Stephen Smith (France) Ltd

[Site Admin]

You have decided to flog everything you own in the UK and move to France where you come across a company set up over here and engaged in “property maintenance”. For a modest contribution to “advertising” costs, you are invited to sign a contract to supply your labour. In return, you get guaranteed work looking after gîtes and holiday properties. You have to set up your own company, though, because the people with whom you signed the contract say it’s better, but pretty soon what you thought was a bit of gardening turns into plumbing and demolition. You are also only seeing a fraction of the total fees paid.

Who’s covered in the event of a fall off a ladder? Is your contract binding if wholly written in English? Why do you have to be a subcontractor and not employed direct? What happens if a property is damaged by what you are doing to it ?

It pays to check the credentials of anyone you intend to go into business with. After all, you wouldn’t go and get a job with a firm of cowboy builders in the UK so why do it here?