At the moment we're looking into buying some property in France in the village of St. Croix, near Villefranche de Rouergue. There is a large barn(which we would renovate into a house) and quite a bit of surrounding garden and the price is very reasonable. I'd just like to know of other peoples experience of buying houses(or preferably old buildings and renovating them) in France. We already have someone who is an architect and would like to take on the project so thats something we don't have to worry about. What kind of questions should we be asking,or what things should we be doing? We're in good contact with the person who is selling and have visited the property several times. We live in Ireland for most of the year,so one of the things would be how to manage the property while we weren't living in it. Any advice and suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

no renovations permitted or did your archetect not tell you that heavens did you not enquire at the ordinance hall enville?

Firstly,if it is a barn( an agricultural building) then you must ascertain as to wether you stand any chance of getting planning permission to renovate it for use as a home (see first poster).The seller will tell you what you want to hear in order to sell it , so ask them if they have been granted planning permission or have they the contact name and number of a person who could tell you.If this is ok,then bear in mind that there are many cowboys operating in France (mostly Brits) and under new legislation ,you can no longer use these people to do your renovations for you.They must be fully qualified and registered tradesmen(mostly French) and so the costs will be quite high .If none of this deterrs you then find a local architect who will take on the overseeing of the renovation for you as you will not be there yourself(get reccomendations from other brits there) it will save you money in the long run.If all this has made you reconsider,then look for something already done it will save you a lot of hassle and headaches.