Hello All,
Based on all of your experiences; what paperwork tasks are the most important to get done after buying the house. (To live in France)? Tax? Carte de Sejour? Electric company? Residence application? My head is spinning…
If you plan to move here then the critical step (before you complete the sale ideally) is to make sure you can live here and get a visa. You don’t say what nationality you are, nor what you plan to do here. So this might be easy or it might not be!
The practicalities of living in the house - heat, light and water - are day 1 tasks.
Tax can wait.
And healthcare might have wait depending on your situation. But even with no social security number, so you can’t actually register formally, it’s good to get accepted by a GP surgery.
I would suggest some form of House Insurance… the moment the property is yours… you are responsible, so don’t delay… get it sorted asap.
@fabien can help, he’s tried and trusted.
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and speaks good English so you will get a very good understanding of policy conditions.
Not to mention Public Liability insurance which you will also need if you rent somewhere initially 
You might also need to consider Health Insurance until you can obtain health cover (Carte Vitale) and a mutuelle to boot…
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All of them, and they will all progress at different rates. Just make a list and work through them.
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French bank account, if not already done.
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Thanks @JaneJones Am American but also EU. So no issues on visas or problems to live and work in France.
Good point re the GP. Anybody have recommendations for Bellac?
That one has me confused. Am going to try Revolut online. Anyone have other options?
difficult one and much might depend on availability on the surgery for new patients… If you have a medical need before you register with a practice, it is still possible to get an appointment at any surgery.
A bank with a FR IBAN might be preferable.
Others on SF have accounts with Wise (or both) but these accounts are often used for currency conversion which traditional banks are very often too expensive and give less value for your buck 
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Yes a physical bank on the high street. I dont know of a french bank that doesnt have online services. Resolut, wise, etc are only really good for transferring GBP to Euro’s
or USD to Euro (given the OP is American)
I’ve also used Revolut to convert Euro to USD with the app and paid for online services from the States that way.
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I don’t know about Bellac but the medical centre in Le Dorat is very good and most of the doctors speak excellent English.
On the day you complete the sale contract, you must have insurance for the property - this is usually a condition of the sale contract and will be pointed out to you by the notaire. Often, they will ask you in advance of the signing to provide a certificate of insurance (not sure whether all notaires require this or that they just ask you to confirm you have one).
Then the usual : water, gas, electricity if already supplied to the property, with a reading of the meters either shortly before, or at an agreed date at which you take responsibility, usually no later than the completion.
As you’ve already replied that you have citizenship from an EU member state in addition to being american, the carte de séjour, and tax stuff can be dealt with later.
The notary might ask you to pay your share of any local taxes (habitation/foncière) for the remainder of the year to date, so you would need to have some way of paying that (cheque, or bank transfer - not sure that notaries accept cash payments anymore by law) . They will also ask you a bank account against which they will credit any tax reimbursement when the deed gets registered - the actual amount of tax paid is based on an estimate at the time of completion, and may vary when the deed is actually registered - for example, we’ve just had a tax refund for some land we bought in January which was credited to our account via the notary, and for which we had overpaid at the time of completion.
This might mean that you need to have a French bank account, or at least a SEPA bank account, to provide those details to the notary on the date of completion or shortly afterwards. The best thing to do is to discuss with the notary beforehand what they are prepared to accept, and not be stuck on the day of completion trying to work something out.
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Boursorama gets good reviews, Orange Bank. I am unsure if Revolut will give you a French IBAN - which practically, may be the only type accepted for some bills. @graham might know.
Personally I’d want a French bricks and mortar account whether I had a fintech one as well, or not.
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currently no… although I think they have applied for/are keen on a banking licence in France but no movement on that yet. So LIT IBAN for people outside of UK in the EU remains.
Get used to paying a monthly fee for having a bank account and having a deferred debit card rather than credit card.
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Received an email today from Revolut to say that >
On 1 July, we are merging Revolut Payments UAB into Revolut Bank UAB, meaning all Revolut Payments UAB customers will be moved to Revolut Bank UAB from 1 July onwards.
Your account with Revolut Payments UAB will be transferred to Revolut Bank UAB and become a current account. Your current IBAN will remain the same. You can use your current account to make payments and hold funds as you normally would.
Not sure (yet) how this might change matters as the LIT IBAN will seemingly remain. It remains to be seen if the French utilities (notorious for not accepting other than an FR IBAN) will accept the new arrangement as bank as opposed to a fintech status.
I may just post a question in the Revolut Community pages to see if anyone has a view (there are a few French members).
For the cerfa 3916 2023 submission, there may need to be a change as well, of course 
I got a response from someone in the Revolut Community which suggests that Revolut are actively working to provide local IBANs for France.
We shall see…
The comparison between a bank and a fintech is not helpful either… A responder wrote: (Many fintechs are banks, no? Bunq and N26 for example. “I would still call them fintechs.)”
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I thought the main need to a classic french bank was not utilities, but that the tax/health authorities won’t accept anything else? So if you want your repayments from Ameli then need a bank account to get them!