Moving flat in Ile de France: what do I need to do?

[thereistheball]

We are moving flat! I am very excited. Just arranged it today and will be signing contracts next week. The new place is in the same town but closer to Paris and will be a big improvement, we hope.

Off the top of my head, here are some questions for anyone experienced in the ways of French bureaucracy and demenagement practice.

1 - Who do we need to tell? Apart from (all French and UK) banks, insurers, school, doctors, utilities, Social Security, property management agency in UK... Who've I missed? The Mairie? What is the SS process like? Our local fonctionaires can be less than helpful so I'm not looking forward to that bit.

2 - We need to install a kitchen. We are not DIY types and need to keep costs as low as possible after discovering that we need to install a kitchen. Any ideas how I go about finding someone to do the installation for us? As for buying the bits and pieces we need, we were thinking of sticking to Ikea for furniture and we've been recommended Mr Good Deal for appliances. Does that sound sensible? How long should I allow for the installation?

3 - Moving in. The place is unfurnished, unlike where we are now, so we will need to acquire some furniture PDQ. We have some bits and pieces in the UK that we can collect one weekend between now and the move. Otherwise there's a limit to the amount of Ikea stuff I can stomach. Where else should I be looking? Vide greniers (if so which)? What about Message (still have to join that)?

4 - Moving out. What is the usual deal about cleaning - can anyone recommend an agency? The parquet floor has taken quite a bashing in the couple of years we've been here. Should we consider giving it a quick treatment before we go? If so, what should that be? Not sure we want to go as far as re-sanding and polishing but there must be something we can do to disguise the scrapes and dents? Or do we just put it down to normal wear and tear, which I suppose it is?

I'm sure lots of other things will occur to me - I will post them below. Meanwhile, ladies, thanks for your help!

Do you have gas in your old appartment? We had a nightmare with GDF last time we moved. They failed to turn up to take our meter reading so never closed the account and kept on billing us. Got our money back eventually but took about two years. You need to get someone to do a meter reading of gas, electricity, water and make sure the account is closed.
If you have a car registered in France you need to change the address on the carte grise. Lots of the stuff can be done online - in fact there's a special site for it. The links are given here:

www.zap-eco.fr/changement-adresse-gouv-fr-changement-adresse-cpam-caf-etc-422.html
Message can be good for finding furniture, but you can also look at ebay petites annonces or leboncoin as both will allow you to search by postcode. There is a useful website www.videgreniers.org which tells you when they are on locally. The ones around here tend to be March, July and September so you might have to wait a bit.
When we moved out of an appt with parquet we just gave it a really good clean and polished over the odd few deeper scrapes with polish that we got from the quincaillerie.
Can't help with kitchens as never had to install one myself (yet!)
Good luck with the move!

Make sure you write to your ISP (especially if they bear the same name as a fruit/colour) by registered mail to be signed for, if you are transferring your internet account to a new address.

Cautionary tale:
The aforementioned citrus ISP continued debiting money every month from my account after we moved house, claiming they had never received my instructions to close the internet account. I left that bank account open with some savings in but wasn't using it and the bank didn't send statements, so I didn't notice the debits for over 2 years. Said company refused to refund, because I had waited too long to claim the money back.

AA - that's awful. I hate that particular citrus-flavoured company with a vengeance, but haven't yet found a better alternative. I did learn about how to terminate a contract with them the hard way, and also with Canal+.

Thanks BD for the reminder about the car - DH's domain as he is the driver and it's from his work. Will add it to the list so I can nag him.

Oh and BD - thankfully no gas in either place.

I'd also get the post office to forward your mail. There's always someone that I forget to tell my new address to so it's very useful. You can do it over their website www.laposte.fr/reexpedition/

Don't forget to tell employers too.

I agree about the citrus people - similar experience to AA - but it sounds like you've got that covered!

SS - do everything via recommande avec accuse de reception. Every 2 weeks check whether they've received it and if it's in the process of being sorted. If it's not done within 6 weeks there's probably a problem!

There's a government website that allows you to register and it handles all the updates - impots, fonciere /habitation, redirection of poste.

Either have a look on laposte.fr or some of the expat forums - suggest www.totalfrance.com for starters.

Can't help with Paris sites, am deep in 'France Profonde' - thank goodness (went to Ikea in Bordeaux yesterday and DH nearly had a heart attack with all the traffic)!

Our insurer provides a cleaner when you move, provided you insure the new place with them as well. It could be worth seeing if yours offers anything similar.

Second hand furniture can be bought at emmaus. you have to look through tons of junk but good deals to be have. and you help the homeless.