Muguet or Lilly of the Valley is the symbol of the 1st May, the "workers" holiday the one national holiday that is not religious or commemorative. May is also the month for Tax Returns in France!

Civray Tax Office - English day

Following the practice first established about 6 years ago - the Civray Tax office has an English speaking Open Day again this year - Tuesday 22nd May 2012 - open during normal working house and available for any British people with questions on the completion of their French Income Tax forms.

 

 

The European Court decides on Inheritance..

Following a decision last week by the European Court, foreign nationals resident in France now have the option to nominate the Inheritance Laws of their country of origin be used to handle their estate.  It is not clear yet how this will work, but I am sure it will be a form of a Will lodged with a Notaire.  Once we have more information we will publish a paper on it. 

Meanwhile, for those already resident here, talk to your Notaire and for those thinking of purchasing, but perhaps put off by the French Inheritance Laws, there is now a simple solution.

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Challenging Times

 

Regular visitors to this site will have noticed a change in the way we are presenting properties.  The price we quote, on the listing and property details, is now the FAI price – the sale price of the property including the agency fees.

This is a major change for Papillon.  When we started in 1997 (hard to believe), few people knew where the Poitou-Charentes was, let alone how the house purchasing system worked in France;  the role of the Notaire and his fees and the Government taxes on house purchase.  We believed that clients looking for houses deserved to know “up front” what it was going to cost them to own a property.  For that reason we showed a price which not only included Agency fees, but also those Notaire fees and the taxes.

Since those early days, the use of the internet as a “purchasing/search tool” has become the norm and clients surfing the net visit many different sites in their quest to find that perfect property.  Not all take the time to read why our properties appeared to be more expensive than others and moved on to other agencies.  In today’s difficult market, both for our sellers and us, we do not want to leave ourselves at a disadvantage in the comparison game – and so we have changed our policy.  

However, I still believe that you, the client, should know what the “bottom line” price of each property is – so below the FAI price on all property details is a “CLICK HERE” option, which opens a small “pop-up” window (the wonders of modern web-site creation) and that gives you the price - including Notaire fees and Government Taxes.

We have also removed the price we used to show which included Papillon properties unique Hand Holding and After Care Service fees.  The service remains available to all clients purchasing through us – which is why we put a simple reminder to discuss this service with us when viewing properties.

We have also enlarged the thumbnail picture of each property, to give a better idea of what they are like, before you decide to look further at the full details.

Please feel free to comment and let us know how what you think about these changes – are they an improvement?  Is there other information you would like to see?  Do contact us and let us know.

Susan Dixon and Kate Ryle

Papillon Properties, April 2012.

You may like to check out the variety of Papillon articles

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We constantly update our site with properties removed when we sell them, or are informed by the owners they have been sold; new properties added as we visit and take them on; price changes as we are notified of them.

It is therefore difficult to explain when clients are convinced that they have seen a property on our site that we know we removed weeks or months previously, that it is down to their browser settings and whether or not the web site is refreshed automatically each time it is opened. It does mean they are a returning visitor to our site which is great for us, but of course, they miss out on all the new property that has come on, or changes that have been made, since their first visit. So for those visitors who are not technophones we suggest you hit the Refresh button ( two green arrows, on your toolbar) each time you visit, just to be sure.

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Address, phone number and e-mail for Papillon Properties