French House Prices

[yellerkat]

Ironic that as the Brits are desperate to escape the UK for rural France the refugees in France are willing to put their lives at risk to escape the French hell to the promised land the UK. From the man balancing on the lorry axle (and getting glowing reports from his mates that have made it to the UK)' this place is not good, I must make it to the UK'.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2588010/The-moment-night-vision-cameras-capture-illegal-immigrants-clinging-desperately-lorry-axles-Calais-car-park-bid-evade-border-police.html

That's because once you're in the UK, you're in. No pesky checking of ID or entitlement.

[redwine]

Exactly - although this can be tough to understand for those coming from a "free" healthcare system who have no idea of the individual cost of healthcare. My understanding of where the French breach European rules is in not allowing an unemployed individual with cash (but no job) to pay into the public insurance system from 3 months after they arrive - i.e. pay for public healthcare at a lower rate than private sector cover costs. Instead they need to wait five years. There were recent dispensations for those with school age children reducing this to two years (if memory serves) after the EU exerted pressure.

The so called five year rule is this ....For the first five years you can stay in France if you can afford to pay for your healthcare and you have enough income to support yourself and your family after that you are considered as being a full time resident.

This is important in the case of a couple the man is a Brit and his wife is from lets say Canada so after four years he does a runner and she is left alone.

She can try to claim benefits depending upon what she has in the bank or income from elsewhere but below five years she will only be allowed benefits for a limited period of time.Then they may say your time is up and you have to go back to Canada .

After five years she would be able to stay but if you are a Brit couple and you have been able to look after yourself for the first five years and you decide to claim healthcare you will have to go in front of a French social security tribunal and they will want to see all of your bank accounts worldwide assets etc

If they decide that you have income from offshore banks and property that you are renting out in the UK they may refuse access to there system or you will have to pay.

The same applies to the French once your unemployment benefit runs out your social security benefits eventually come to an end if your partener is working you go onto his or hers card but if not then you have to reapply then its a question of what do you have in your bank etc

Nothing is automatic when it comes to getting benefits that you have paid nothing for rules change all of the time its at your risks and perils

[Venger]

As for EU rules you also pay in many other EU countries such as Germany and Spain and Portugal.

The logic is simple you work and you pay and in return you have healthcare cover when it comes to private health top ups most employers pay for this i pay nothing.

A Brit who comes to France but has paid nothing into the system has no rights because he hasn't paid anything except Brit old aged pensioners on those S1 forms and its the NHS that refunds them.

You don't just turn up and say i have decided to come and live in your country i am not retired and i don't work and i have paid nothing into your system can i please have free healthcare cover because i have bought a cheap house in a village in the middle of nowhere and i have sold my house in the UK at a high price and i want to live off the profits with my money hidden away in a bank.

The simplest French business structure of auto-entrepeneur incurs over a quarter of income in social charges (NOT income tax - this is additional) with the next-simplest (entreprise individuelle) costing over a third. There are strict rules over what business activities you can, or cannot, do with relevant (low) income thresholds over which you need to upsize your business structure. VAT company income limits are much lower in France than in the UK.

Why make the move? Quality of life is much higher. Although the French protest, those higher social charges equate to a superb healthcare system, great schooling and childcare and a better pension in the long-run.

But why buy a property? They're massively over-valued by historical norms. Worse as a percentage of average local income than in the UK. What people should be thinking of taking advantage of are the superb rental laws and low-cost rents. If you're living in the countryside your rent can be ridiculously low relative to UK norms with secure tenancies of 3-6 years.