Cathinjoetown

You can purchase a house en tontine which means on the death of a spouse or legal partner, the suvivor is 100% owner of the house with full rights to sell, rent, etc. The tontine clause must be included in the compromis de vente, which is something like a purchase and sale agreement. This is accurate as of July 2009.
As Carlux states, fully discuss with a notaire, do not rely on the estate agent, it is difficult to keep up with the changes to the law.

mpprh

Before buying, I'd look further South. Dordogne weather is not good in winter (it is often colder than UK). It can also be wet and humid in summer.

I'd take a couple of weeks on the Med to see the different weather conditions.

Some French weather info : http://www.the-france-page.com/franc...e-weather.html

Peter

StCirq

I've owned a holiday home in the Dordogne for 18 years. No regrets, but a whole lot of cautions.

If you don't speak French well enough to converse with plumbers, electricians, masons, gardeners, and other handymen, don't do it. The fallback position for those who don't is to become one of those relatively detestable Brits who take up everyone's time in the Bricomarche trying feebly to gesticulate that they need a pool wand and running through the market buying vracs of "claret."

If your kids honestly do not read, it could be problematic. Most of my memories of holidays at our Dordogne house from when the kids were little were of them reading stacks and stacks of books on rainy and cold days, and reading endlessly by the pool. We did break down and buy a TV one particularly rainy June, but it got three stations, one of which we dubbed "the goose station" because it was all about local farming. Even if your kids do read, winter days in the Dordogne are cold and endless and just about everything fun is closed.

You'll need a good property manager. You'll pay through the nose for it. They'll likely charge you a large fee simply for the privilege of charging you other large fees when you need them to do something.

If you buy a property with a pool, it will cost you boodles.

The inheritance laws are an issue (at least they are for me right now). Get yourself the series of booklets published by De Particulier a Particulier (I think there are 7 of them) that deal with all the specifics of buying property in France and the inheritance laws (they are in French and technical - if you can't read them, you're probably not ready to buy anything).

Finally, I love my house in France. I used it very, very often for about 15 years, not so much now that my kids are grown, but plan to spend a lot of time there in the future. I may also sell it and buy something in a village (I'm in a fairly remote commune with no commerce).

Bonne chance.

Cathinjoetown

If every non-french speaking person had to be able to read the De Particulier a Particulier booklets before purchasing a house in France, I expect there would be far fewer non-French homebuyers here. Some would say that wouldn't be such a bad thing.

StCirq

<<Some would say that wouldn't be such a bad thing.>>

I would be one of them.

Frances

We have thought about this from time to time but have never done it and probably will not now.
Our children have now left home but looking back I think that the best time to have done this would have been when they were in their teens for a number of reasons.
They would be more willing to tolerate a long car journey,they could then bring their friends at a time when they were otherwise refusing to come on holiday and threatening everyone else's holiday, they would be approaching a time when they could visit alone with friends and so the property would get more use and finally we would soon move into the time when we could visit with grandchildren and hopefully repeat the good experiences.
The points against buying were that we live two hours from an international airport and so weekends would be hard work. We live about 7 hours from a channel port with the Dordogne about two days driving beyond.The point which clinched it was the investment/ need to return to feel you weren't wasting your money. The point about many weeks renting and still not costing as much as a purchase is very valid.
My Aunt and Uncle retired to the Dordogne- integrated well , both French speakers and loved it. Apart from being inandated with relatives, they hadn't anticipated the difficulty of selling when my Uncle died and the inheritance factors set out above. My Aunt was unable to put the property on the market until the estate was finalised and then had trouble selling at a time when she really wanted to be back in the UK near her family. At this stage I think we probably came closest to buying in France.
Yes I'm a lawyer too!

kerouac

From everything I have heard, the most important thing for older buyers is not to buy an isolated house or in a village with no commerces. Everybody gets old if they're lucky, and it is EXTREMELY important to be able to procure your daily needs when you can't drive anymore -- not to mention seeing doctors and other such people.

NanBug

Aren't there large capital gains taxes for non-French citizens when one sells, too? I thought I just read something about this in the NY Times.

