Expat information France

A lot of people find this blog when they are searching in google for expat information about France. I fear they will sometimes be disappointed to find instead my ramblings about cycling and belly-button piercing.

If you would prefer some good hard facts about the tax implications of owning a second-home in France, or need to know whether it is possible to make a living from a small run-down cottage in the heart of the Massif Central, it is of little interest to be told that the Millau Bridge is the highest road-bridge in the world or that Rasmussen has been sneaking off behind the bikeshed for illicit blood transfusions.

So what to do? Well, in a little discovered (because I never mention it) section of the francethisway site at Life in France, there are a few articles that might help. Some are just me going on again but there are also some interesting guest articles about Inheritance Tax in France, Mortgage Tax Relief and so on.

So there’s no need for me to mention these serious matters again here, thank you very much. I will however take this opportunity to mention a couple of issues that arise quite frequently.

One particular question that I get asked quite often is to do with planning permission in France for renovation projects. The official rule is, if your renovation project is more than 170 square metres you must have the plans approved, drawn up, and signed by an architect – much more expensive than sketching them out yourself.

Sounds straightforward? Errr, no. What if you are renovating a small building next to an already renovated large house? Does the floor area of the existing house need to be taken into account? Or renovating a 50 square metre attic in your current 200 square metre property? Or converting the adjoining garage into living space?

All these are real examples where people have been told the project is ‘more than 170 square metres total’, in one case because the outbuilding had 50cm of wall that touched the main dwelling. If you find yourself in this position you can appeal (usually successfully) – ask at your local mairie, who can put you in touch with your departmental inspector, who will visit the property and make an assessment.

And that’s without starting on our neighbours who found they lived within a few hundred metres of an ancient pilgrimage path, so are not allowed to dig in their garden with anything bigger than a teaspoon and need government approval to plant a tree, in case there are fascinating relics underfoot. Hopefully they prefer radishes to potatoes.

The swiming pool rules are equally entertaining – most English people we know have a pool alarm because it’s the law (the French seem less bothered, despite the threat of a 45,000 euro fine). But they also have a fence, because that is the best way to keep children away from a pool.

Why not just a fence? The law permits it but only if you use ‘approved’ fencing. So it is much cheaper to add a ‘normal, unapproved’ fence to actually keep children from the pool, and an alarm as well for legal compliance, than to add a legally compliant fence.

Anyway, during the course of our years here we have picked up various anecdotes and untruths, mostly related to us third-hand so we can’t verify them, that I am happy to share with you if it helps at all.

So if you do have specific (or general) questions about living in France feel free to send over an email or post a comment on this blog and I’ll try to help if I can. If I don’t know the answer, I probably ‘know a man who does’.

I’m better at general ‘what is it really like to live in France’ type questions than ‘what are the current rules about VAT on property renovation’ but I’ll do my best. I’m even better at questions like ‘Can we send you a case of St Emilion wine, your blog has been so useful to us and saved us so much money’. But questions like that are less common.