Living in France: Seeking Advice

We live in an age where we all have access to a vast range of information on every topic imaginable. A few clicks on the internet can take us anywhere, but how do we sort the wheat from the chaff? Finding reliable answers to questions about property owning or life in France can be tricky.

Reading FPN is obviously a good starting point, but even the information here cannot be guaranteed to be 100% accurate. Some of the forms relating to the application of the new rules on reduced rate TVA changed in the short time between my submission of an article to FPN, and its publication, for example.

Circumstances and rules can vary from place to place too. For example, there are usually additional planning restrictions, in national parks, flood plains and earthquake zones, and near historic buildings. A page-length general interest article cannot possibly cover all the angles.

As in the UK, the scope of grant aid for anything from listed buildings to school uniforms can be changed at the drop of a directive, so advice given in 2008 may not be relevant in 2009. The trick is to use the articles as starting points, to give you a feel for a subject, noting down references to official documents etc.

Forum fors and againsts

Internet forums are a relatively new way of sharing advice and information. It pays to study the style of a forum before you register and join in (lurking, as habitués term it), as you may find answers without the hassle of getting involved. Some contributors give sound advice, backed up by references to reliable sources. (We recommend the Complete France forum - click HERE)

Watching one or two forums I have been amazed by the gullibility of some participants, and by the arrogance of others. Why would you trust the answer to a question, on, say, French electrical regulations without having a clue as to who is giving you the answer? Pen-pushers turned builders are the worst: so long as their project hasn't cracked up (yet), they cheerfully go about telling everybody else how to do it.

A little knowledge can cause people to think they are more expert than they really are. Others sadly seem to know noone in their local area, as they search wildly for advice as to what the controls on their boiler mean – couldn’t they just pop down the road and ask someone? Unscrupulous traders also seem to be using forums to market their services, covertly touting for business.

Local advice

You can, of course, run into similar situations when you meet other expats face to face, but at least then you have a better chance of sorting out the good guys. Local gatherings can be a great way to get the names of reliable local tradesmen. If, however, all you do is pick their brains without ever engaging their services, you may find that you don’t get the warmest welcome when you next walk into the café – especially if you have employed cheaper labour ‘on the black’. Inviting an electrician to dinner and then asking him how to rewire your barn conversion to French standards using cable you brought from the UK is not on either.

“Ignorance of the law excuses no man” (John Selden), but all too frequently British expats in France go gaily about their daily business – from motoring to building, and even selling British bangers (cash only,mate) out of the back of a truck parked up in a lay-by – with scant regard for French laws.Yet advice on all aspects of life is readily available with a few clicks – try www.service-public.fr, www.impots.gouv.fr, www.legifrance.gouv.fr, www.edfbleuciel. fr or www.cadastre.gouv.fr, for example.Yes, it helps if you speak French but some services are available in English – and remember, you’d expect a foreigner coming to the UK to master English, wouldn’t you? The rules seem labyrinthine, and they often are, but it pays to find out from a reliable source what you should be doing, even if you then choose to ignore it!

There are many reliable specialist advisors and service providers offering to help you in France. Many advertise in FPN, and will be willing to answer a quick email or telephone query free of charge. For more complicated matters you should expect to pay a fee: you are paying for their time and knowledge. Be sure you agree terms with them before they start work, so you are not faced with an unexpected bill.

Make sure that they are also competent to deal with your problem. Regulated professions such as architects, chartered surveyors and lawyers follow strict codes of conduct, and if asked for advice on matters outside their area of competence, will not take on your case but will usually help you to find the right sort of expert to guide you.

Ask at the mairie

Finally, your local mairie is often a brilliant source of advice and information on all things administrative. Helpful staff will often go the extra mile to find the answer to your question, and are more likely to get past the grumpy switchboard staff at the préfecture or the hôtel des impôts than you are. At worst, they will point you in the right direction. There are, of course, tetchy, antiincomers, anti-everybody staff in some places and if this is the case at your mairie, you may need to get a friend in a betterserved commune to ask the question in theirs.

Story by, Mary Hall (chartered surveyor) Email: hall.bureau@neuf.fr

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