Letters: Leaseback scheme mis-selling affects thousands in France

To the Editor,

The article about get-out fees for chalet owners is timely as a lot of leaseback agreements entered in the early 2000s are now maturing. 

Here on the Atlantic coast of France some operators of résidences de tourisme are also demanding exorbitant get-out fees, even though the leases and separate correspondence waive such claims. 

Thousands of people are affected by the mis-selling and deception at the centre of these schemes.

It should not have come to this. The French government and the notaires who were involved with the leases knew that commercial leases cannot be taken at face value as they are subordinate to the French Civil Code. 

Investors were offered terms (fixed term, no eviction indemnity) that the tourism operators knew they would not have to honour. 

Read more: Comment: The decline of French winter ski resorts is no bad thing 

If the person buying a chalet or summer house was told that they would have to pay an unquantified eviction indemnity in exchange for an upfront VAT reduction, nobody would opt for such a deal! 

So in order for the government scheme to succeed, deception would be required.

Owners are not in this predicament due to ignorance of the law but rather it is due to deliberate mis-representation and deception. 

Meanwhile the same French government which created the scheme has been "slow waltzing" a consumer fraud investigation through the DGCCRF since 2017!

One small consolation for owners in the Alps is that while a dispute on eviction indemnity is before the courts, all terms of the lease must continue and that includes the owners rights to their personal weeks at the property.

Michael Murphy, Vendée

What is your experience of get-out fees for chalet owners in France? Let us know at letters@connexionfrance.com