Carlux

Capital gains taxes depend on your capital gain, and on the length of time you have the house. If you keep it for a long time, you get various deductions, including for work you have paid for. But of course this and the inheritance issue both require some research before you get into it.

kerouac

Even the French have to pay enormous capital gains taxes if they have kept a property for a short time. I will not shed a tear for any such people since the name of the tax is "capital <b>gains</b>" -- wouldn't this indicate that they have made money from the deal? What's the problem? They are leaving with more money than before!

walkinaround

dorgogne is a british ghetto. all this romantic talk about owning a house there and it being an 'authentic' french experience is pretty funny.

buy a house in dordogne as an outsider and write endlessly about all of your 'quirky' experiences...what could be more cliche?

Michael

<i>dorgogne is a british ghetto</i>

Actually, there are more Belgians and Dutch than English where we stay in the Dordogne. But which popular area in southern France is not a foreigner's ghetto?

walkinaround

yes michael, we britons do tend to congregate in the same areas within the dordogne but the whole area is well overrun. about 15-20 years ago britons started streaming into dordogne en masse, then these people started writing about their 'quirky misadventures' in a 'foreign land' - you know, dealing with the plumbers and builders and the mayor and all of those 'strange' little things that happen. then everybody did this and our book stores no longer had room for any other kinds of books. our education started suffering because of the lack of real books. we britons became so saturated and familiar with the dordogne that these books weren't really about living in a foreign land any longer. they would have just as well been written about living in derbyshire. soon it became so cliche to write about having a house in the dordogne that parodies started to be written and then writing parodies about having a house in dordogne also became cliche. we even got bored with the parodies and they are well passe. i think there were also parodies written about writing books about having a house in dordogne.

please don't do this. we are already bored to death with the subject. i could not bear reading another story about a house in dordogne.

Carlux

'Dorgogne is a British ghetto'

Well, some parts are worse than others. And some of us don't contribute to this. We (origine canadienne) have managed to stay apart from the ghetto, taking part in, and contributing to, the life of our village. So recently we had a 'grand spectacle' here, for which 60 or 70 people worked. We were the only Anglophone participants. Too bad for them, as we had lots of fun.

It's possible to live a French life here, but you have to speak French. For us, after 16 years, it's still a magical place.

Michael

walkinaround,

Is it the number of books in your bookstores, their attempts to imitate Peter Mayles, or their presence in the Dordogne that bothers you?

sap

Frankly, the idea of all those Brits in the Dordogne sounds very appealing to me. You have the best kind of people in the best kind of place (and perhaps it's their way of finally winning the Hundred Years War).

Besides - I don't think the OP mentioned any plans to write a book about the experience.

walkinaround

>>>>>>
Is it the number of books in your bookstores, their attempts to imitate Peter Mayles, or their presence in the Dordogne that bothers you?
>>>>>>>

yes, having scores of little peter mayles running around does bother me and certainly the problem that this caused with our education did bother me. but as i said, this fad is long passe. the publishing industry has finally retooled and now can again produce books that are about things other than the misadventures of owning a house in dordogne. i know that the op didn't mention writing but i do get a pinge of fear every time i hear that someone wants to move to the dordogne. i just think..."oh god please help us...do not write about your misadventures!" we britons are near catatonic as it is...give us more peter mayle wanna bes and we'll all be dead.

walkinaround

i don't even think peter mayle lived in dordogne...someone else used that example and it's a good reference although not geographically accurate.

merckxxx

Dear, Dear St cirq The sentence "They will likely charge you a large fee simply for the privilege of charging you other large fees..." is probably the most beautiful I have ever read on Fodor's since it is addressed to a lawyer - Let's hear it for the French and their extra and extra large fees to attorneys. I hope they need a staff of 20 just to pump up the extra charges to lawyers. Maybe Balzac ended up in heaven's 'sweet revenge' dept and arraged all this. and maybe there is a God up there.

DueDili

Lawyer bashing is so passe. Many of the habitual bashers are self styled friends of mine who come to me for free advice when they are in trouble. I give the free advice. Next time you need your house rewiring, call your electrician buddy and ask him if he'll do it for free and you will just pay for the materials. A penny to your pound he'll be washing his hair that evening.