Last night a question came to mind as to who has jurisdiction over us. The obvious answer is the French legal system because we live here. We need to obey local laws or face the consequences. It being France some laws are more frequently and stringently applied than others, there are some grey areas. But in general being a good citizen is wise and sensible. I wondered to what extent the UK legal arm mighty reach out for us. Would Yvette Cooper have to talk to Emmanuel Macron? In principle we could be extradited under the 2003 Extradition Act. France is not a safe haven for British criminals and ne’er do wells. My links to the Kinahan clan must remain quiet for now. If we behave poorly we could get deported. In principle we could have our UK citizenship withdrawn, though this may not be facile. We could go and lodge with other refugees. We could ask for political asylum here.
In a sense whose problem are we?
We have started looking at houses today and saw one in the local town which in principle would suit. It was a bit “over decorated” and full of clutter for my liking. There is a story behind. How did a person with all that expensive and antique stuff get to be living on small housing estate in Brittany?
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We will never know…
It is likely to be sold long before we are in a position to make an offer. But we have found one data point which suggests that we could find a house “around here” into which to downsize.
If we want to look at say in Carmarthen, Strasbourg or Grenoble it would cost about €2000 for a week long visit with hire care. There is an activation energy barrier of two grand. In order to search elsewhere we need to be able to get over the financial barrier and justify it in terms of expenditure.
I don’t think we are there yet.
We are due to receive our valuation at the end of the week. So that advises in principle the top end of cash in kitty. House moves in France cost around forty grand in lost capital!!
There are rental properties available in the UK which we could afford for six months
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The house sell and find trajectory has a rate limiting step which is sale in France. After that all the other steps should be easier.
A genuine cash buyer is like gold dust.
In a sense we need to bite the bullet and sell with no obvious place to move to. We could buy a camper van and join the other pikeys in a field in the home counties somewhere.
The reaction coordinate looks like; sell house, rent somewhere, buy house.
The push to sell is not strong or acute. The pull of “where” is not clear. “Somewhere new” is not well defined. Maybe we try to survive another winter here…
Who knows how much propane will cost? We do have a locked in price for another year.
I have a good idea of the valuation we might be offered. We need to check if we could get a UK mortgage. A 10% of income mortgage with 95% house cash deposit is not a big ask at first pass. Even for old gits.
Anyway, the weather here is forecast to be fine for a week. The level of the pond is low so I have just put the big industrial pump on….we are filling the pond from the river which passes through the property.
See it does not sound that bad here…
Dreamyoga 