Here are a couple of important changes to French property law that take effect from 1st January 2011 that both buyers and sellers need to be aware of.
Energy efficiency
The first concerns the wonderfully named diagnostic performance énergétique or DPE. This is the report that grades the energy efficiency of your house – it provides information about the house’s efficiency, including insulation, emissions of greenhouse gases, and other factors which affect utility costs . Grades range from A (super efficient) to G (lowest rating) and your estate agent must include these details on any advert, website or publicity for the house sale/rental. The full report also forms part of any eventual sales contract. The report has to be carried out by a professional and is valid for 10 years. Your local Leggett representative will be delighted to arrange for this survey to be undertaken and the report issued, costs will vary by region.
Septic tanks
The second concerns the rather unpleasant sounding subject of septic tank inspections. Each local Mayor has been told that all houses in his commune must have an up to date inspection certificate for their private drainage systems. The onus has always been on the owner of the property to ensure his fosse septique complies with the law and now the pressure is on from each Mairie to ensure this is the case. Sellers will be required to supply this written inspection document (controle d’assainissement) to their estate agents and it will form part of the sales contract, along with the other compulsory tests. All property linked to mains drainage will also need a certificate of confirmation from the Mairie or Local Authority. If the septic tank does not meet the governmental regulations then the buyer of the property will be expected to ensure the system complies with regulations within 1 year of the purchase. Again, if your fosse septique is found not to comply with current regulations then your local Leggett representative will be happy to supply you with the name of a trusted local artisan who can carry out any works necessary.
Moving to France - Work Permits
There are two types of work permit available in France: a temporary permit and a full work permit. Both permits are aimed at professional workers only.An employer files a work permit application to the local Direction Departmentale du Travail, de L'Emploi et de la Formation Professionale (DDTEFP) but must be able to show that all attempts to secure an employee from the local job market, or the EU/EEA countries have been unsuccessful.
When considering an application the DDTEFP will consider the level of salary, education level, job market in France and the candidate’s experience.
If your application is successful and you are provided with a full work permit (carte de sejour salariée) that states toutes professions salaries you may work in any position so long as it is not a temporary role.
Christmas in our little Spanish mountain village of El Hoyo is a low-key affair, but charming. A banner pronouncing ‘Feliz Navidad’ is hung across the entrance to the village and the trees in the square are decked with white fairy lights. Although people don’t send each other Christmas cards, they do decorate their houses with a Belén, or intricate, miniature nativity scene. Our neighbours always proudly show us theirs, displayed in their living rooms in pride of place. Unlike the UK, where Christmas is a massive commercial event, Christmas in Spain is much quainter and focuses far more on the religious significance.Joe and I love Christmas in El Hoyo, so it’s quite a wrench to be here, in the Muslim Kingdom of Bahrain for Christmas. However, we’ve been quite surprised. Funny little Christmas trees have sprung up in odd places, like our hotel lobby, and some of the bigger stores are actually selling Christmas merchandise. Bahrain is home to thousands of expats, so I guess that’s to be expected.
Checking exactly when public holidays fall in Bahrain is not a simple matter of looking at the calendar. Islamic months start when a crescent moon is actually sighted by the appropriate religious authorities. Some festivals and holy days might fall a day before (or after) the predicted dates because if the moon is obscured by cloud, the holiday cannot be declared until the moon is actually visible to the naked eye. So you can imagine our confusion.
Some holidays are only officially announced 12 hours before the start of the day, frequently leading to great uncertainty on the part of schools...Read more: http://www.expatfocus.com/victoria-twead-201210
Flights at Paris’s Charles de Gaulle Airport have also fallen by 40 percent because of snowfall in northern France.
“Heavy snowfall and extremely cold temperatures are causing disruption to travel in France,” a FCO spokeswoman said.
“The French authorities have informed us that they are preventing all HGVs and coaches from using the roads in northern France and the greater Paris area, and that car travel is unadvisable in the area.
“Air and rail services are also affected and you should contact your travel operator or airline before starting your journey.”
She added: “Coaches arriving in Calais are currently being held on arrival until French road restrictions are lifted.
“Travellers should check what arrangements their travel operators are making for passengers being stopped in Calais, before they travel.
“Foot passengers should be aware that onward travel from Calais is difficult and accommodation in the Calais area is likely to be fully booked.”
A spokesman for National Express said all trips between London and Paris have been suspended because French police would not allow coaches to pass through Calais.
The earliest possible departures to France will be on Monday.
A structural survey, however, is not obligatory, and my advice to buyers is to employ a surveyor/construction expert (maître d'oeuvre en bâtiment) or architect (architecte), particularly for properties which are no longer covered by the original 10-year construction guarantee (garantie décenniale).
