Renewal of lease with Pierre et Vacances

Hi

We also have a PV leaseback in Audierne - in Le Phare de Trescadec - not sure if it the same one but I am not aware of any other PV leaseback in Audierne.

Our lease is up for renewal in 30/92017 and my understanding is that we have to give PV at least one year's notice if we want to cease the leaseback and that we could be liable for indemnity costs - as well as a prorata amount of the VAT to pay back.  They on the other hand, may only give us 6 months notice of the new lease arrangements.  I have looked closely at our lease contract and cannot see very much about the refurbishment fee - it was also our understanding that we would not have to pay anything towards this in the first period of the lease but only after 18 years - this was what the salesman told us at the time but PV replied to me differently when I asked their lease department.  I have tried to find out what the amounts of the refurbishment costs may be but these seem to vary considerably from one residence to another which is fair enough I suppose depending on usage and area and renovation costs - one would hope PV get a range of quotes.  Our particular residence does not seem to be getting much usage at all - 40% I think this year and in fact, PV have shortened the letting period so it is only open from April (not even at Easter last year) till 30th September.  Therefore it does not look to need much in the way of refurbishment at present and our own appartment looks almost like new as being a big appartment and not on the front block, does not perhaps get as much usage as some of the others.  I think management can tell us this statistic if we enquire at the residence.

Like you we are in a dilemma as to what to do when the lease comes up for renewal and will need to make decisions before then.  It would be good to know what the service charges may be if we do not lease back.  We would like to use the appartment more as we approach retirement but we will not be at that point by 2017!

While in Brittany this summer we visited the Guilvinec residence, and we can see that some of the properties there are clearly not leased back to PV - I think they went through lease renewal last year.  In Douarnenez owners also have kept their own appartments and not leased back. It would be interesting to see how that works.  Do you then get to use your property all year? What happens about the electricity and water costs? How is that calculated? Or are meters installed?  I suppose PV would want to lose too many properties as then it makes the whole residence less viable for them.  I am also not sure how they ensure that the outer "look" of the place remains the same.  Clearly in Guilvinec owners had personalised their properties which presumably is their right when not leasing back.

The email address for information about your lease is pvt.loyer@fr.groupepvcp.com

They have responded quite quickly to me each time I have asked questions - I do email in French. 

We also had a request from them this Spring to change the basis of our lease using a different calculation method.  Having looked into it, I decided we would probably lose out and asked them not to change in our case.  I have been unable to ascertain from our latest rent statement which "indice" they did in fact use but our rent went down!

I agree it would be interesting to hear from anyone who has already gone through the process as to how it worked out for them and to have some good news!

We have been happy with the way it works out generally for using our appartment and for exchanges except not being able to go out in October any more.  We have had some good exchanges and a great one recently in Paris.  This was partly why we chose this kind of leaseback.

Good Luck - I can be contacted via this website if need be.

:)