expected bills

I could add a few to this such as:

Taxe fonciere - we were told it wasn't payable for the first 2 years, but as it turns out only a proportion of it is not payable

Life assurance on the mortgage

French income tax if you make a profit

Also, try to keep a handle on what the syndic charges are. Ours (Domaine de Figuiere) have recently started to impose ridiculously high charges, which we are disputing.

Does anyone pay for property insurance? Our lease says the management company are responsible for paying this insurance, but what if they don't?! It's obvious some management companies are trying to pass on taxe d'habitation, so should we trust them to insure our properties.

I have property insurance covering fire, flood, loss and theft of items from my appartment and liability should the tenant injure themselves by slipping in the bath or having fixtures like wonky cupboards fall on them.

I never got to the bottom of what the management company's insurance cover provides but I think it relates to communal areas like hallways and lifts.

I asked about water and fire damage to my apartment arising from other properties and if the management company's insurance would cover this but surprise surprise answer came there none!

Anyone come across "serenity" charges?!

what are those "serenity" charges?

I would advice you to pay property insurance! You never know if the management company is insured or not. My management company has just subscibed a block insurance covering all the properties they run. For the past 2 years our Residence was not covered at all, and even now it is not fully covered.

"Serenity" charges. We have received a letter from our management company saying "to maintain your property to a high level of quality and value for your assets, we set up the contract maintenance "Serenity" for a fixed annual 19,45 Euros per M2 living".

In the agreement that we are expected to sign it reads "it is here agreed that the lessor bears a share of the annual costs of maintenance and operation of the building to which the leased premises, fixed arbitrarily at 19.45 Euros before tax per m2. This package will be indexed annually on the index of consumer prices".

And it has been ascertained that these charges are in addition to the syndicate charges!

Thank you for your advice about the insurance.

Thanks

Gosh! You should not pay anything like that! Please don't sign it. Seek advice of a lawyer.

Beaware that the managment company and the syndic/syndicate are often operating together, one is usually the co-owner of the other one.

Have you had any co-owner meetings (Assemblee Generale)? Do you know the other owners? It is important to get together and check that you have received the same "agreement" and refuse it all together.

Dear Seamus

I do agree with you on a lot of point including the property insurance. I do have the clause in my contract. However in December 2005 my flat was inundate as well as 4 others (a pipe exploded due to the cold/freezing conditions) and the first thing I've done was to ask the mgmt company to report the pb and sort it out. Surprise! the building was not insured! and it was the case until June 2007. So for more than 1 year and 1/2 years the mgmt company did not insure the residence nor the building.

We, the owners of the flats which were damaged by the water, asked the people who sold us the flat to sort it out. Yes they gave us some advice but at the end they did not do anything concret.

We had to get ride of the syndic and ask the court to nominate a proper entity to help us to sort out everything in the building. The judge assigned a syndic, which had missions and was under the control of the judge over 4 months. They pushed the mgmt company to insure the building. However the insurance is still, apparently, not a proper insurance as the mgmt company seems to have done a block insurance for all their residences in France.

The flats were repaired by the Developer even if it was not its fault at the end.

Just for your information, in France there are many problems with the leasebacks and we are a group of people acting together with the government in order to protect the investors and get ride off bad mgmt companies and crooks, and to propose solutions to people, which currently have problems. If you do read and speak French I can send you official documents.

There are also several websites which have been created by people searching for other owners in their building and to expose all the bad and good things. There are also several posts on another Forum called cbanque.com

I really do not want to interfer badly but people need to know and sort out problems and get together before it's getting to late.

Hello everyone

On Monday 20 Jan 08, there will be an online Chat/debate with Mr Bouvard, on the Residence de Tourisme in France. He is part of the new cabinet and has been mandated to do some research on the Residence de Tourisme in France and their current situation.

"Un débat Immobilier : les excès de la défiscalisation, avec Michel Bouvard, député de savoie, aura lieu lundi sur le site des Echos. Infos / participation sur http://www.lesechos.fr/info/chats/300234552.htm." The debate is scheduled to be between 3.30 pm and 4.30 (French time)

Questions are more than welcome, in French and English. You can already post them on the website.

Several French people (me included) are going to ask questions but it would be great if some foreigners have some as well. Hope you will participate. You can refer to the problems mentioned above eg Taxes, Changes occuring during the leaseback period, solutions regarding the non payment of the rent.

The maximum of owners or potential buyers or companies interacting on Monday the best it would be for all of us, as it will for sure all help us in the future.

Thanks

Regards,

Un débat avec Michel Bouvard, député de savoie, aura lieu lundi sur le site des Echos. Infos / participation sur http://www.lesechos.fr/info/chats/300234552.htm.