If you prefer to deal with an English-speaking professional check out the The Riviera A-Z directory or visit its website at: www.riviera-a-z.com or you can try www.riviera.angloinfo.com.
Note that an expert immobilier is not necessarily a qualified surveyor; their speciality is property valuation.
The dossier diagnostic technique assembles all the required certificates and reports that the seller has to produce:
Asbestos report
Amiante (asbestos) report concerns all properties for which the building permit was issued before 1st of July 1997, and indicates the presence or not of asbestos in the materials used to construct the building. Asbestos has been banned in building work since that date. The seller should ensure asbestos is removed or thoroughly covered. Note that reports issued since 2002 are valid indefinitely.
Habitable area
Carrez's law (Loi Carrez) applies to all apartments and housing estate properties and gives a property's overall net habitable surface (correct to within 5 per cent) in square metres. The measurement is valid indefinitely, provided that no modifications have been made to the property.
The electrics
Diagnostic électricité (electrical installation report). This is an inspection report, valid for three years, for installations over 15 years old and advises on any work required to bring them up to a satisfactory safety standard. It can be grounds for negotiating a lower purchase price, as the seller is not obliged to have to undertake any work required.
Energy efficiency
Diagnostic énérgétique (DPE) (energy performance) report is valid for ten years and it concerns all properties. This report will indicate on an A (economic) to G (wasteful) scale how efficient the energy system is for heating and producing hot water. The average French home is in E classification with an energy consumption rating between 231 and 330kWhEP per square metre a year.
Gas matters
Diagnostic gaz (gas installation report) is for valid three years. This concerns permanently installed gas systems which are over 15 years old, even if they are no longer used.
Safety aspects of the system are inspected, indicating if any urgent measures need to be taken. Gas can be cut off if the reporting technician considers there is immediate danger.
Natural hazards
Etat de risques naturels et technologiques (ERNT) is a very useful benchmark. The report covers natural and technological risks, including the likelihood of floods, potential pollution, landslips etc. In short risks in any officially classified risk area (zone à risque). It is valid for six months and is based on past and possible disasters.
It’s advisable to also avoid any properties that are below sea level or located in low-lying areas near rivers, even if they have not been declared a zone à risque.
Lead contamination
A plomb (lead) report (constat de risqué d'exposition au plomb - CREP) concerns all properties built before the 1st of January 1949 and indicates whether or not there is a risk of lead poisoning from lead-content paint or any other elements that may contain lead.
If there is a risk, the seller must either repaint (all paints are now lead-free) over lead-content paint, strip off all lead-content paint or remove any lead material. A report which indicates that there is a lead-poisoning risk is valid for one year.
Termites
A termite (termite) report is valid for six months and is necessary for parts of the Alpes-Maritimes and Var départements. The local town hall or prefecture will advise you if your area is affected.
If the presence of termites is detected on the property, treatment or eradication must be effected within six months and therefore may become the buyer's responsibility, as property sales are now usually completed quickly, within three months.
Septic tank certificate
From 2011, properties for sale that only have a septic tank (fosse septique) as possible means of domestic drainage must also produce a certificate established by the local authority showing that the system is up to the required standard.
On 1st January 2011, advertising of a property for sale must specify the “DPE or Diagnostic de Performance Energetique” (energy efficiency) report.
Since November 2006 all new homes and buildings for sale have been required to perform an energy performance evaluation (an energy performance diagnostic, or DPE), and receive an energy performance certificate.
The certificate, similar to those applied to washing machines and fridges, show both the level of energy consumption and the greenhouse gas emission level, on a scale of A to G, with G being least efficient and the highest emissions. They quote individual values for each factor.
The full diagnostic report is accompanied with various recommendations for improving the building’s energy efficiency.
Notoriously nervy Parisian drivers will have to get used to its sluggish acceleration of 0 to 60 in 6.3 seconds but the mayor hopes it will revolutionise the way they get around by car.
The Autolib will come with a GPS screen and an emergency call button.
According to polls, 2.4 million people in the Paris area intend to use the system. It requires between 160,000 and 200,000 subscribers to become economically viable.
Paris' mayor has declared war on privately-owned cars, building a network of bus and cycle lanes that are the bane of motorists and he has plans to pedestrianise swathes of the city centre and riverside boulevards.
One city hall study suggested the average car in the capital spends about 95 per cent of its time parked. Only 42 per cent of Parisians own a car, and 16 per cent use theirs less than once a month.
Bolloré has invested 60 million euros (£51 million) into Autolib, which is expected to cost more than 110 million in all.
It’s that time of year when restaurants pay top-dollar for prized winter truffles from Italy and France.
