THE impact on the cost of running your car and heating your house will be being felt by practically everyone as oil prices rise.
So having an awareness of past prices and what average costs are may help you with planning for the future, and ensure you won’t be ripped off.
The Finance Ministry has put together a database of fuel prices for both petrol and domestic heating that you can check by date.
THE French estate agent association, FNAIM, has produced an in-depth report into the property market for the third quarter of the year.
And it shows that if you are looking for a property then now may be a good time to find a bargain as prices for older properties feel by 0.9 per cent between July and September.
WITH questions about tax, inheritance and residency status I always recommend going to the people who know the rules.
So when I helped accountancy firm Simpson Burgess Nash set up a blog, I asked if partner Mark Simpson could write an article on the tax issues you need to consider when moving to France.
If this is something you are trying to get your head round, take a read over Emigrating to France – UK tax implications
THE cost of buying a property in France is the fourth highest amongst the leading world economies.
In France the cost of registering a property, transfer taxes and estate agent and legal fees works out to be on average 16.3 per cent of the overall property value.
This figure puts it just behind Italy and Belgium, with South Korea proving the most expensive, while the UK figure stands at just over five per cent with Denmark having the lowest costs when buying a property.
TWO recent articles may help answer a question or two you have on inheritance tax when moving to France.
The Daily Telegraph stresses the importance of making sure you have planned ahead, this can be especially important for a couple just living together.
And another article worth reading is from The Guardian, it highlights similar problems for unmarried couples, as well as saying it is important the UK authorities are aware of your domicile status.
MAKING sure you are properly registered for payment of income tax and other taxes such as taxe foncière is usually high up on the list of things to do.
Many of the Finance Ministry offices, the Trésor Public, will be able to offer a helping hand with the forms, some of the bigger offices even have English-speaking staff available some time during the week.
A page on the Service Public lets you track down the offices quickly and easily, as well as other services that may prove useful.
And for those people confident enough to try their hand at the online form provided by the Finance Ministry, which provides an estimate of tax to be paid, check out the Calcul de L’Impot 2007 page.
THERE is a very useful guide outlining the legal steps and requirements involved when purchasing a property in France on Susie Holland’s Bonapart Consulting blog.
It will get you up to speed on the procedure so that you are aware of what stage you are at if buying, as well as outlines the information required of owners selling a property.
Lead check: This obligation concerns property built before 1948, by the law voted June 9, 1999. The owner must provide a certificate dating less than a year, regarding the risk of having access to lead (through paint, pipes etc.).
The SRU Law: Solidarité et Renouvellement Urbain (solidarity and urban renewal)
LIKE many telephone companies France Telecom offers you the chance to have an answer phone service set up to take calls when you can’t get to the phone.
The Messagerie Vocale 3103 is a free service, but you do have to register for it, and you can also make use of other tools built into it such as personalising the answer phone message.
One thing that you may find useful is the option to change the time it takes for the answering service to kick in, look for régler le nombre de sonneries avant le renvoi vers la messagerie, you can set it to answer after five seconds, or in increments up to 40 seconds.
Related article: Contacting France Telecom’s English helpline
REGULAR readers will know that I have often highlighted the adventures of Daily Telegraph columnist Michael Wright and his move to France.
Well his book C’est La Folie is out now in paperback and he writes about the photoshoot to accompany the recent launch and his thoughts on the success of the book.
And don’t forget if you want to hear Michael chat about his life in France and why he left the UK you can listen to the audio interview he gave the site.
MANY houses throughout France are built in limestone, and others are coated in it, in the form of a lime rendering, writes Neil Parkinson.
Lime, in French la chaux, also termed quicklime, burnt lime or calcium oxide is an essential product in the successful restoration of old houses and the intelligent construction of new ones, as a substitute to cement.