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Just a couple points about inheritance
-Yes there's such a thing as a will, but if you have children, they get a reserved share of it, regardless of your wishes. If you've one child, his share will be at least 1/2 of the estate, and you can freely dispose of the other half. With two chidren, each get at least 1/3, and you can freely dispose only of the remaining third. With 3 children, it's at least 1/4 for each. I'm not sure for more than 3. I think that above 3, you can still dispose of 1/4 and the rest is equally shared between children. Lacking a will, the inheritance is equally shared between the children (or grand-children, etc..) then the parents, then only the spouse, then the siblings, etc... The tax rate (and the amount that is not taxed) depends on how close the family tie is (it's higher for a first cousin than for a son, for instance, and can be up to 60% for an unrelated heir). However, there are ways to make "donations" to your children while you're alive to avoid or at least limit the taxes. Spouses only inherit if there's no children, indeed (of course, what part of the couple's property belongs to whom depends on the marriage contract. So, it might be that a house, for instance, is assumed to be the property of the surviving spouse, hence not part of the estate). However, as already mentionned, very commonly, maried people make a "donation entre epoux" that allow the surviving spouse to have the exclusive use of the couple's property until his or her death. Contrarily to what has been mentionned, you don't inherit debts under french law. Or more exactly, you can refuse the inheritance. And you don't do that in a blind way. The norm is to accept it "sous reserve d'inventaire". IOW, you accept it while making a reservation in case its value would turn up to be different to what you expected (for instance, it appears later that there were unknown debts, or the house's value is lower than estimated, there's some pending lawsuit...), in which case, you can renounce to it later. However, in theory, you *can* inherit the debts if you really want to... A "notaire" (who has sentially nothing to do with the american "notary public". It's rather a kind of specialized lawyer, with some public duties) has to be involved in any inheritance and is liable if he don't take proper care of the legalities or doesn't properly inform you. By the way, I would mention that I read a number of horror stories about the "residencs avec services" that have been mentionned somewhere in this thread. Apparently, if they're sold at a very low price, it's for an excellent reason. The cost of said "services" seem to generally be absolutely crushing. So, you might get such an appartment for cheap, but then, you'll have to pay each year ludicrous amounts for these services. |
Just read a later post and would want to correct a point :
It's not true that a spouse gets half of your property under french law. What generally happens is that the spouse gets half of the *common* property (and this just because she's the actual owner of this half, not because she's inheriting it), when you're maried under the most "standart" marriage contract (called "communaute de biens reduite aux acquets") or without any contrat at all. And even in the case of this standart contract, it might be that a significant part of the property belongs to one of the spouse specifically (anything that was owned before the marriage, and anything inherited during the marriage stays your sole property under this standart system). So, marrying an old wealthy french man in poor health might not be a good recipe for "gold diggers" (except if you manage to get him to sign a more advantageous marriage contract). So, the children, if you have any, get *all* the inheritance (except for the 1/2, 1/3, 1/4 I mentionned above in case you wrote a will). Though all the inheritance generally means only half of what the spouses collectively owned. Half the house value, for instance. But if it happens due to specific circumstances, or due to a speciic marriage contract, that the deceased spouse owned essentially everything, then the surviving spouse, barring provisions like the "donation entre epoux" already mentionned, get nothing if the deceased spouse had children. |
Did you find the 40,000 Euros too high or too low, WillTravel? Why is that hard to believe?
My impression is Versailles prices are not very low -- cheaper than Paris, of course, but not significantly -- but I could be wrong. |
I thought forty thousand was incredibly low. Perhaps it's a matter of the service costs (does that mean maintenance fees?), as was mentioned above.
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All the political gobbelty-gook aside ... I do this in a New York minute! What a dream! Robespierre? I hope it works for you!
Otherwise, a small house around San Raphael wouldn't be too hard to take either.. or outside of Biarritz.. mmmm? No, I probably wouldn't MOVE there forever and ever...but I would VISIT A GREAT DEAL! |
It depends on how small the apartment is, of course. Could be a dumpy studio. But yes, I guess 40,000 euros buys a bathroom in Manhattan these days (I'm exaggerating a bit).
I remember looking at some of the real estate listings given on this thread a week or two back, and there're some truly <b> tiny </b> apartments in Paris -- like 10 square meters or something (i.e. 100-200 feet). Maybe they're not really apartments. |
Willtravel ,
No. The "service costs" I mentionned were specificaly in reference to the "residences avec services" previously mentionned by another poster, and normally intended for elderly people. These services are things like meals, on site nursing services, etc... Nothing to do with maintenance, and irrelevant for regular appartments. |
111OP, whenever I see something advertised for sale in the Paris area at a low price, it's usually a "studette", i.e., a very tiny one-room spot, the "kitchen" consisting of a tiny sink in the corner with a two burner hot plate and (maybe) a mini fridge. I think some studettes are the former top floor servants' rooms. If I were a 20-something keen for a little corner of Paris to call my own, a studette might be tempting. Otherwise, no, those places really put the "minimal" in minimalism.
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But how does that work? Is this a room within a larger apartment, or does this have its own separate entry, etc.?
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They have their own separate entry--they enter the apt. building the way everybody else does. But if they are former top floor servants' rooms, then the elevator usually stops at least one floor below and they have to go up the final flight(s) by stairs (if they are lucky enough to land one in an elevator building).
When I was in Paris about two months ago, I saw several studettes advertised in the free printed listings list some realtors have outside their offices. But they weren't exactly cheap...most were around the 100,000 euro mark (of course, this was in the 16th). |
That's a very bourgeois arrondissement. :-) I'm not that wealthy to maintain a pied-a-terre in that area (if I had money I should probably buy in NYC first).
Anyway, real estate looks attractive because it's been booming. I'm always 10 steps too late -- but in a way, am glad that I didn't really open up a bank account in Euros when I thought about it (and asked about it here). But maybe I should do that now. :-) |
Regarding the NYTimes article, we're the Doug & Gary interviewed in the article.
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Do you still have a link to that article? I forgot to print it out and it's obviously now a premium article.
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No, unfortunately I don't. You can order it for $3.95.
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Oh, never mind. You're the gay couple interviewed (right?). I've a vague recollection -- aren't you from Washington, DC? Or Virginia?
I thought that you were one of the commercial real estate agencies mentioned (which would likely have a copy of the article). |
Yes, we're the couple that was interviewed. I have a hard copy of the article, but not an electronic version. I don't think the people at Paris Real Estate Finders have an electronic copy, either. We just saw them when we were there last week.
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There was a recent article in the New York Times about parisrealestatefinders.com. I'm from Paris, living in L.A., and would say that they sounded genuine, though I didn't test them!
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstrac...archive:search |
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