Brits with holiday homes across EU are at risk from Brexit

There has been lots of talk about how Brexit will hit Brits living in other EU countries, but what about people who live in the UK but own property on the continent?

Plenty of Brits have bought holiday homes across the other 27 EU states, both for their own use and to rent out to other holidaymakers. They benefit hugely from EU membership, which makes it much easier to buy properties abroad and protects them from local laws which may affect them adversely.

Nationals from non-EU “third countries”, like the US or China, don’t get the same automatic protection under EU law.

Citizens of all EU countries must be treated equally across the bloc. That means a national from an EU member state who buys property in another EU member state can expect the same legal treatment as the citizens of that country. They have legal rights to complain to the national courts of the member state, as well as to the European Commission and the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

This was shown in a case at the ECJ concerning a Dutch national, Gerard de Ruyter, who worked for a Dutch company and paid social contributions in the Netherlands but was resident in France.

In 2012, the French government introduced a new tax that meant De Ruyter had to pay social contributions in France, despite already doing so in the Netherlands. But EU law prohibits a member state from imposing social security contributions (e.g. national insurance) on rental income on an EU citizen when that individual is already paying social contributions to his or her own member state (see Article 13).

The ECJ found in favour of De Ruyter and France’s highest court, the Conseil d’État, confirmed the decision. This resulted in France having to refund the people who had suffered the charge.

If Theresa May sticks to her Brexit red lines – leave the single market, end free movement, end the jurisdiction of the ECJ – then the UK will become a third country on March 29 2019. UK citizens owning property abroad will be exposed to local laws without protection from the EU. It’s just another one of those little-known benefits of EU membership that will disappear after Brexit.