Hi there, may i suggest logging onto French Property news, they are very good and keep you up to date with all legal issues on tax wills soscial security issues etc. The car issue is as you say you can only use the car for 3 months (90) this is in conjunction with only staying the 3 months without the appropriate papers. However you can leave the country for a day or two during your stay, ie spain, Germany Italy, then return and you start your 3 months again.

If you need any advise on moving ,try the Angloinfo site,its a site for people who have made the move or want help and advise if your thinking of.From this site you can also hop to any other country,it has all legal,working,or any other topic you wish to know about.

Look into the new tax laws Johnsy. The French have begun to come down hard on second home owners (you say you'd like to spend six months there and six months in England) also they have withdrawn the reciprocal health agreement and private (British) health insurance only tends to cover you for 90 days. Just a couple of things to consider.

Johnsy,

We have a 'Maison Secondaire' in France which we visit frequently for a total of 6 months during the year. We are rarely there more than a month at a time, sometimes only 1 or 2 weeks or even a couple of days. We have a motorcaravan that we use to travel back and forth in and to shoot off whilst there for holidays in France Spain, Italy etc. It is a bit big to be nipping down to the shops in at 7.4 metres so looked at buying a car there to keep at the house. Yes, second hand cars can be expensive but there there are a lot of very old but still good ones at reasonable prices. There is no road tax and the CT (MOT) lasts for two years. We ended up buying a 1993 Renault Safrane 2.3 TD for the equivalent of £600 from a local garage, paid them to do any repairs etc to bring it up to CT pass standard, put it through the CT and do the paperwork to register it to us with us just signing where necessary. That added anoth £400 so total now £1000. We went to our local insurance company office in France (who happen to be the same one we use in the UK for two cars and the motorhome) explained exactly our situation and that our house in France was a second home and that the car would be kept there in a locked garage/barn whilst we are away, and they insured it for €300, around £200 give or take, third party, fire and theft. So toal cost for our car for at least two years, not counting any repairs, is around £1200, £50 a month. We can now fly in and out savingthe cost of the motorhome during those months when we don't need it, we have it to use when we do have the motorhome with us.We are flying out next week foe a fortnight and after Christmas again for another fortnight and flight to Stanstead with connecting flights to Dinard return for two are costing us just under £100 in total for both of us for each visit, with priority boarding on some of the flights. We leave home at around 11am and are at our house in France by 7pm local time, a total of 8 hours with a three hour leisurely lunch at Stanstead in between. That's just £25 each per flight ! We can leave the car at Dinard airport for €80 (£50 approx) for a month if we want or we have friends who can pick us up and we do the same for them when required.
I would advise buying in France if I were you.

MC

Just back from a week in Tunisia. Thanks to everyone for your input - I'm gradually drawing up a suitable plan of action - there will be lots more questions to come!

As to basing your income tax here - I wish we could, the threashhold for starting to pay it is higher
here. Unless you have a lot of investments and off-shore funds it is worth looking in to. A number of our friends have their tax base here and they definately benefit. As to health care - if you are in receipt of the UK State Pension you apply for form E121 and register with your local Caisse Primaire d'Assurance Maladie, and you become an overseas claimant on the UK Health service - but that is only if you are permanently resident here. If not you use the European Health Card - which used to be the E111. There are a lot of rumours about being excluded from the French Health Care system, but that applies to very specific cases. There are a lot of people living here that are of working age, and work on the "black" who cannot afford private health care, and it is they that are being targetted, but no-one is left totally without emergency medical care.
Another problem is when you move here before the official UK retirement age, the DWP will issue you with an E106 but that is only valid for a maximum of two years. If that does not bring you to 65 then yes, you will have to have private insurance.

There is a fantastic website " french-entree.com" which has the answers to just about anything you need or want to know, including who to go to where and for what.

regards Oriole

If you become resident in France, (ie you live there) it is illegal to drive a car with foreign plates (ie in this case UK plates) In the country in which you are resident. This is an EU law, not confined to France. I found this out when I became resident in Spain. I can legally drive my Spanish plated car in the UK, but not my UK plated car in Spain (but I could drive it in France) Continuing to drive on UK plates has all kinds of ramifications. Firstly, you would have to take it back every year for its MOT (presumably not a problem if you are going to be back in UK for some time). Also, legally, a car can only be insured in its country of registration. If not MOTed in UK every year, your insurance could be invalid. There are indeed companies that will let you take it abroad for longer than the standard 90 days. Saga used to be one such, and I used to use them before I got residency. If you are going to be resident in France, why not just change the plates for French ones and avoid the hassle.

Be glad it wasnt Here in Norway, when we became reisdents, and wanted to register our car here, we were asked for £10,000 just to register it, the car was only worth £8000, it went back to the u k to be sold, and we had to buy one here Suzuki sx4 1.9 dci £31000 !!!!!