Hello,
We've had more than our fair share of problems with past French Sale & Leasback operators - "rent guaranteed" it said and stupidly we all fell for it, without ever actually considering if there was infact risks to consider.
The French Government did no more to monitor of screen the various operators under these schemes, than the Irish Government did to consider what planning permissions to approve in respect of S.23 / S50 properties across the country.
Cutting to the chase, there are some good and some not so good French solicitors - you need to engage one, ideally on behalf of the group of investors.
Get a meeting togeather of as many of your fellow property owners as you can ... post on the websites and possibly put a small advert in the newspaper calling on fellow investors to make contact. If the sales agent is still in existance, then get them to send out an email to all of their customers, asking them to contact you & then arrange a meeting.
At the meeting, take all contact details of all investors, ask for volunteers (see if you can you get any accountants, solicitors, bankers, property people, a couple of people with decent French language skills and someone who can design a simple website for you all to communicate through etc onto a committee to help out). Also ask everyone who attends to make a small contribution to help raise some funds to cover costs .. a small amount at first, then further funds can be requsted if costs continue to be incurred. Ensure there is full transparency with regards to all funds, nominate a Treasurer etc and have a seperate bank account opened for the purpose, the keep good records.
Then, engage a solicitor in France to represent your Group. Get one that speaks English and has a history for dealing with these things - as mentioned, do some research on the web and you'll get some references. Anyone you consider appointing, ask for references in Ireland and the UK and do check them out.
Also, speak to your French Accountants / Tax advisors, they may be able to help recommend professionals in France to you, who may be able to help.
Depending on how things you, you may also need a professional to translate French documents into English, for both yourself and fellow investors to understand and discuss.
Finally, don't forget to contact your Banks if you have mortgages on these properties, as soon as possible and request that they give you (even short term) assistance. In my experience, most will after some pressure, with the likes of BNP trying to charge fees of over €127 for the likes of three month interest only facilities - simply resist them and refuse to pay them, continue to complain and escalate your complaints if they try to impose such fees and usually, they will back down after some pressure - assuming you continue to make regular payments, for at least an initial period of time.
Odds are, there's problems ahead for Odalys if your experiencing the problems mentioned .. it's been the exact same on three different occassions in the past, with former operators at locations I'm familar with.