Reading the Small Print
Posted on Thursday, July 29, 2010 at 10:04 amCategory: Village Politics
It’s never entirely sporting to blame previous administrations for cock-ups, but the fact remains that, just occasionally, it is unavoidable.
Some years ago, under the information-poor regime of our former mayor, a little land transaction took place. There was nothing untoward in the transaction: agricultural land near the centre of the village owned by a local farmer was swapped for an equal area owned by the commune on the outskirts.
No money changed hands. All completely above board and quite legal.
A few years later, the commune re-zoned a part of its new acquisition to allow for the building of some brand spanking new HLM – social housing units – complete with all new eco friendly whistles & bells. There were solar panels for hot water, heat pumps for space heating and oodles of insulation.
Great was the rejoicing. We didn’t hold a street party or anything, but we all got a nice warm feeling.
However, the rejoicing was short lived in the house of the previous owner when he received an enormous tax bill for the new houses.
How could this be?
It emerged that the land swap had been messed up, and that, as far as the State was concerned, the parcel of land that the new HLM were on was not, in fact, owned by the commune, but was still owned by the farmer.
How this can have occurred is unclear. Our former mayor had a reputation for “micro management” which meant that a lot of stuff that could be delegated often wasn’t, so perhaps that is where this fell through the cracks.
What is clear is that sorting it out what should have been a routine and simple transaction is going to be a costly exercise. Not obviously in monitory terms, but certainly in time.
And when your local government is run by (for the most part) unpaid volunteers, many of whom are self employed, time and money can often be the same thing.
July 29th, 2010 12:19
Meanwhile, in the Cayman Islands, an ex-farmer and an an ex-mayor board their newly acquired luxury yachts and sail blissfully off into the sunset…
July 29th, 2010 15:07
Um…and the farmer didn’t notice what parcels of land were noted as being under his ownership on his annual returns…?
July 29th, 2010 15:42
Nope. Because he didn’t read them properly. He didn’t notice that he DIDN’T own the land he was cheerfully grazing or cutting for hay either: the payments he was making and recieving were pretty much unchanged, which he expected, so he assumed that all was well.
Until the bill for taxe d’urbanisme arrived.
July 29th, 2010 18:05
Aaarrrgggghhhh – French Bureaucracy! Since we arrived in France, everyone has Laughed uproariously about being champions of paperwork.
The tortuous routes to earn a legal pittance, drive a car, play tennis, wear a hat (I fib there. I think)
They’re always very helpful on our agonised visits to the Temples of Paper, though. They tend to blame Napoleon and laugh ruefully.
Why do they laugh?
July 29th, 2010 21:01
How does the phrase “can’t pay, won’t pay” come over in French?
July 30th, 2010 12:33
Ah, so that “nice warm feeling” was actually a premonition of the Bureacracy urinating on you.
July 30th, 2010 15:47
Was a notaire ever involved? If so that accounts for everything.
August 3rd, 2010 03:25
no good deed goes unpunished.
August 5th, 2010 19:50
Here in the United States, we say that time is money and leave it at that. In fact, there’s nothing in our society that doesn’t come with a price tag attached to it.
August 16th, 2010 10:07
Hi Jon,
Well, what can I say – I work in the French civil service and all I can say is… I’m not surprised!
I’ve been coming across insane nonsense like this since I arrived here 10 years ago. France will never change!