Living abroad tips and hints for money savers

Errata

Superb writing written with a unique voice. Funny but not over funny, tender but not over tender. Thank you SDW.

lislou

Thank you SDW. Enjoyed reading those articles very much.

beedeedee

Thanks SDW - I enjoyed them too.

Merrywidow

Thanks SDW - wonderfull way with words.:cool:

droopsnout

Hi, s-d-w!

Thoroughly enjoyed reading Bob's thoughts, eloquently written with wit and insight. Also enjoyed the first comment below the piece: "What a load of drivel, the individual knows as much about art as New York street bum."

Which set me off to wondering about the person who had been reckless enough to post the comment.

As I am sure that Bob would quickly point out (except that he's probably much less of a pedant than I), there should be a full stop after "drivel". "The individual" would really have been more naturally expressed as "This individual". The indefinite article has been omitted before "New York". And I thought his reference to a "street bum" was very smug and condescending.

And then I noticed the writer's name: Alain de loerc. Well, that's what he put, though I suppose that "loerc" should have a capital, unless he is trying to make some obscure point, or is perhaps trying to do a "kt tunstall".

The use of "de" in the surname is a sign of nobility in France, rather like "al-" is in Arabic nomenclature. And I wondered whether Alain was adding a little class to his name in the same way as did Mohammed (al-)Fayed.

Never mind. I thought Alain might be famous, so I googled his name. Nothing. I shortened the search criterion to "de loerc". Still nothing. Trying to give the chap the best chance possible, I searched on just "loerc".

But no.

Which just shows ... You can give yourself a posh name, you can pronounce publicly on the validity of other folks' art appreciation, and you can look down on those much less fortunate than yourself.

But if you can't punctuate or spell, your opinion is much less likely to be as highly regarded as that of someone who can. Nobility and superiority are no substitutes for integrity and empathy. And your name, Alain, is just as unfindable on Google as mine!

All of which, Belinda, was going all around the Wrekin to say, "Bob, yow'm awight, yer piece wer bostin, an yer deserve a glass a Banksiz."

Monsieur de Loerc, on the other hand, is probably best left unread.

seven-day-weekend

Gloss o Bonks's on the menu Droopsnout.

MrsTinks

Dearest folks... I'm in need of your advice and knowledge...
Bare with me as I haven't yet managed to wriggle all the details out of the in laws but this is the gist of they situation...
About 5 years ago they purchased a house in Spain - bought outright, no mortgage. Later about I guess a year ago or so maybe a little longer they took out a loan on the house to the tune of 6000Euro (house value about 50k...) to buy a car and do some improvements on the house. They then took out a credit card with I believe 1600 limit... they didn't realise that the bank would take payment in full for this at the end of the month leaving them short and unable to pay the loan payment. Things spiralled, I personally think they procrastinated and ignored the severity of things etc but in short they are behind on the loan payments and this week the bank basically kicked them out of their house. I still don't know if they had secured the loan on the house, if the bank got a court order in some way or if the bank could infact just evict them from the house this easily...
I would know all these answers if they lived in the UK! ARGH! Would any of you lovely peeps know anything about local spanish processes or somewhere we can find more information on this?

They flew to the UK on friday night and are currently living with us which is far from ideal as frankly I don't like sharing my very close space with anyone... So tomorrow they are being taken to the council to see what we can do about getting them somewhere else to live... (anyone know anything about this I'm all ears!!! - MIL is 62 I think and SFIL is 58 I think... MIL is going to look for work and her husband will damned well start looking too!
Help....

droopsnout

MrsTine, hello and welcome to our little bit of the Board. I wish the circumstances were better for you.

I am in France, rather than Spain, so can't be of any help, I fear, except to say that very probably your parents-in-law did, as you suspect, allow things to develop for far too long, probably because of language difficulties, probably because of lack of local knowledge.

I do have friends over here who have been in a slightly similar position with debt (following a redundancy) and difficulties with repayment. The French lender never got to the point of kicking them out because the friends went to court with the lender to arrange a delay to their mortgage repayments.

In France, there aren't really such things as credit cards. They are pretty well all debit cards (or charge cards). You spend what you like on them so long as the balance in your current account will cover 100% repayment at the end of the month. (As an aside, this has meant that France is not the debt-ridden country the UK is, and thus France was hit somewhat more lightly in the recent financial crisis).

I presume that your parents-in-law used the services of a solicitor when buying the house. Is that solicitor available to deal with the present matter? (I realise that funds may not allow at this late stage). Sadly, quite a lot of Brits fall prey to this kind of error when they move abroad. Excitement and pride can obstruct our more usual feelings of caution and prudence. I think that TV programmes such as "A Place In The Sun" have much to do with it - no-one ever has difficulties in that programme. (Although, to be fair, I haven't watched it for some years now).

Good luck to all of you in trying to sort out the problems with employment and accommodation.

I hope someone else here can offer some concrete advice for you. Please do let us know how you all get on, and whether things can be cleared up in a satisfactory way.

MrsTinks

Hi Droopsnout

Thanks for your support and what you say about debit/charge cards sound like it matches what they have told us so this could very well be the root cause of WHY things initially got derailed...
I know they had a solicitor originally... who (you'll laugh - or cry) they are now trying to sue for mishandling/misrepresentation or whatever it is... so I really really doubt they're going to be of ANY assistance! *sigh*

Will definitely keep all updated

Thank you!

Savvy_Sue

Sadly I fear your outlaws will not be eligible for any help with council housing. I doubt if they would be classed as vulnerable (trust me, you have to be in absolutely dire straits to be seen as vulnerable!), and they are not homeless (because you have taken them in).

Even if you give them notice, they still won't be vulnerable.

They should start looking for private rented housing. The council MAY be able to help with a bond / key deposit scheme, which might help with the deposit / first month's rent, but I wouldn't hold your breath for that either.

It is faintly possible that they might have more luck renting something in the sheltered housing field from a housing association, that's because there is a reasonable turnover in that sort of accommodation, and because the restrictions mean that those who are eligible move up the lists faster IYSWIM.

I know if they go to sign on they will have to pass a 'habitual residence test', and the length of time they've spent in Spain would affect whether they were eligible for ESA etc. I don't know if similar questions are asked for council housing too. They can at least claim a 'local connection' to the area, because you are there.

None of this sounds like good news for you, I fear.