This'll be interesting !

This morning I meet up with a student to go and visit one of the low-cost housing agencies. I'm accompanying him because he has almost no French. The agency is near where he's doing his research and he's hoping to get a bedsit ready for when his wife and child come to Bordeaux in September.

It'll be interesting because one of the BIG ISSUES with work in the big cities is the cost of accommodation. We pay out a fortune in rents (and a mortgage). Monthly (approximately) :
Church: 1200 euros
FAC : 450 euros
UFM Housing : 1000 + 900 + 600
Church housing : 1200.

Add it all up - you get 4450 euros in rent and 900 in mortgage.

I have always wondered whether there would be a cheaper option if we tried to rent in HLMs, in low cost housing. However because we are paid from overseas it is very difficult to find people who will take the risk of renting to us.

Not only that, but we looked at the low-cost housing agency website to see what they advertise as being available and basically their studios (a bedsit, basically) start at 300 euros a month. NOT SO LOW-COST ! And family accommodation would not be much cheaper than what we are currently paying.

Still, it's good to look.

LATER THAT MORNING

OK, the guy in the office was helpful. He said that to start with we have to fill in a form to request accommodation and return it with a tax statement from 2007. I said "But he only just arrived in France." The reply, "then he needs a letter from the tax people saying that as he only just arrived in France he cannot have a tax statement for 2007."

We filled in the form together in a local cafe. Then I went home and phoned the tax people.

"A student has just arrived in France and to get accommodation he needs a letter saying that he cannot have a tax statement for 2007. How can we get this letter ?"

The very helpful young man replied : the best thing to do is to contact us saying he has just arrived in France and needs a tax statement for 2007 so please can he declare his income for 2007 when he was in his home country. We will reply that he cannot do that because he was not in France and then you give our reply to the housing association.

I said "That's a strange way to do it."

"Yes, it is" said the helpful young taxman.

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