Keyholders

[sueyh]

we live in a village in Northern France and there are several "maison secondaires". One of these has been burgled this week and there are no contact details for the owners. It is only through an hour of Internet searching that we have managed to contact the owners via, would you believe, their ebay account. Their house is unsecured because the police will not attend unless the owners are there. So please anyone with a maison secondaire, ensure the Marie have your contact details. As our Maire said, if there was a burst pipe in the house, nothing could be done.

Suey

[Frederick]

[quote user="sueyh"]we live in a village in Northern France and there are several "maison secondaires". One of these has been burgled this week and there are no contact details for the owners. It is only through an hour of Internet searching that we have managed to contact the owners via, would you believe, their ebay account. Their house is unsecured because the police will not attend unless the owners are there. So please anyone with a maison secondaire, ensure the Marie have your contact details. As our Maire said, if there was a burst pipe in the house, nothing could be done.

Suey[/quote]

Good advice Suey

My details are with the Maire ,,

I have also had a visit.... many years ago from a couple of Gendarmes not long after I bought the place . They filled in a form with my details and wanted to know who if anybody had a set of keys to the house so I have always beileved I could be contacted by them if need be . I have a set of keys hidden... if important enough I could give access to them and authorisation to Maire staff to enter the house and then afterwards take the keys to the Maire for safe custody. .

[Jonzjob]

At the end of last yea Vosins Vigilants came to our village and we were lucky to be in the first groupe to form.

This is they http://www.voisinsvigilants.org/ . It is the French version of neighbourhood watch and if you don't have it where you are then it;s a good idea to see if you can instigate your group.

Also, when we go away we inform the gendarmarie via their http://www.gendarmerie.interieur.gouv.fr/Sites//Zooms/Operation-tranquillite-vacances . This we have used for several years now and they keep a special eye on your property.

The VV is based directly on the neighbourhood watch and why it has taken so long to arrive is a mystry for me, but the French seem to have embraced it strongly. Just look at the web site..