pool area. There is an draft AFNOR standard for sensors and alarms, but these are not specified for replacing the barrier, the barrier is an absolute standard . I have looked at a number of fencing companies leaflets and none have been misleading, they don't have to be as they are all competitive and looking to supply a huge market demand. Possibly next year some element of competitive pricing will come in, but with a million pools needing fencing there is likely to be a supply problem in the short term. Hope this helps Tony ===== I think your comments about pool fencing are very misleading. The new law does not say that a pool fence is a requirement. It says that a pool safety system is a requirement. It then goes on to list possible safety systems, which of course include fencing, but also other safety systems are acceptable to comply with the law, for example a pool alarm. It is therefore not a requirement to have a safety fence, but only to have a safety system, which could in fact be an alarm. Can you respond? Regards, Andrew == Andrew, You are badly misinformed. The law is very specific that fencing must be provided and the requirements are very accurately described. Alarm systems are under consideration and standards are being determined at this moment, but these are not to replace a fence. Please look at our pages regarding this, they give the official government sites, the law, references and some translations. We had the notification from abta today that no vacation company in the UK can sell a vacation rental without correct fencing from 2004. This is not a trivial by-law but French criminal law. Best regards Tony Our pool information is kept up to date on our site at http://francevoila.com/features/pools.html Pools ======= 5. Let Us Buy You A Drink in France Go to this page http://rentalsfrance.com/coupon/ Coupon Put in your details and get a coupon for a discount off any property booking we do for you. Not a lot, but enough for a good bottle of wine. ======= 6. Cruising in France save $1000 If you book in the next 3 weeks for a cruise next year, you can get $1,000 off the cost of a cruise. ontact us for details http://rentalsfrance.com/contact/cruises/ Cruise ======= 7. Fuschias Hi there, Can you help me out. I am planning to move to France early next year. I would like to take with me a number of outdoor pot plants (namely about 60 Fuschias,). Please can you advise me if there is a Law about bringing these into France from the UK. Thanks Mike == Mike, Yes it seems you will need papers for the Fuschias. There are prohibitions and restrictions (import permits) on plants and plant products imported into France. As a rule, all plants and plant products should be presented for inspection, at the port of entry, by officers of the Plant Health Inspection Service ("controle phytosanitaire"). The website for information is http://lesservices.service-public.fr/ www.lesservices.service-public.fr/ Reference: Plants and Plant Products C- 11000 Hope this helps Tony ======= 8. Where Can I get a Property Manager Tony, We own a property in Brittany and are considering renting from late 2004. We have exhausted any avenue of providing cleaning service - bed linen - key changing etc locally. Do you think it would be a viable proposition. We use the house occasionally ourselves but are totally flexable with our own use. The house is in a prime location of garden being located on the lake. If we decide to rent it would have to be with a sole agent to keep things as simple as possible. Joe == Hello Joe, With the rapid increase of owners looking to rent their homes, finding a reliable local person to look after, clean and do the laundry in a vacation rental property is getting harder. By definition this has to be a local person, preferably in walking distance but certainly no more than half an hour from the property. The property manager should be registered and insured as otherwise you are both taking risks, they are most unlikely to be registered to take any deposits or security as this requires a special permit. An estate agent in France can promote your property and usually accept payments, but rarely will they do the cleaning or changeover. In our experience they give a very poor and expensive service for vacation rentals unless they are experienced specialists in this. Costs vary, but you should budget about half your rental revenue for marketing, local management, servicing and cleaning, replacing sheets towels etc. Details of our own marketing services and charges are on our sites at... http://francevoila.com/rentals/ Rentals We are always on the lookout for good companies doing this work, but they reach saturation very quickly and can rarely accept more clients. This is a seasonal and usually intense weekend work, two people can only realistically look after 4 or 5 properties during the short changeover period on a Saturday. We are a marketing company and do not do any property management. There is a strong demand for rentals of good properties in Brittany and we are always looking for suitable properties for our clients. You can advertise and put classifieds in our associate website http://angloinfo.com/ AngloInfo We have a Brittany edition Hope this helps - please let me know Tony ======= 9. Property For Nothing - and other "Horse Feathers" Tony, Are there any little or no deposit down leaseback deals available? Mike == Mike, It depends on what you mean by "little". The leaseback plans in France are mostly Residence Touristique or RT plans. This is an French government initiative where the purchaser of the freehold of a new property which is designated and designed for tourism is repaid the Value Added Tax on the price of the property. Currently this is 19.6% of the original price so the repayment is in fact 16.4% of the selling price. This is paid back through the developer and can take from 3 months to a year to get from the sticky hands of the French government. In some cases the developer will set the price without the VAT and collect it themselves. In either case the tax has to be paid first. A non resident of France can normally borrow 70% of the price of a property - this depends on their proven income and the guaranteed income for the property from the management company can be take into account. In some case 80% can be borrowed. There are brokers who offer other financial services and higher loans, but I am quoting the policy of the leading banks. A French resident can borrow up to 110% of the price of a property, again this depends on proven income. Nearly all these developments are sold before the construction is finished. A 5% deposit is usually required to secure the property and there can be other stage payments until the final completion. So for example, if you see a property which has a selling price of 150,000 euro including tax, you can borrow 105,000 euro. You will eventually get back 24,600 VAT repayment, so the deposit your are finally putting down is 20,400 euro. In addition there are fees or about 4,000 euro so your final outgoing is around 25,000 euro. However remember you have to pay the VAT first, so you have to be able to put down about 45,000 euro initially. If the developer sells at the price without VAT, 125,400 euro, with a 70% loan you will have to have a deposit of 38,000 euro plus fees. If you can borrow a higher percentage and if the fees can be included in the price of the purchase and loan, your loan requirement will be less. Properties are available from 70,000 euro so it is possible to buy these with as little as 20,000 euro. Examine the returns and costs involved, in most plans there is a negative income for up to 5 years if you borrow the maximum and amortise the initial costs in the plan. The income will cover repayments at current interest levels and it is possible to use these plans to "gear" you capital by 3 to 5 times, but I would examine very closely any scheme which claims this is entirely self funding - if it were so I would personally rush out and buy 100 million euro of property without paying a penny and having the loans "guaranteed" to be repaid by the income. In 22 years time I would have property worth over 300 million euro. There aint no such thing as a lunch you don't pay for. Tony You can see properties we offer with several options at http://frenchpropertydigest.com/leasebacks/ FrenchPropertyDigest ======= 10. Useful Information Tony I should like information on Insurances for the home (permanent residence) car and health. Buying a left hand drive car - do I order one from France, have it shipped to the UK and drive it back or buy one in France. Thanking you Rosemary == Good question, simple answer - buy a car in France - definitely don't bring one in. You will find other answers and contacts on our page at http://francevoila.com/features/information/ Information Tony ======= 11. Advertising With Us We get many people asking to advertise in this newsletter and on our sites, we will accept advertising from companies or people offering a service to property owners or visitors to France. This newsletter today is being sent to 11,113 subscribers - to the best of our ability and knowledge these are genuine, individual subscribers who have applied to us for the newsletter. We operate a double confirmation system and continually clean out all addresses which appear invalid, bounce or are listed as "undesirable". Only a few adverts will be run in each newsletter, a condition is that any person or company offering a service in France must be registered and give us their Numero Siret (or Siren), (if you don't know what this is - you have not got one). To suggest an advert and to see the rates or to send us payment, go to our inquiry page at... http://rentalsfrance.com/contact/ Contact Us Or use this link http://francevoila.com/tipping How to Pay Us ======= 12. Win Flights with Ryanair from our travel sites. Starting this December we will be running a series of competitions jointly with Ryanair. Full details will be published in this newsletter and on our websites. Entry is easy, you only have to be a subscriber to this newsletter and to register with us, you can go directly to the registration page.. http://frenchpropertydigest.com/ryanair/ Ryanair Competition Everyone registering gets a bonus of a 10 euro voucher from us, keep this as you will need the voucher number in the competition. The rules are simple to follow and the answers will be found on our websites. So as the winter evenings draw in, you can explore our virtual world and dream of next summer in France. ======= |