HELP PLEASE!!! Management company trouble

Skyrage - you have a legal right to know who all the owners

are. However, your management company don't want you to

know because they know you will have more power if you act

as a group. All owners are responsible for paying taxe

fonciere to the local tax office - they have a list of all

owners as a result. I wrote to my local office and they

supplied me with a full list of names and addresses. That

was several years ago now, I am in touch with all owners

and together we take joint action over unpaid rent etc.

Good luck

Hi All

Our management company is in sauvegaurd measures and threatening to cancel our lease if we don't agree to reduced rental and increased charges ( all of the property charges with no cap on them) - we will be lucky to break even after property charges and tax fonciere. Let alone pay our mortgages.

Has anyone got experience of having their lease cancelled by the management company and renting their property themselves or through a local agent ? If the management company get 70-80% of owners to sign they would keep running the residence - so we won't be able to get rid of them.
But we would be in the 20-30% of apartments that are no longer on lease back. I appreciate that we would have to pay the TVA rebate ( in our case 16/20ths as 4 years has passed).
Any advice or experience welcomed

We have formed an action group of UK owners and are also in touch with the French owners

Tourism residences: Watch, Danger!. "Residences of

Tourisme: le scandal smoulders! " It is the title of the

Hemicycl), the newspaper of the French Parliament. In

this newspaper ( pages 6 & 7) a report brings to light

the great difficulties which affect some administrators

of holiday residences with dramatic situations for

numerous owners who see their rents unpaid or decreased

from 40 to 80%. Pierre & Vacance is affected (see also

the article of Capital ), two subsidiaries of the group

Lagrange are on the verge of bankruptcy. One of her,

Résitel ( 1 700 owners), has a liabilities of the order

of 100 millions euros.

There is now a national federation of owners' in

France "Association of Holiday residences (FNAPRT) .

If you want copies of the articles referred to above send

me your email address and I will send attachments

The FNAPRT (Fédération Nationale des Associations de

Propriétaires de Résidences de Tourisme)has been started by

some leaseback owners. I would ensure your residents

association joins this as they are having a lot of success

at bringing the leaseback problems to the notice of

politicians and journalists in France. Articles have

appeared in a number of well respected journals in France

and as a news item on TV. I believe there is a about to be

an article in Figaro in the next few days.

hi.i have an appart.in berge du cxxx,run by odaly,i am there 8 years and never had a problem with rent payments till this year.

now im told i wont get last quarter payment till jan.But after reading the stuff on this site i feel lucky till now.

they all seem to be a law unto themselves

i thought if you sold that the law has changed..that you do not have to pay back the vat rebate we got at the start,

i think the lease back is a thing of the past..as a so called investment,

bank of ireland shares at 10 cent a sure thing to double your money in 12 months

Hi Jason

Get some advice as soon as possible. Bertrand at C'est la vie properties is good.

Contact the Syndic and get a list of all owners and their addresses.

Set up a google group then for communication. You have a tough time ahead.

Hi Jason,

most of the management companies are dictating new terms and totally ignoring our existing contracts.With the TVA situation and limited options as to alternatives to the leaseback schemes we are in, the management companies have us over a barrel.

At our residence we accepted a 30% rent reduction.Bertrand handled negotiations between the management and our group.Maybe there are different ways of dealing with the problem but we as a group accepted the reduction with some additional personal usage and a review of the situation in the future.

Bertrand also handles my accounts.you can contact C'est La Vie on:

0033 240 157 485

hope this helps, regards Olly

The idea of the reduction in rent is so that the management companies remain in business, as they are not making profits with the existing agreements.

Maybe the legal route would be effective.Bertrand is an accountant not a lawyer.

I wouldn't get riled up if I were you Jason. Just take a seat amongst the thousands of others that have discovered what a rip off the 'leaseback' scheme is. You'll find that the management companies can do just what the hell they like.

r_cummings40996.8723726852

Oh, it's against the law all right! Getting action against them is the problem. As an individual you stand little chance. If you can get all the other owners together to form a 'co-operative' that will act together against your management company you might get what they owe you in about...oh, 3 to 5 years ....and most of what get will go to lawyers.

My leasing company has reduced the rent too....like most of them have. Fortunately, the owners are united to a man to get the management company out and we have just started legal proceedings against the management. The cost, just to start legal proceedings is €800 per owner...that's just the start...and I have no doubt that if it looks as if the management is going to loose the legal case, they will claim bankruptcy as so many other companies have, leaving us with a useless investment and a huge legal bill.

Look through the forums Jason, you will see stories about owners that have not received any rent for over two years.

Welcome to the world of Leaseback pal....the 'trouble-free' investment.

r_cummings40997.3045949074

You're better off cutting your loses and doing a 'Lord Lucan' mate.

If you're intent on fighting them then the first thing you have to do is get a list of the other owners...see how many of them are prepared to stand with you. Don't go it alone because they'll just chew you up and spit you out.

Hi there

Any idea on how you obtain a list of other owners?

I have a similar problem at the moment - we're being

asked to sign an addendum, agreeing not just to reduced

rent but to take on nearly all costs associated with the

property (building works, bills relating to communal

parts, etc..). They say that if the owners don't sign,

they will have to liquidate and then we'll lose Residence

de Tourisme status and will need to re-pay our TVA

rebates.

But apparently, if the company liquidates and ALL owners

agree on a new management company, we can keep our

Residence de Tourisme status and avoid the big tax

loss...

Thanks!

Hi ShyRage,

sorry for not coming back sooner.

I sympathise with your position. Ihave 2 leasebacks. one is fine and is

doing fine for about 5 years.

the other delivered for a year and a half. MC went bust. had no rent

for 12 months, had to pay serious money for keeping building secure

and all other costs.

got a list of owners from the syndic both french and irish. contacted all

of them. got an irish group up and running by a truely excellent

committee.

eventually got a new company to take over but at 60% of previous

rent. it is improving slowly but will never return what was promised.

call Bertrand. he speaks ex english. you have nothing to lose but cost

of call. if you wish to pm me feel free and i will brief you on a phone

call

Thanks ShyRage - that's really useful to know!