Maintaining a Maison Secondaire

[janeyp]

Can anybody offer any help and advice on the practicalities of getting a holiday home looked after when you're not there? We are looking to buy in Poitou Charentes (possibly Vienne) and would like some idea on how easy it is to get someone to look after a small garden and pool, and roughly at what cost. Also do you leave a small amount of money available for minor repairs etc. Do most of you holiday home owners use agencies or more casual help? Any advice would be welcome - We don't want to end up with our property and then think NOW what do we do!! Thanks!

[La vieille]

We found someone through the English estate agent who translated for us at the acte de vente.   We pay 45€ per month and the guy checks the house over once a fortnight and does an hour's work once a month.   He then e-mails us and let's us know all is well.   He will also do other work but charges 30€ an hour.

However, I'm sure that we could have found someone in the village who would have done it, or now we know them better, the retired neighbours would have done it.

[moon]

We found the same, a neighbour, actually the person we bought our house off was only to happy to look after the house for us. He wouldnt even take anything for doing it. We buy him a bottle of White & Mackay every time we are over and everyone is happy.

Bob

[GRT17]

We too have friends in the village who keep an eye on our house while we are away. Obviously it takes a while to make this sort of contact.

The biggest problem has been getting our "grassed area" cut on a regular basis. After various informal arrangements with one or two locals, which did not always work that well, we have now found someone running a small firm for this type of work (registered, French and all quite legal!) so hopefully this will be a better bet.

Gill

[Pierre]

Janey P

 

Please see PM I am just about to send

[PaulC<P><IMG src="http:forums.livingfrance.comimagesline.gif"><BR>Paul, Debbie and Josh, <BR>London & Dept 24<BR><a target=_blank href="http:www.les-brandes.net" target=_blank>http:www.les-brandes.net<A><BR><P>]

Ask your local immobilier or notaire (while dropping off a nice bottle of wine of course)

We just got a local chap recommended by our immobilier at a very reasonable rate to do the lawn and hedges and any other odd jobs as required.

Paul

Dept 24 - London

[vrooje<BR>Cheers,<br>-Brooke<BR><br><B><A TARGET=blank HREF="http:www.experienceburgundy.com">http:www.experienceburgundy.com<A><B>]

Likewise -- our contacts started at our immobilier and have continued from there. We have an excellent housekeeper who looks after the property and visits regularly in the off-season and whose husband is a general handyman, a plumber who arrives on time, does quick work, and charges rates so low that plumbers here in the US would be shocked. It has been wonderful.

Related question: We would love to buy some nice bottles of wine for our French friends as a way of saying thank you, but as we are uncultured Americans, we don't know what to buy and so have never done this -- how do you purchase a nice bottle of wine for someone who knows much more about wine than you do?

We have thought about bringing them an expensive bottle of California wine (we're from CA), but weren't sure how this would be received.

[Dordogne Granny]

Hi there,
It's a good thinks to have kind and reliable neighboors, but be carefull about the law!! You can't just ask someone to care about your house just paying him with a bottle of wine of giving him some money like that. It's not allowed neither in England nore in France!!
Of course, i will speak for myself because we are a profesional caretaker, but you have to know that you can have a inspection of the "Direction du Travail" with a big amend to pay for doing so. And we have today a client who has much more trouble because the man he hasked him before, without any contract, broke his leg while slipping on the terrace. And they have been on trial!! Of course i know lot of second home owners are doing like that, but you have to keep in mind that is not allowed and that it's risky! What will happen if the person you thought you can rely on it, steals all what you have in your house? Because you had left him your keys, you don't have any contract that confirm he was working for you, and there is no any effraction, your insurance will not refund you a penny!
So i will advice you to ask a professional keyholder to do it (ask your Mairie, they no about) and accept to pay him just few euros more (because the profesional caretakers have to pay a profesional insurance!) to free you from any worries and problems...
regards

Sabine

 

 

[Cacknanty]

Being cheapskates, a couple of people in the village have our UK contact details and that is it. The immobilier who sold us the property remains in contact and helps with official docs and issues, this 2 years after buying.

The place just sits there and the grass grows around it. If we don't go at the end of May holiday, then come the summer the grass takes three days to cut and burn (weather permitting).