They were on display one recent weekend at Oenotri, an Italian restaurant in downtown Napa, Calif. There, a waitress carefully pulled the truffles from a small brown box and weighed them on a scale. An exotic food luxury comes at a price: The tiny fist-sized truffles were worth $4,000.
While U.S. chefs buy most of their truffles from the famed food regions of Provence in France and Tuscany in Italy, there is a truffle movement afoot in America, with growers from North Carolina to California to Oregon hoping to cash in on the highly valued mushroom that grows underground.
One of those people is Robert Chang of the American Truffle Company, which sells its intellectual know-how to would-be truffle growers.
The San Francisco Bay Area company has financial stakes in truffle orchards in 15 countries, stretching from Finland to South Africa. In the U.S., Chang is making his pitch to vineyard owners, among others.
“There is a healthy level of interest,” from California grape growers, Chang said in an interview.
Less than a week after last week’s transport shutdown, minus 18.3 degrees Celsius temperature forced fresh travel disruptions in France.
The main Charles de Gaulle-Roissy airport in France was forced to shut down for hour-and-a-half as heavy snow caused huge travel chaos in the country as well as across Europe.
Nearly 100 flights were disrupted during the temporary closure as heavy snow covered the runways. Upon France's civil aviation authority’s (DGAC) request, one in five flights were cancelled due to poor weather prediction.
Paris’ second main airport Orly also forced to shut down briefly to clear snow from its runway, however, half-an-hour closure did not affect flights.
The bad weather also disrupted road traffic in capital Paris as only a few of the 350 Paris bus routes were operating. Truckers were asked not to use highways until conditions improve.
Paris on Wednesday was also forced to close the Eiffel Tower as snow blanketed French skies. Initially, the operators closed the first floor but later closed the whole giant monument, which is one of the world's most loved sites among tourists.
French property has managed to retain its allure despite the global downturn, which started in 2008. Tim Swannie, from Home Hunts, who helps British buyers to find their dream property in the South of France, says: "We didn't have the same lending boom in France and this has insulated the market a little. But, like anywhere, there has been a coming off of prices, say 10 to 15 per cent, but not to anywhere near the same extent as other major global markets."
In the key markets – for British buyers – of the Cote d'Azur and Provence, sales and prices have swung around over the past 12 months. "British buyers have definitely come back. There is a sweet spot with the euro-to-pound exchange of about €1.20, and as we have neared that it has encouraged some to take the plunge. But it's not just the Brits buying: there are the Russians, Dutch and even, increasingly, the Chinese," Mr Swannie adds.
Maria McLean, director of Ellisium Partners (ellisiumpartners.com), which, alongside Home Hunts, offers a bespoke service to buyers and renters of French property, says business is good. "There has been a flight to quality when it comes to overseas purchase. People still have the ambitions to own abroad but they want the Is dotted and Ts crossed, and that's where we come in."
Likewise, Nick Leach, UK director of the huge French property and tourism group Pierre & Vacances (pv-holidays.com), says the problems encountered by buyers elsewhere – in Spain and the United States, for example, and in "frontier markets" such as North Cyprus and Bulgaria, has focused minds on the appeal of France. "Buyers are doing a lot more research than they were during the boom years, which is a good thing for France. It's on the doorstep, a long-established favourite with a sophisticated legal and planning system, and rental guarantees are often supported by big groups – such as ours – making it a sensible choice for Britons," Mr Leach says.
Pierre & Vacances has seen British buyers focusing again on the Alps – in particular, the group's new developments in the resorts of Avoriaz and Flaine. But closer-to-home locations such as Normandy have seen an uplift in interest from Brits.
So, with the market ticking along and prices beginning to rise in some locations, where are the French bargains to be had? The Languedoc-Roussillon region is nestled between Provence and the Pyrenees, and is attracting interest from British buyers wanting the French lifestyle but not at premium prices. "This is the authentic south of France: you have the wine, the heritage, close proximity to skiing in the Pyrenees, and the beaches of the Mediterranean," says Daniel Martin, senior real-estate adviser at Garrigae (Garrigae.com) which is opening two new developments there.
British Airways has announced the launch of a new route for the 2010/11 winter season, taking passengers from London City Airport to Chambery – the 'gateway' to the French Alps.
Starting on December 18th 2010, the BA CityFlyer service will operate flights four times a week until March 2011, enabling Brits to visit the popular French ski destination for a weekend or week-long stay.
Almost half a million Brits currently own property in France, with the Alps being one of the most popular locations.
Just an hour from Chambery airport, the traditional village of Saint-Martin-de-Belleville has seen tourism numbers steadily increasing over the past few years. The region boasts an established second homes market, with approximately 1,460 holiday properties and a booming buy-to-let sector.
