Les Bases des Chaumettes - Montauroux

I should like to invite any interested owners to a
conference call to be held on 28 October to share
information and discuss options.

The conference call is to be held on Sunday 28 October at
08:30 UK time. I expect the call to last at least one
hour, and the objectives are to share information and
also to discuss potential outcomes.

All owners are welcome but particularly I should like to
invite owners at Les Bastides des Chaumettes.

The dial in details are as follows.

International access number: +44 207 154 0601
The participant PIN (follow the prompts) is 7973353#

I look forward to talking to my fellow owners Sarah41193.6094097222

Thanks Colette!

Yes - I've arranged the call for Sunday 28th October so as not to interfere with most people's work. I've amended the post now.

Good to talk with you - have emailed you - keep in touch!

Sarah41193.5965740741

I've asked Fabien to come on the conference call and help us, and I think a list of questions would help shape the discussions.

I've got another couple of questions I'd be interested in knowing the answer to:

1. If we exit the lease, we will have to pay some French TVA. Does this reduce as time goes on? We have had the property for 6 years, so does that mean we have to pay only 14/20 of the TVA?

2. Who and how is it decided who maintains the property? Do we have to use Lagrange?

3. Would Lagrange continue to operate the site if (say) 50% of the owners opt out of their leases on the basis they've been frustrated?

Hello all!

I have managed to get a list of co-proprietors WITH

ADDRESSES. This is astonishingly easy once you know how

- all you have to do is write to your Syndic to do it.

Me, I went around it the hard way. I contacted all the

owners I had contact details for. And then got them to

contact all the owners they had contact details for. But

we ended up in a closed circle very quickly. I think

this is because because there are lots of people on our

residence who are pure investors. Then I went through FB

and Linked-In to identify people of the same name ...

Gosh I wasted hours.

Anyhow I have got you all now, and am writing to you

...:)

That's good news for clients of C'est La Vie!

Yes, I confirm that the conference call is going ahead. I'll circulate a reminder email to attendees in a couple of days. I've got email addresses for around half the owners now, including a couple of the French owners, which is great news.

What I'd like to obtain from owners is permission to circulate emails in a round-robin format so that everyone can send an email to everyone rather than stuff just being routed through me.

Copy of email sent to owners

Hello fellow owners!

I think around half of us are connected now. A couple are

on FB and a couple more via the forum. What I’d like to

suggest is that rather than bcc’ing everyone, that I make

this an open mailing list so that everyone can pass

across information/explanations as they see fit. I’ll

leave it a week or so before sending an open email, If

anyone would prefer not to disclose their email address,

please let me know.

Meanwhile, some questions have been raised, some of which

have been considered by us or other Lagrange owners.

Please do bear in mind, as ever, that I am not qualified

as a lawyer or an accountant in France, and all I am

doing is trying to share information that has been shared

with me. That information may well be incomplete or

incorrect, so please do make sure that you check with

your own advisor.

1. Declaration de creance

My understanding is that this claim relates to those

debts e.g. rents that arose prior to the leaseback

company becoming insolvent. This is a necessary step in

order for the Court to admit claims and consider us as a

creditor in the administration process.

The amounts of rent not paid previous to the entering

into administration on 28 September 2012 were for us the

rents not paid in March, June or September, so it amounts

to 9 months’ worth of rent. I am aware however that

certain owners on our site did receive rents in March and

June.

What I am not clear about is whether or not there are

other benefits to completing this declaration (e.g.

protection in the event of a claim to compensation by

Soderev)

If you decide to make the declaration, you can complete

the forms yourself (there are instructions as to how to

do this on the leaseback forum) or instruct an advisor to

do it on your behalf. A time limit applies for making

this declaration – it must be made within two months of

the administration or four months for overseas owners.

2. Advisors

I hesitated before putting this one in, because I

particularly don’t want to be thought of as promoting any

particular advisor. However I do know that there are

several owners who have instructed two advisors in

particular, so I thought I would share their details.

1. A small company that I know a lot of the Irish owners

use, manager Bertrand Le Mire, contact details as

follows:

C'est La Vie Properties / Accountancy

8 Rue Alphonse Daudet

44350 GUERANDE

France

www.cestlavieproperties.com

My understanding is that if you are an existing client of

theirs, they will file the declaration de creance without

any additional cost.

2. Fabien Cordiez whom a number of UK owners have

instructed.

ECD Avocats & Solicitors

E.I.G. (Economic Interest Group) ECD: Ebert-Cordiez-

d'Haussy

12, rue de l'Ancienne Madeleine 13100 Aix-en-Provence,

France

T. +33 486 688 968 +44 207 148 5563 +353 1431 1301

+001 866 878 7647

F. +33 486 688 660 ecdas com

Advocate (France), Solicitor* (England & Wales) * SRA

number 331485 - Solely practising as Advocate

His costs for filing the declaration are €415 but can be

lowered down to €375 if several owners instruct him at

the same time. Enough owners have instructed him that

the lower rate applies.

3. The relationship between Lagrange and Soderev

All the Bastides des Chaumettes leases are with Soderev,

The policy of the Lagrange group of companies (which I

thought was a French group but it turns out to be Swiss-

parented and family owned) is to put their leases into

three blocks. Soderev holds the premium leases, Resitel

the midrange and another company holds the bottom end.

Soderev is a subsidiary of Lagrange group of companies.

The whole group is not in administration, just the lease-

holding companies. The holiday company continues to

trade and receive income from customers. It then pays

over a proportion of its income to Soderev.

I've pulled the accounts for all the companies in the

ownership chain to try to find out whether the group is

really overall in trading difficulties. I was fine

getting information on the UK, French, Dutch and Lux

companies in the chain but the ultimate parent is Swiss

and there is no requirement for Swiss companies to

publish accounts. So I can tell you who the CEO is,

where the registered office is, but I cannot tell you

anything about the group's overall financial position.

I can circulate copies of the accounts of Soderev (which

is undoubtedly in financial difficulties) to any owner

that would like them.

4. Conference call reminder

Just to remind you that the clocks change this weekend

and that the conference call is to be held on Sunday 28

October at 08:30 UK time. I expect the call to last at

least one hour, and the objectives are to share

information and also to discuss potential outcomes.

The dial in details are as follows.

International access number: +44 207 154 0601

The participant PIN (follow the prompts) is 7973353#

Best regards