Inspection visits with a photo report: what they achieve, how often

An inspection visit serves three purposes: recording the true condition of the property, preventing damage that is brewing, and proving, if necessary, that the property is maintained. On every visit, a trusted person checks the water, the electricity, the openings, any signs of damp or break-in and any accumulated mail, then produces a dated photo report. The rhythm follows the property’s occupancy: monthly for an empty home, aligned with your comings and goings for a home in use. This subject is one of the pillars of the guide to managing French property from abroad.

What does an inspection visit actually achieve?

Recording, first. From abroad, you do not truly know what state your property is in. The photos from your last stay are ageing, your memory embellishes, and the neighbour’s last message only describes the outside. The inspection visit replaces these impressions with facts: a date, a room, a photo, a reading.

Preventing, next. Most of the major damage affecting unoccupied homes began small: a seepage behind a cupboard, a seal dripping away, a musty smell in a corner. A regular visit detects these signals at a stage where the repair is still simple, and comparing successive reports brings out what a one-off visit cannot show.

Proving, finally. A series of dated reports forms a continuous record of upkeep. It serves you with an insurer after a claim, with a neighbour in a dispute over the origin of damage, and even on the day of a sale, as evidence of a well-monitored property. Without this record, an absent owner often starts with a disadvantage: being unable to document anything.

Note what an inspection visit is not: it is neither a full technical survey, nor a repair, nor permanent guarding. It does not replace the tradesperson on points within their competence, such as the annual servicing of a boiler. It is a simple, regular, documented act, whose strength comes precisely from repetition: it is the series that protects, not the isolated visit.

What is checked on every visit?

The content of a visit must be fixed, always identical, so that the reports can be compared with one another. The route always follows the same order, from the front door to the service rooms: it starts with what can be seen from the entrance and ends with the cellar, the loft or the outbuildings. This constant order matters as much as the points checked: it guarantees that no room is skipped when time is short, and that the photos follow one another in the same order from one report to the next. Here is what is checked on every visit:

Point checked	What is looked at	What must trigger an alert
Water supply	Meter, shut-off valves, seals, under the sinks and behind the WC	Abnormal consumption, damp mark, active drip
Electricity	Consumer unit, breakers, appliances on standby, freezer	Tripped breaker, hot smell, appliance stopped for no reason
Openings and locks	Front door, windows, shutters, blinds, locks	Forced opening, misaligned shutter, key turning badly
Signs of damp	Walls, ceilings, corners, skirting boards, cellar and loft	Stain, efflorescence, musty smell, peeling wallpaper
Signs of break-in	Door, accessible windows, garage, garden sheds	Forced entry, moved object, unexplained disappearance
Mail	Letterbox and doorstep	Pile visible from the street, uncollected recorded letters
Equipment	Heating in frost-protection mode, hot water cylinder, detectors	Indoor temperature too low, flat battery, heating off

This constant brief has one virtue: anything new stands out. A photo taken from the same angle as the previous one immediately shows what has changed, and the water meter reading compared with the previous one reveals an invisible leak elsewhere in the home.

What makes a photo report useful, and even legally robust?

Not all reports are equal. A vague account, with no images or readings, proves nothing and allows no follow-up. A useful report, the kind produced by the inspection visit with report service, combines four qualities:

• Dated photos, room by room, taken from constant angles from one visit to the next.
• Water and electricity meters read, with a comparison against the previous readings.
• Anomalies flagged on the very day of the visit, described and photographed, together with the measure taken or proposed.
• An identical format from one report to the next, archived and readable in chronological order.

Brought together in a file, this set becomes robust evidence: facing an insurer trying to establish when damage appeared, a managing agent disputing the upkeep of a floor, a tradesperson claiming the crack was already there. The law requires an owner to maintain their home and to declare promptly any loss they become aware of: a series of dated reports is the simplest way to prove it.

What should be done with the anomalies? Each calls for a simple decision, noted in the report: closer watch at the next visit, a quote request to a partner tradesperson, or immediate action if safety is at stake, such as an active leak or a weakened door. The report thus records every step: who saw what, when, and what was decided.

How often should visits be scheduled?

The rhythm follows the property’s occupancy, because occupancy determines the risks:

• Property empty all year: one monthly visit is the sensible baseline, tightened in winter and after every marked weather episode.
• Regularly used pied-a-terre: one visit before each departure and after each return, plus an intermediate visit if the absence stretches.
• Property entrusted to home sitters: inspection visits space out, since the occupant reports anomalies themselves, but an independent periodic check retains its value.
• Seasonal lettings: a documented condition report at every changeover, with the same photos from the same angles, protects the owner as much as the tenant.

Where to start if nothing is organised yet? With one complete first visit, which serves as the reference inventory: photos of every room, readings of every meter, identification of the home’s weak points. This first report, longer than the ones that follow, becomes the basis for all comparisons. The cruising rhythm then settles in, adjusted to the property’s occupancy and to how exposed the region is to bad weather.

In every case, the golden rule remains regularity. A surprise visit after six months of silence mends nothing: it photographs damage already in place. A modest monthly visit prevents almost everything, and its cost bears no comparison with a swollen floor or an established mould patch.

How does the inspection visit fit into a wider system?

The periodic visit replaces neither the neighbour who alerts, nor the tradesperson who repairs, nor you who decides: it connects the three. Its report triggers the intervention at the right moment, guides the tradesperson on site and lets you decide with full knowledge from abroad. It also prepares your stays: the report from the last visit tells you whether everything works before you arrive, and a recent visit avoids unpleasant surprises at the door. It fits naturally with the other steps of the “Owning from afar” category, starting with the seasonal opening and closing, which extends the check into a full conditioning of the property.

To explore every subject, from mail to emergencies, browse the Journal’s maintenance category. And if you wish to define the rhythm and content of visits for your own property, the personal study offered by French Realty lets you shape this system with your dedicated contact.