We had one foot in France - but Brexit vote has left us stuck in limbo

THE LEAVE result has left many people in limbo as they reconsider plans to move across the Channel or start a business in France.

Tina and Aidan Dorr, from East London, are actively house hunting — and have already moved money to a French bank account in preparation for buying a house in Normandy.

Retired IBM operations manager Mr Dorr, 60, said: “We’ve been planning this for 10 years. I retired in September and we have had a couple of trips looking at properties and have another planned shortly.”

Mrs Dorr, 58, had been intending to continue doing PR work from home, he said.

He added: “We’ve been coming to France for years. I worked in Montpellier about 30 years ago and we like the country and the way of life. Living around East London, there’s a lot of aggression. We haven’t looked for somewhere with a high expat contingent, we wanted to adopt the French lifestyle.

Now, he said they feel unsure – whether to hurry to come to France, hoping that it may establish a right to stay through prior residence [though this would have to be agreed as part of the Brexit negotiations], or to hold on.

“Healthcare is a big issue for us,” Mr Dorr said. “It’s up in the air because we don’t know what will be agreed. Since a big part of the Leave campaign was about immigration, I guess the government will want to clamp down on immigration from EU countries and EU countries will reciprocate.

“If we can’t get healthcare we’re scuppered as we have chronic illnesses that need taking care of – we’re diabetic.

“It all seems to be ‘suck it and see’... but once you’ve invested a quarter of a million euros in a property it’s a bit late to find out it’s not going to work.”

Builder and landscape gardener Doug Butler finds himself in a similar situation. He lives in Hampshire but wants to move to the Dordogne and set up a landscape gardening business. He has been renovating a home in France for six months and is now ready to move with his partner, Sara.

He said: “The result makes me wonder how this leaves us. Will we have to apply for visas for Sara, myself and our son? Can I still start a business as a Briton? Will there be extra problems in doing so?

“I just don’t know. It feels like we will have to make the decision to move and do it a lot quicker than we had planned. I hope there will not be a lot of complications because of this.

“We can have a good life in France and I have a business that can work.”