And our friendship survived.
Back in the 1990s, Charles-Henry asked me and Walt if we would be interested in buying his Paris apartment as what is called un viager in France. A viager is a kind of reverse mortgage. It's a legal arrangement in which a buyer pays the owner of an apartment or house a lump sum — much less than the value of the property — and then pays the owner a small monthly stipend for the rest of his or her life. One dictionary translates viager as "life annuity." Charles-Henry's apartment is in a nice neighborhood within walking distance of Montparnasse, l'Hôtel des Invalides, and the Eiffel Tower. We told him we'd be interested in exploring the possibilities.
In 1999, I came to France and went with Charles-Henry to see a notaire (a notary who's a contracts lawyer; in the U.K, the dictionary says this kind of lawyer is called a solicitor) that he had consulted with before. In 2000 in California, Charles-Henry gave me the keys to his apartment and I returned to Paris. I stayed in a hotel. While I was there the notaire sent over one of his employees to inspect the place. The notaire then ran the numbers and told us what sum we should offer Charles-Henry as a one-time payment and what sum we should offer him as a lifetime annuity. Charles-Henry was 75 years old then. I don't remember what the amounts of money were.
When I told Charles-Henry what the notaire had recommended we pay him, he refused. It's not enough, he said. I was hoping you would pay more, he went on. With the money, I could get the place fixed up and modernized for you so that when I'm gone, you won't have much to do but move in. I saw a flaw in that plan. Charles-Henry was a notorious bricoleur (a "do-it-yourselfer" or handyman). I wasn't sure what kind of "improvements" or "repairs" we might end up with if we entered into a contract with him. I didn't want to offer more than the notaire had advised.
Charles-Henry's apartment was a nice place. It had a fairly large living room, a tiny kitchen (which is common in Paris), a bathroom, and a bedroom on the main floor. It had a full basement that could have been converted into a master bedroom with its own bathroom. The whole place needed a lot work, though. I'd estimate that the apartment is about 1500 square feet if you included the basement9 that needed to be converted into living space. The apartment even had a small back garden. But it would have been a very expensive project. Charles-Henry's father was a doctor. He had lived in the apartment since 1882 until he died in 1956. Charles-Henry was born in the apartment in 1924. I have some pictures of the place but I'm not yet ready to publish them.
By 2002, Walt and I were pretty burned out. We talked it over and decided that the viager on Charles-Henry's terms was not going to work out for us. We wanted to get out of California. We decided we needed to tell Charles-Henry that our plans had changed. We went on a camping trip up in the Sierra Nevada mountains in October. We talked about nothing but our plan to re-locate ourselves to France. We drove on down to Death Valley and spent a night or two there. Then we drove down to Salton City in the southern California desert, where Charles-Henry owned a house where his partner Frank lived and where he spent part of the year. He also had a house in Arlington VA.
We told C-H we had decided to move to France sooner than we had previously foreseen. We were going to France for a week in December and had found a real estate agent in Amboise who said he could show us houses in the Loire Valley if we were interested. We were. We flew to France in December and in four days' time we had found a house we liked. We signed an agreement to buy the house and as soon as we got back to California we sent the realtor a down-payment on the house where we've lived for more than 20 years now. Back then, Charles-Henry told us we were making the biggest mistake of our lives.
By March 2003, we had sold our house in San Francisco and with the proceeds from that sale we had paid cash for our house in Saint-Aignan. Can you imagine where we would be now if Charles-Henry had accepted our offer for the viager arrangement? We might still have been paying him monthly 20 years later. He ended up spending the last four years of his life in an assisted-living facility in Virginia and wasn't likely to be able to return to France one day. I don't know if his situation would have released us from paying the monthly stipend, or if it would have allowed us to take possession of the apartment. I'm not sure when or whether we would have been able to move to France. Sometimes things turn out right. CHM still owned his Paris apartment when he passed away last week. He had already sold his two U.S. properties.
In 1999, I came to France and went with Charles-Henry to see a notaire (a notary who's a contracts lawyer; in the U.K, the dictionary says this kind of lawyer is called a solicitor) that he had consulted with before. In 2000 in California, Charles-Henry gave me the keys to his apartment and I returned to Paris. I stayed in a hotel. While I was there the notaire sent over one of his employees to inspect the place. The notaire then ran the numbers and told us what sum we should offer Charles-Henry as a one-time payment and what sum we should offer him as a lifetime annuity. Charles-Henry was 75 years old then. I don't remember what the amounts of money were.
When I told Charles-Henry what the notaire had recommended we pay him, he refused. It's not enough, he said. I was hoping you would pay more, he went on. With the money, I could get the place fixed up and modernized for you so that when I'm gone, you won't have much to do but move in. I saw a flaw in that plan. Charles-Henry was a notorious bricoleur (a "do-it-yourselfer" or handyman). I wasn't sure what kind of "improvements" or "repairs" we might end up with if we entered into a contract with him. I didn't want to offer more than the notaire had advised.
