Endonurse

We have moved to France. Thought people might enjoy our ups and down's of the journey to get here and getting established, which we haven't yet succeeded with. We came to view houses in the Aveyron middle of March. Flew home and made an offer in writing, on one of the properties. Signed the paperwork and scanned it back to the estate agents. Seller accepted our offer. This is now beginning of April. Lots of to-ing and fro-ing again with the estate agents, mainly because they lost our passport copies and most everything else we scanned. We had sold our houses in the UK and the process for this was rattling along because we had first time buyers. Back to the estate agents, who asked us (giving 2 days notice)to come over to sign the Compromise De Vente, in the middle of July. Husband couldn't just have time off with such short notice. We booked our flights for 31/07/17 and an overnight stay so we could sign on the 01/08/17. Guess what, when we pitched up at the Notaires at the allotted time we could not sign it because it was not completed by the seller's Notaire. Back to England where our buyers wanted to complete in the middle of September. Compromise was sent to us end of August to sign, copy and send back. Which we did and sent by DHL signed and tracked which reached the Notaires on the 09/09/17.We agreed a date with our buyers and we moved out and onwards to France on 13/10/17, assured we would sign the Act De Vente end of October/first week November. Luckily for us we had arranged a short term let in a Gite, which is very comfortable, especially as we bought 4 cats an a dog with us. No mean feat travelling from Calais to Najac. Having been here three weeks and still hearing nothing, we insisted on a meeting with our Notaire to be informed that the planning permission had only been submitted on 08/10 and the SAFA hadnt approved the land, even though we had been told by the estate agent all this was applied for in July. Latest update, we have now been here 6 weeks,we have been told everything should be in place and ready to sign middle of December. We are loving life here, the empty roads, food, polite people and the attitude to daily living. I am not moaning just observing. Bank account............is another saga.

Tweedpipe

Wow, what a torturous adventure so far.
Pleased to hear that you're loving the life here already, in spite of those circumstances. I think you'll suceeed here.
Hope you can find a reliable plumber (essential - if nothing else for the annual checks) and also a good vet if/when required - I've just scribbled a related vet thread on this forum.
Hope things click into place rapidly. Good luck!

dmu

Hi, glad to hear that you've arrived! Did you sort out the "parcelle-splitting" and other typical French quirks?
If the SAFER hasn't reacted to the application within about 3 months, this means that you can go forward with the sale, as none of the farming community is interested in the land. No news is good news....
Keep us updated with your adventure!

EuroTrash

All good fun! do keep us updated, and fingers crossed you are in your new house for Christmas