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Renting our property

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noodles
Izzyedwards
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Post by Izzyedwards Tue Oct 29, 2013 3:27 pm

To cut a long story short, we have sold our house in Scotland and are currently living in what was our holiday house here in France. It's a wee bit too small for permanent living (as we both work from home) so we're in the process of buying another slightly bigger house.

Now, there are still some building works to finish on the holiday house, but once they're done, we are in a bit of a quandry about what to do with it. I don't really want to put it back on the market as there's no way at this stage that we will recover our investment, so renting it looks favourite. I am not sure I want to do the Gite thing, so was wondering about putting it out for long term residential let. How complicated is this in France? The internet, as usual, is full of horror stories, so was wondering if anyone who has / is doing this has any advice? Many thanks in advance...

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Post by noodles Tue Oct 29, 2013 3:40 pm

I am sure he will be along shortly but I think Le Dolly has considerable experience in this field, he might give you a few good pointers
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Post by Izzyedwards Tue Oct 29, 2013 3:41 pm

Thanks Noodles!

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Post by Amber Tue Oct 29, 2013 7:45 pm

I thought Le-Dolly is a lady?scratch 

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Post by BLAKEVINE Tue Oct 29, 2013 7:53 pm

Le-Dolly is a man? Gosh. He/she's a damn good cook! That just goes to show what images I have been conjuring up about those on the forum. Yum, yum. ! K.
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Post by twointheeye Wed Oct 30, 2013 2:55 pm

We rented our place out to UK holidaymakers for a few years and it proved reasonably lucrative. We had to give up as the people doing the changeover/cleaning retired. Then we rented long term to some French people who said they were desperate. Mistake! Their dog ate the furniture, and one day they all scarpered without paying the electric or last lot of rent. Subsequently we found their last stash (naughty substances, usually smoked) so we were lucky not to get busted! As you are around and able to keep a close eye on your place I guess you won't have those problems!
Overall the initial holidaymakers were the best - more money and we had few problems from them. There's plenty places to advertise online for little cost.
Finally, we were/are UK tax payers and declared it all with HMRC, so cannot say how the French tax system will deal with you.

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Post by Izzyedwards Wed Oct 30, 2013 4:31 pm

That's interesting twointheeye - thankyou. We'll only be about an hour away, so I could easily cope with the changeovers myself. It's interesting that you say the holiday-makers were less trouble than the residential lets. That's the impression I had from what I'd seen on the internet as well.
We were thinking of perhaps aiming a longer term residential let at UK folk who maybe wanted to come and give French life a go without committing to buying a property at first, so that's maybe a possibility for the winter months....

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Post by twointheeye Wed Oct 30, 2013 5:34 pm

We had two UK folk on longer than usual terms, both looking for houses in the area. One was a friend's brother, the other someone from Sussex we'd met before. Both were excellent and no trouble.
Regarding holiday lets....we didn't take deposits for two years because the admin was easier, and weren't let down at all. Then in the third year we had two last minute cancellations and lost a whole month's lettings. So we recommend getting non-refundable deposits.

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Post by Le-Dolly Wed Oct 30, 2013 8:44 pm

Right, I'm here, what do you need to know?

We have six apartments under rental from three bed to one bed properties. We offer them unfurnished, which is ideal if you do not want to pay tax on your earnings. The dis-advantage, if it is one, on unfurnished lettings is that they must be offered for a minimum period of three years. Whereas furnished are offered for periods of one year. Furnished lettings, and those of a holiday disposition, are an little known area for me, so I make no comments on them.

Internet horror stories? I have no personal knowledge of such things during the eight years that we have been functioning, but then would you expect to read about the successful attempts at letting? That is not to say that we have not had any problems, we have had two tenants that caused some anguish, one who, after leaving, decided that we should not have withheld a small % of her caution to pay for damage. She failed in her desires. The other, an English lad who had no respect for his neighbours regarding noise & litter, a little bit of Rachmanism sorted him out.

Whilst we live in the property next door, we do not interfere with the tenants and their flats, we make it very clear at the outset, it is their home, other than respect the property, their neighbours and the surroundings, they are let loose to live their lives as they will, that is only fair.

Contracts are available free via the Web, or from stationers, all of them can be tickled to contain your own wishes, subject to your conditions being legal.

Advertising is easy and free via Leboncoin, when we need to re-let, we are usually contacted within the first hour, and have seldom been unable to offer a place to a new tenant, paperwork permitting, in more than seven days.

It would seem that you are looking at the short term/holiday options, so I may be of no help to you, but should I be, just let me know and I will see if/how I can help you.
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Post by Izzyedwards Thu Oct 31, 2013 8:20 am

Hello Le-Dolly and twointheeye, and thanks for your replies. Very helpful indeed.
At the moment we are still deciding what to do (we have some time before the building works will be finished) but I prefer to gather information at an early stage and have a proper think. I am quite keen on the long-term residential let option, whereas husband prefers the holiday let option... but then it won't be him doing the changeovers!! Rolling Eyes
I agree about the internet horror stories - I am fairly sceptical about such things, which is why I asked for a proper balanced view from the forum members! And that's what I got, so thanks to all. If I think of any other questions, I'll give another shout.

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