Soderev Offers

Justme,

I can't see any problem with doing that, and if potential buyers for new

leaseback schemes read this forum it could be useful for them too.

Les Trois Glaciers - Montchavin, meeting Tuesday 20th November in Paris,

60% reduction in rent paid to owners and service charge to be doubled.

That works out as a reduction of over 70%.

When asked if they were still selling new leaseback schemes and telling

potential clients that rent was guaranteed, after an awkward silence the man

from LaGrange turned to the administrator and asked "how do I answer that

question".

Finlay,

We are trying to find that out as well.

I agree with Blotch,

Sharing progress will help all - we have received an offer which has not been accepted.

Hi All
Our property was with Resitel ( another of La Grange's company's) and they went into sauvagaurde in March 2012. About 40% of owners signed the new contract when it was sent. This made it hard for those that did not sign to negotiate. The new contract offered reduced rental income by about 15% and passed all the management charges to owners - an increase from €20 per m2 to about €56 per m2.
After 9 stressful months and 2 meetings with La Grange, we were finally given another lease which had fixed management charges of €41 per m2 ( so a 100% increase). This new deal was given to all the owners that agreed to sign and those that had already signed.
About 30% of owners didn't sign and our leases have been cancelled and we have started to self rent the property. As the leases were only cancelled on 7th Jan it was a bit late to make much money from the ski season but ost of us managed to rent out a few weeks each in the end. Hopefully, we will do better next year. I am currently feeling very poor at the moment ! We did evetually get the rent paid upto 7th Jan so now only missing Q1 rent from 2012 which we have claimed by a declaration de creance but doubt we will ever get. Having a French mortgage to pay with no regular income is quite scarey !

On the upside, we stayed in our property at Easter and it was lovely to be able to make improvements. Extra hooks, toaster, dvd player. Although it was a bit of a working holiday of DIY and deep cleaning we still skied every day. It was also lovely to meet up with 2 other owners that were also staying in their apartments that week ( and also had their leases cancelled).

Resitel and LSI have been awful answering any questions. Luckily the lady who runs our reception desk in the residence has been really helpful within the contstraints of her work. However, she said that she would be leaving so there will be changes.

We still have an owners association which was set up by the French owners and we pay €50 per year each. They are looking into having seperate electricity meters installed as at the moment we pay a share of the whole building which is very costly given our apartment is only used a few weeks a year - so we are currently subbing Resitels running costs at the moment. No doubt this will take a long time to arrange.

In summary, I feel that I made the right decision not to sign but we are facing a period of uncertainty and the financial side this year looks pretty dire. Hope that you get your properties sorted soon.

Brides-les-Bains in the 3 Vallees, Savoie, France. If anyone is looking for a ski holiday or summer alps please pm me !
It is a spa town so lovely in the summer too. We will be taking all our future holidays there for a while - but it is a lovely place so that is ok. Thankfully, we bought it as an apartment we wanted to stay in rather than just an investment.

Soderev sent out revised offers to the owners of Les Trois Glacier,

Montchavin, on 18th April to be returned by 30th. They have not paid the

rent due for Jan/Feb/Mar and when challenged, responded by saying that

they will not pay it until we sign the addendum.

I thought this might be useful for anyone who is trying to decide whether or

not Soderev is a trustworthy company to do business with.

Ken

Resitel were equally bad. However, if Soderev don't pay your rent while in sauvegarde then in theory you can force them into receivership. Legally they have to pay up or they are in breach of the sauvegarde. We gave up communicating with Resitel and emailed the judicial administrator directly, his assistant ( who was by the far the most helpful but didnt always answer emails but was helpful on the phone) the legal director of La Grange and the head of La Grange. All the decisions are made by La Grange - Soderev and Resitel seemed to be 'shell' companies with no substance.
However, we only got our rent after legal threats from our lawyer ( organised by the French owners).
At this stage you need to work out whether you would rather stay with Soderev on lease back with a reduced return or whether you are going to hold out and have your lease terminated ( and most likely pay back part of the TVA).
When we bought we personally had a 9 year plan and had always hoped to self rent ( or if money allowed just use for friends and family) when the lease finished. However, when all the problems started we found out that if we did not renew the lease after the 9 years, Resitel would have a right to claim compensation from us ( as much as 2 years rent). It is not in the contract, nor did our French solicitor mention this when we bought the apartment - however, it is French statute law.
We had 4 years left on our lease, we didn't want to be tied in for another 9 years. Hence our decision to either hold out for original terms or have our lease terminated. It took 9 months for them to terminate our lease!

Self renting is time consuming. For every booking we make there are 5 or more enquiries that don't book. Recenty a guest accidentally dropped the garage controller and it went down the lift shaft, so I had to sort that out from the UK.
However, we do love our apartment.......so hope alll the cost and hassle will be worth it in the end.
Good luck.