Language is one of the most important reasons I am aiming to move from SP to FR. Just last week I found myself in two situations where my SP was inadequate but my FR would have worked perfectly well.
I had superb French teaching, from age 8 to 16 and now, age 70, after intermittant use over the years, the thorough grounding in the meat 'n potatoes of the language are going to serve me well.
Judging by my own experience with little better than holiday phrase book Spanish, starting from zero in French - I admire your pluck and wish you the best.
I think we may have to rent for a year and bite the bullet travelling to explore other areas for shorter visits. Not ideal. Pity you can’t rent for 6 months at a time.
As tenant you can give notice when you like (as specified in the contract).
It’s the landlord that can’t terminate the contract before the end of the year.
It will say in the contract but normally if the tenant wants to leave he can give one month’s notice and go, simple as that. https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F1168
click on “Logement meublé”.
Under French tenancy law most of the obligations are on the landlord, especially with unfurnished lets. Tenants have a lot of rights and relatively few obligations. It’s why landlords are picky about the tenant they will accept in prime lets.
Well that is good news indeed Anna. I would hate to be in the situation where I was tied to a one year lease but realised after four months I needed to be exploring other areas for the dream house/village/climate
Roy,
I think we need to have a >3month rental agreement to satisfy the government but the house-sit looks like a possibility if we want to explore other areas at no extra cost or upheaval. We are both animal lovers too. Great idea -thanks for the tip.
I would advise renting for a year as there are some incredibly dull and uninteresting areas, but some lovely ones too. The property prices in each area will give you a good indication which you are in.
I don’t suppose it really matters but when it comes to proving continuous residence, you may need to provide addresses and consecutive dates for the full period you are claiming to have been resident for. If you do, it will be easier for you if you’ve had one address rather than six different ones - fewer pieces of paper to scan! That said, it may well be that the new online system will be a lot less stringent than when you went along to the prefecture with your dossier and they scrutinised every document and cross checked all the dates and figures. Sitting there watching them made me feel exactly like a pupil waiting for the teacher to finish marking my exam paper and tell me whether I passed or failed
That rather depends on a) what people mean by ‘good’ French, and b) how used the interlocutor is to hearing that particular foreign version of French.
This happens to non-native speakers wherever you go.
I suspect it depends on the empathy and reactivity of the person being addressed.
Conversely you find people who refuse to believe that if you speak a bit, you aren’t native speaker level and make no concessions at all with regard to speed, local patois, etc.
I have found it fairly difficult on occasion to understand someone speaking an approximate, ‘learnt by ear from non standard speakers’ version of a foreign language with a strong regional native language accent coming through.
Continuing on from long-term renting…
Aside from rent, can anyone guide me as to what level additional fees could be please.
As a comparison uk generally requires 1 -2 months rent as deposit (full refund if property returned as is & no debts outstanding), 1 months rent upon contract commencing and anywhere from £150 for admin searches per person.
Thinking ahead to our property being too much for us…log & pellet bag hauling, garden, stairs…
Our village immoblier only does sales/purchases
Thank you
Language or accent? Welsh accents in English don’t seem as difficult to understand to me as some English accents, but I don’t understand Welsh at all (I have only been there twice) bar a few loanwords like eglwys and expressions like nadolig llawen which are transparent.
Rather rude to call it gibberish, either way.
Depending on what you are renting there can be charges locatives (things like cleaning communal areas in flats) assurance contre risques (contribution to building insurance), ordures (rubbish) as well as agency fees. Your damage deposit and damage insurance also will depend on what you are renting - could be a couple of months rent, or could be more.
As an honorary Welshie I think it’s very rude, never mind rather rude.
Canny buggers though, the Welsh. If they don’t like your face, see, they find it very amusin’ to see you struggellin’. to understand, like. Maybe that explains it.
Let me clarify something here. I do not think the language is gibberish, but as Vero rightly said, the accent and the lazy way a lot of them pronounce the words and as Anna commented (probably with glee) Quote : very amusin’ to see you struggellin’ Unquote.
The tenant is also responsible for insurance in France (assurance responsabilité civile locative) and the landlord may ask to see the policy. I think this is different to the UK where I think normally the landlord insures the property.
