Lay My Hat

Ooh it's no fun getting an unexpected tax demand. It's certainly worth asking for a refund, theoretically there's nothing to lose! But... I found this official documentation which concurs (mostly) with what your tax advisor says, even though the space you rent is not a résidence secondaire : https:/...

Circé (and anyone else interested), I haven't found anything at all online that says additional taxe d'habitation can be charged to non-resident owners, only that it can be levied on second homes. As far as I can see any surcharge applies to second home owners whether they live elsewhere in France, ...

The city problem I suppose is that there is a massive oversupply of property off season, and under-supply in season. No, I think the difficulty for such places is not having enough housing available for permanent residents who need/want to live there all year round - which is a different thing from...

Interesting to hear that some cities charge non-resident owners more, it's not the case in my town (which is small, not on the Med and does not have the same pull! :-)) - I wasn't sure that was possible. And as far as I know these local taxes are set by the city/town so rules can vary. I found this ...

Hello Chrishax, Circé's post is helpful. If we are indeed talking about the taxe d'habitation and taxe foncière, then the tax has nothing to do with whether you actually use the property, it simply applies because you own it (foncière) and/or have the right to live in it (habitation) whether or not ...

Hello again everyone. Oh dear, I never intended to make people cross or offend anyone. For the record, if it needed clarifying, I am not at all in favour of guests cheating, lying, getting discounts on false bases (I understand that part of the problem but mustn't have made it clear), mistreating or...

May I briefly add a guest's view (I am a "user" of holiday homes not an owner). I've probably said this before but frankly when I book a holiday home I wouldn't think twice about having friends round for the day if they were in the area and I would be very miffed if the owner got shirty ab...

I've just booked a nice big house for the family for a week in July: sheets and towels not included except as an extra. Yes it's still normal over here, although I notice more places are beginning to include them. Of course we won't be flying so taking sheets isn't a problem. This house is booked di...

It's an association formed post-war to try and boost rural areas: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%AEtes_de_France As a user who started out actually BUYING GdF paper guides, I agree that the websites took ages to catch up, and may not have done so yet... also each département does communication i...

Speaking as a serial holiday rental user with my French family, I think one main difference is that UK accommodation prices will almost always look high to the French - although the gap seems to be closing. Even if the difference is explained by a more all-inclusive price, and nicer furnishings etc,...

Returning to the main problem, here's another plea for a "softly softly" approach at least to begin with: it is possible (stupid perhaps but possible) to pack stuff by mistake, as I and others know ! as discussed in a similar thread years ago: http://www.laymyhat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...

LeslieMay, I wondered about that: a look at the website says UK channels are provided but I wouldn't think it unreasonable from the French renter's perspective to assume, since the apartment is in France, that that means "as well as" French channels. In his position it's not something I'd ...

From my French/English family's point of view, not having a filter coffee machine would seem very odd - we have never stayed anywhere in France that didn't have one. They aren't very expensive, and don't have to live on the worktop. And the only place we've ever encountered what the Brits call a caf...

Hello, as a long-time renter in France I wasn't sure either what this might mean! So out of curiosity I did a quick Google search and found examples such as this on the Alsace gites de France website: "Hébergements tout compris Les tarifs des gîtes et chambres d'hôtes de cette sélection compren...

Just bear in mind that culturally, paying the full rental amount 2 months ahead is not the norm for the French: although some Gites de France contracts may require payment of the balance 30 days before the start of the rental, it's still quite normal in many cases, including direct rentals, to pay t...