Charles-Henry's apartment was a nice place. It had a fairly large living room, a tiny kitchen (which is common in Paris), a bathroom, and a bedroom on the main floor. It had a full basement that could have been converted into a master bedroom with its own bathroom. The whole place needed a lot work, though. I'd estimate that the apartment is about 1500 square feet if you included the basement9 that needed to be converted into living space. The apartment even had a small back garden. But it would have been a very expensive project. Charles-Henry's father was a doctor. He had lived in the apartment since 1882 until he died in 1956. Charles-Henry was born in the apartment in 1924. I have some pictures of the place but I'm not yet ready to publish them.
By 2002, Walt and I were pretty burned out. We talked it over and decided that the viager on Charles-Henry's terms was not going to work out for us. We wanted to get out of California. We decided we needed to tell Charles-Henry that our plans had changed. We went on a camping trip up in the Sierra Nevada mountains in October. We talked about nothing but our plan to re-locate ourselves to France. We drove on down to Death Valley and spent a night or two there. Then we drove down to Salton City in the southern California desert, where Charles-Henry owned a house where his partner Frank lived and where he spent part of the year. He also had a house in Arlington VA.
We told C-H we had decided to move to France sooner than we had previously foreseen. We were going to France for a week in December and had found a real estate agent in Amboise who said he could show us houses in the Loire Valley if we were interested. We were. We flew to France in December and in four days' time we had found a house we liked. We signed an agreement to buy the house and as soon as we got back to California we sent the realtor a down-payment on the house where we've lived for more than 20 years now. Back then, Charles-Henry told us we were making the biggest mistake of our lives.
By March 2003, we had sold our house in San Francisco and with the proceeds from that sale we had paid cash for our house in Saint-Aignan. Can you imagine where we would be now if Charles-Henry had accepted our offer for the viager arrangement? We might still have been paying him monthly 20 years later. He ended up spending the last four years of his life in an assisted-living facility in Virginia and wasn't likely to be able to return to France one day. I don't know if his situation would have released us from paying the monthly stipend, or if it would have allowed us to take possession of the apartment. I'm not sure when or whether we would have been able to move to France. Sometimes things turn out right. CHM still owned his Paris apartment when he passed away last week. He had already sold his two U.S. properties.
Oh, my. When something doesn't feel right, it is good to back away. I'm so glad that you opted for the move when you did, where you did.
ReplyDeleteIt is rare in the USA, but it is possible to by a remainder estate like that. I had a professor who did that with his neighbor, so he could control who lived next door when his neighbor moved or died.
ReplyDeleteYou definitely needed a larger kitchen and your daily walks are such a positive experience for you both and the dogs.
ReplyDeleteYou and Walt absolutely made the right decision re: CHM's proffered viager. If one is young and has money to burn, I suppose it can be tempting to slowly "invest" in a viager, though the down payment "bouquet" and the monthly payments never seem like much of a bargain to me. Remember the story about the French notaire who had a viager arrangement with Jeanne Calment? She was (supposedly) 90 years old already - but she outlived him by many years, becoming perhaps the oldest person ever to have lived. In your case it was certainly much better to re-invest in your own, purposely chosen home - and to come live in France as soon as you did.
ReplyDeleteYes, Kiwi, I remembered the story of the 123- year-old lady (was it a place in Toulouse, perhaps)? She had made a deal with her attorney who had been eager to finagle a 'deal' with the 'old lady' for a very desireable place (apartment?) - but she outlived both him and his inheritor! Like everyone else who has commented, you and Walt made the right decision for many reasons to not take CHM up on his offer. Just yesterday in the NYT (New York Times) there was an article about the second-oldest person in the world (lady of 116) who lives in Willets, California. I immediately thought of Jeanne Calment. Thank you Kiwi, for stating her name which I had forgotten.
ReplyDeleteIt was Arles. I read an archived article (NYT) and it said Mrs. Calmet had a job in a store and she remembered selling colored pencils and canvases to Vincent van Gogh! It was her notaire, not her attorney according to the article
ReplyDeleteThere was a well-known French movie called Le Viager, made in 1972. It stars such actors as Michel Serrault, Michel Galabru, Claude Brasseur, Jean Carmet, and Gérard Depardieu. It's pretty funny.
ReplyDeleteI see Le Viager on YouTube in France. I wonder if you can get it aux États-Unis.
DeleteI can get the movie here. I don't have time to watch it right now, but the beginning is strange for sure. I've been watching Astrid on PBS. I love the Paris scenery in it.
DeleteAstrid is one of my favorites, too, Evelyn! One of my pickleball friends is also a fan. Our Northwest PBS has not repeated it, so I will have to continue on their Passport. I hate to admit it, but those actors speak french way to fast for me to get it. Are you able to follow their french?
ReplyDelete