DUBLIN ADVERTISING executive Jimmy Murphy bought his first French sale and leaseback in 1999 in La Défense, a business district in Paris in 2002.

It was a punt, he says candidly, given his lack of French or knowledge of French law, but at €100,000, pretty cheap he thought.

It worked out fine, with the guaranteed rent being paid on time every month. So when the agent who'd sold him that property offered him another investment in 2003, a two-bedroom apartment for around €150,000 in a French town not far from Geneva in Switzerland, he decided to go ahead and buy again.

The property was another sale and leaseback with the usual nine/11-year lease and the 19.5 per cent VAT rebate available under the scheme.

"I decided to buy in France because of its stable economy; property prices there don't rocket up and down, its a blue chip place."

He took out a French mortgage to pay for it, and expected it would do well: the town is a commuter town for lots of people working in the UN.

But in 2005, the management company handling the lettings went into administration, the equivalent of our examinership, a step taken to avert liquidation.

"The management company had overestimated the market and didnt get the rents needed to pay us properly."

The company is still in business but keeps missing paying the rents "guaranteed under the leaseback contract. The money to cover Jimmys €821 per month mortgage repayments on the property isn't being paid regularly, and in the past three years, he's had to pay €8,000 to cover missed rental payments.

Couldnt he sue? "Fifty people own apartments there, a mixture of French, English, a lot of Irish. Some are active, others, like me, useless."

However, it's still possible that, as with other sale and leasebacks that have run in to difficulties, the owners of the failing management company will find another management to take it on. The danger is that it may offer lower rents; this would still be better than being forced to rent individually, because once it's no longer a leaseback, the 19 per cent VAT rebate to owners is gone.

Murphy is weary at the thought of spending a lot of time sorting it all out. "It's a headache. This thing has taken so much of my emotional energy, time and money in the past three years - I'd now agree with Harry Crosbie who said he wouldn't buy in Donnybrook because he didnt know Donnybrook. If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't do it. I have property in Budapest, France and one in Ballyfermot, and that one's the most profitable, it's less hassle and it's outperformed the others."

Still, he's philosophical: "The French property's probably appreciated quite well; if I get out even stevens in the end, it's okay."