angie_329

Yes some agents are often hopeless if you are not there! Once you have an idea of area I can help you find someone suitable on the ARP site.

Do think about areas, you mentioned you have an elderly Mum, so you probably need to be somewhere with easy access to her. Is your Mum in her own home? You could potentially get on the electoral role there and council tax, which you would have to pay a bit extra if she is on sole discount. That way you can build up your presence as a UK resident for a future mortgage once your French home is sold. Did you live near her before? You can probably still get back on GP list and even approach the bank you had before you left the UK.

There is generally more work/ jobs in SE than the North which you mentioned as cheaper for rental.

Possibly if cash is short for rentals find out how long realistically it will take to sell your French home from a couple of good agents?

It's easier to sell something when you are there keeping it looking nice etc. as well as mainting and doing paperwork. You need to check if there is any tax issue if you sell as a resident in France versus having left and being resident in UK again.

Jake.White

Would it be an option for you to start up in business as sole traders or business partners in the UK rather than looking for employment as an actual employee....? If possible that option could be a possible and immediate workaround for any employment status issues which might arise when filling out official forms for bank accounts or whatever as all you would have to do is declare yourself as self employed to HMRC. It might also give you eligibility to claim working tax credit. Although finding a place to live would still have to come first.

As some above have stated if you pay for a 6 month or yearly rental contract up front there should be no need to provide any kind of reference - I did this myself some years ago with no problem after a spell abroad.

Personally, and if it was me I'd prefer to do all the house hunting legwork myself and cut out any middle men such as the type of relocation agencies mentioned above. If you're able it's not such a hardship to spend a day or so hoofing around whichever town you choose to relocate to visiting estate agencies to find a rental and it could save you quite a lot of cash which you would otherwise have to hand over to the middle man in finders fees and such like. You'd also save yourself the frustration of unanswered emails, unreturned phone calls, redirections to Zoopla and such because they're too busy looking at Twitter or Facebook to bother with you if you did it that way. If you're sitting there right in front of them in their office they can't really ignore you can they..

Regarding your cats, I shouldn't think there would be any problem provided all their documents and vaccinations are up to date, at least for the duration of the transition period.

Good luck.

spouse of scouse

I'd rent short term (holiday) accommodation for a month or two in the area you're looking to settle in, and look for a rental property yourselves.

Novocastrian

Yes they are. we have an account here as well as in the UK (and Canada). The branches are scarce on the ground but it's easy to do everything on line, including Global Transfer for moving funds around.

Louise_Col

Louise_Col

Britishbitz

Sounds promising, good luck

spouse of scouse

Sometimes things work out perfectly!

Louise_Col

Ah well....
just to update.... the flat looked over the main train line to London and backed onto the main road to the town with no parking anywhere all double yellow lines ... so back to the search and ideas of how to manage a move back to the U.K.
it is getting quite depressing.

spouse of scouse

I'd still go the short term/holiday accommodation route. Re bank accounts, have you had a look at the 'challenger' banks? According to the below article, you can open one of these with proof of ID and a UK address, but don't (usually) need proof of address, so one of your family members' addresses or even your holiday accommodation address would do. When you're settled and sorted you could open a more traditional account if wanted.

You can read more about challenger banks like the ones above in our in depth article, but basically a challenger bank is a recently born bank. They try to make banking easier and cheaper for customers, thus “challenging” the market dominance of traditional banks such as Lloyds, Barclays and HSBC.

• Challengers are digital and mobile only.
• They don’t have any physical branches and you do everything from an app.
• Challenger banks are free
• You’ll get a UK bank account complete with account number and sort code, which allows you to have your salary paid into it.

The most popular challenger banks in the UK are Starling and Monzo, both of which have a full UK banking licence. Your money with them will be protected up to £85,000 by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), just like with any traditional bank.
https://www.finder.com/uk/opening-a-...oof-of-address

Louise_Col

Thank you for the bank account advice. We’ve looked at the Starling bank and might go with that one once we’ve got an address to give them.

We’ve looked at the Airbnb route but not many accept pets ( we have 2 cats). One an elderly cat who just sleeps and eats. We’ve also considered mobile homes.

We have friends looking out for houses too.

spouse of scouse

You may already know this, but towards the top of your Airbnb page, where you enter what type of stay etc, there's a button 'more filters'. If you click on that and scroll down to 'house rules' you can check the box that says allows pets, that way you'll only get those results in your search.

Helen1964

I just wanted to wish you best of luck and ask you to keep us updated on your progress.

We’ve been in France for 22 years and are planning to return to the UK in another few years when I retire.
The family is in N Ireland so we’ll start off there. The plan is to sell up in France and hand in my notice once we’ve signed the acte de vente, ie actually completed the sale. Our stuff would be sent to the UK and put in storage and initially we’d stay in an Air b’nb while we look around for a rental. We would also like to buy a small campervan and spend some time exploring the UK and deciding where to settle long term. Although I suspect it will be somewhere near the beach in Co. Down. Four hours’ drive on uncongested roads to Rosslare for the overnight ferry to France where we will no doubt spend a few months a year.

As someone has already pointed out, don’t forget that the house in France must be your primary residence when you sell. Otherwise you’ll be liable to CGT (if that’s an issue).

Good luck!

Louise_Col

thank you. I didn’t know that actually ! I’ll have a look.

Louise_Col

Thank you for the CGT advice.
We are hoping to go sooner. Mainly because my mother is elderly but we also need access to areas to pick up work as not retirement age yet. So a lot to consider. Thank you for your reply and wishing you all the best for when you decide to return.