We often talk about the process of investing in leaseback properties but today I want to look at what happens when you complete the process and become an owner.
You will start receiving letters from various French organisations and it can seem disorientating. Here's an extract from my forthcoming book 'The French Property Secret - And How It Can Change Your Life' :
"To give you an example of the sort of challenge you can face, one of my clients recently received a letter from the French tax authorities. It referred to an earlier letter sent four months ago stating that the development in which her leaseback was based had not met the conditions of a Residence De Tourisme. It seems the inspector had visited and reached a conclusion that not all the services expected of a management company were being delivered. (These include provision of reception staff, laundry, breakfast and cleaning services). The original letter stated that, unless she responded by disputing these findings within thirty days, it would be assumed that she was in agreement and that €27,851 of VAT would be reclaimed by the government!
Even though, in the time since the letter was allegedly sent, the residence had been re-inspected and the Residence de Tourisme status granted, this did not change her apparent acceptance of the tax authorities’ position.
Thankfully we were able to prove that she had never received the original letter, forcing the tax authorities to reissue the letter at which point she responded appropriately.
There are two lessons to be learned from this. The first is that, unlike the response I see from many international investors, you cannot simply ignore correspondence that you receive just because it is in French and therefore placed on the ‘too difficult’ pile.
The second is that you need someone to turn to when something like this happens. For clients of our support service, it’s simply a question of scanning any document as soon as it arrives and emailing it to us. It gets dealt with quickly and efficiently, and you’ll only be contacted if there’s something unusual that needs your input."
If you want to learn more about the Leaseback Support Service visit