It is draughty enough to never smell or be damp.

We don't have a pool so that is one headache less.

Water and electricity are switched off. A key is available for those that know where it is, should it be necessary to get inside.

Looking at the height of the grass in other properties, a lot of other people do the same.

Good luck

 

[Miki]

[quote]Hi there, It's a good thinks to have kind and reliable neighboors, but be carefull about the law!! You can't just ask someone to care about your house just paying him with a bottle of wine of givin...[/quote]

 Sabine,

 I agree with you on much of what you say about the dangers of letting a new neighbour have your keys and of course the dangers of accidents on the property and who will be responsible etc.

But just to pick you up one one point. The employment laws in the Uk are far more relaxed and much less restrictive than the regulations here. You could indeed ask someone to do this kind of work, in fact almost any kind of work in the UK and not have to be worried about them being registered with any chambre and whether you are both working on the black. Even if it was a neighbour, no problems just as in 90% of cases it is also OK here but here, if you take the law to the limit, it is not legal and that I do find, for many reasons, somewhat ridiculous.

In the UK, it is possible to pick up a bucket and sponge, then call around the houses and ask the owner if they want their windows cleaned and no law is broken, well it wasn't when I left the UK anyway. Here that would be illegal unless it was registered etc and it is one of the reasons that I believe France has so many employment problems. 

 

[Maddie]

[quote]Likewise -- our contacts started at our immobilier and have continued from there. We have an excellent housekeeper who looks after the property and visits regularly in the off-season and whose husband...[/quote]

I know it's a bit different, ours being a main residence rather than holiday home, but I leave a key with my neighbour when I go away and just ask him to keep an eye on the place only to come back and find he's been in and aired every day when the sun has shone!

I'm sure your French friends would appreciate a bottle or two of Californian wine, especially if you explain it's made near where you live in California, for example. I don't think it needs to be especially expensive just what's typical of your region.  We give ours English wine (made in Kent), English tea and shortbread biscuits which seem to go down well (or they are too polite to say they think it's digusting!!!) as they always return the favour by bringing us dozens of eggs every couple of weeks!

Nicola aka MadDogWoman (!!!)

[Dordogne Granny]

Yes Mikki, you're perfectly right !!! and i confirm that it is not easy at all to run a profesional care-taking company with all these French rules!!!!

But because it's so different between France and England, i think it's important to explain to the person who want to make the move than the law is quite different here and that they might have problem to employ someone "au noir". We said in France that "no-one has to ignore the law" ("Nul n'est sensé ignorer la loi").

It's also important to know you can have grants from the french governement to employ someone legaly. For instance the vat is only 5,5% on maintenance services ; and you have different systems as the "cheque emploi service" (for independant people) or the "agrement services à la personne" (for registered companies as mine) which allow you to benefit from a 50% tax deduction.
So it's often no more expensive to employ someone legaly.... and to keep good relationship with your neigbhoor  

With kind regards

Sabine
----------------------------------------------------
www.en-toutes-saisons.com
house hunting and care-taking services in the Dordogne

 

 

[vrooje<BR>Cheers,<br>-Brooke<BR><br><B><A TARGET=blank HREF="http:www.experienceburgundy.com">http:www.experienceburgundy.com<A><B>]

Bonjour Nicola!

Good idea -- maybe they would be interested to try a California wine, since they typically are very different in flavor from a French wine. I was treated to a glass of expensive CA zinfandel and it was almost spicy, totally unlike an expensive French wine.

California also makes some nice cheese -- but we initially thought we would be crazy to bring wine and cheese to the French! But, maybe they would also enjoy a nice block of cheddar. Alas, we can't bottle the "fun in the sun" that CA is so famous for!

[Miki]

It's not allowed neither in England nore in France!!

Sabine,

I said in my post that I did agree with you, all except for the quote above. As I said the UK works in a completely different way to France and just wanted to correct your statement.

Yes, you are right to warn folks of the dangers on employing on the black but you, I and many others on here as well, know all too well that they do use neighbours and friends to do this kind of work (French as well of course do it this way) and that is of course the big annoyance to you and others that do the work you do.

Basically it is no different to us and others who have registered our businesses but see other B&B and gîtes (both French and British) who say nothing to the authorities and deal in cash only.