My best friend - le bon coin

Thanks Angela, Tuesday's viewer went for the other house rather than ours - a very close thing and down to travelling distance in the end. Had two other viewings since and another booked for tomorrow so fingers crossed ;-)

Sorry to hear about this situation - Tuesday was 2 days ago...I hope you have had some visits and things are starting to sort out for you?

Cheers Ron ;-)

Thanks Carol ;-)

sending you a good luck vibe.

Hi Andrew...have just come across this...didnt know what was going on with you...have been in the Uk and offline for a while...so sorry to hear about your problems and wishing you a speedy resolution....anything to do with house sales is a pain....hope you are sorted out soon and ready for your new life...all best luck x

Hi Hillary, thanks for your advice, the case isn't quite as cut and dry as that. She met the deadline for her dossier, the deadline was passed for the offre de prêt but we gave her more time as there was another clause suspensive (permis de construire)which hadn't yet come to it's deadline date. Yes we have the refus de prêt and are free to sell elsewhere but as un tiens vaut mieux que deux tu l'auras we stuck with her after assurances from her broker (cafpi, one of the biggest in france) that she could get the mortgage. As for the validity of her financial situation, a friend of ours works at banque populaire and went through the entire dossier with her. She couldn't place it but thought it just might passe with crédit foncier but said it was a difficult one. As for cancelling, well we haven't signed an avenant amending the sale price so the original compromis no longer stands - I refuse to sign an avenant until she has a mortgage offer!

I'm philosophical about it, I've bought and sold 5 times here in France, managed an estate agents in the UK for a few years so I'm fairly clued up. If it were just a house sale, it'd just be a pain. But our future business/jobs, kids school, the house we've already rented, various stages we have to do, I could go on, all hinge on this sale - there's never a good moment for things to go pear-shaped...! Will be looking into ways to keep everything moving forward with the banks tomorrow, on verra !

Andrew, I'm sure you have by now, but just check the "facts"with the notaire dealing with the sale. Your buyer should have had strict conditions to adhere to in obtaining the mortgage - a time limit on submitting the application, a limit to the length, interest rate and amount of the mortgage etc. She can't just "say" she can't get a mortgage anywhere, she has to provide the notaire with proof of refusal, having respected all the deadlines and conditions. The notaire must now also formally cancel the compromis before you can go and sign another.

Maybe you can even force the sale on a "technicality", or accept 10% compensation fro the buyer, if she hasn't followed the procedures. Not nice, I know, but you need to protect your own interests and make sure she genuinely can't get a mortgage and isn't simply having cold feet.

Very interesting June. I'd a long career in IT and since I've retired I've set up a little development lab here to do the same. As you say it's a great excuse to get all the latest gear. It's twenty years since I programed in anger and that was in assembler so getting to grips with Xcode is a bit challenging, not to mention all my get up and go seeming to have got up and gone :-)

If you wouldn't mind I'd love to contact him to hear how he's getting on.

It's OH - he is a software developer for the ipad and iphone in his spare time so he needs the latest kit ( or so he claims!!!!!) lovely retina screen too. I just make do with my 6 year old white MAcbook, but wouldn't swap it - I love it!

Good choice of laptop June.

Thanks, will do!

OK! just for info, I never have any problems with 500 ko size photos. keep trying ;-)

Sorry Andrew, meant quality rather than size!

Big photos often cause problems - best to resize for the add ;-)

Thanks John,

Definitely up to date. Or maybe too up too date for the site!! New MBPro running the latest ( is it Mountain Lion? ) and the Safari that goes with that!

WE had thought it may be the broadband speed and too big a photo for it, just taking too long to download, although the photo was not that large.

We will have to try again in a couple of months.

put your mind to something ....growing runner beans, selling a property, starting

a buisness...it usually happens.

No pain....no gain.

Hi June, I’ve no problem with LBC using Safari on iPad or Mac. Is your S/W up to date?

I ate nearly all of ours raw as my OH didn't know what to do with them either!

We had a simular thing with our french neighbour when we lived in France before.

Even after supplying his family for several weeks of runners he could not bring himself to admit that they were as good (in our opinion) as the french bean. Hah! it was great fun and the banter between us was lovely.