Having your French let managed from abroad

What exactly is long-term letting management?

Letting management is the everyday life of your let property: finding the tenant, drafting the lease, collecting rents, reconciling service charges, handling day-to-day upkeep, dealing with a missed payment, representing the owner to the tenant and the building manager. In long-term letting (an empty let first, furnished too), this everyday life lasts for years: handing it to a professional means choosing a property that earns without you answering the Sunday emergency call. The table below shows what a management mandate covers in practice.

Note: in an empty let, the residential lease runs for three renewable years (six if the landlord is a legal entity); furnished, one year, nine months for a student. These are the terms of the law of 6 July 1989; tourist furnished lets follow a different regime, covered by our dedicated articles.

How does handing a property over to management unfold?

Handover follows a proven order. It starts with framing: your situation as a non-resident, the lease regime (empty or furnished), the condition of the property, your expectations on reporting. Then the mandate is negotiated and signed, remotely if needed. The manager then takes over the daily routine, literally holding the keys.

1. Framing the project with French Realty: lease regime, yield targets, caretaking services to plan (furnished inventory, make-ready).
2. Introduction to the partner manager suited to your property and country of residence; they quote their fees, under their responsibility.
3. Signing the management mandate, electronically or on paper, with the powers you grant (negotiation, signing the lease, collection).
4. Check-in inventory and handover of keys to the tenant, on the lease's start date.
5. First rent collected and wired to your account; receipts and charge reconciliation follow their calendar.

Under what conditions can you hand over letting management?

Three conditions separate a sound mandate from a risky delegation. The first is legal: property management is regulated by the law of 2 January 1970, the Hoguet law; whoever collects your rents must hold the professional licence for property management, a financial guarantee and professional liability insurance. The second is contractual: the written mandate sets the duration, the powers, the fees and the termination terms. The third is tax-related: as a non-resident, your French income follows withholding and filing rules that depend on your country of residence.

How much does a management mandate cost, and who bills what?

French Realty publishes no rates: its own services are quoted individually, and the partner manager's fees are set by them. What can be said, because it is law and custom: the manager's pay usually combines a percentage of the rents collected, often topped up by one-off fees (inventory, lease renewal). Those fees are unregulated but must appear in the mandate; directory or survey fees are billed at actual cost by their issuers. The table below sets out who bills what in an accompanied letting project.

How long between signing the mandate and the first rent?

The real delay is the letting itself: a ready property, correctly priced and presented lets within weeks on most French markets; an overpriced one, or one tied up in works, waits. Legally, two dates frame the cash-in: the lease's start date, when the tenant pays the first rent and the deposit, and each month's end, when the manager wires the collected sums to your account. The deposit is capped by law: one month's rent excluding charges for an empty let (save special cases), two for a furnished one.

Note: the management mandate runs for a set term, often one year renewable; termination follows the contract's terms (usually one to three months' notice). French Realty sets none of this: they are the partner manager's terms, negotiated before signing.

What changes for a non-resident landlord?

Three things genuinely change. Money first: a non-resident's French rental income is in principle subject to withholding, unless you opt for advance payment or a waiver where the tax treaty allows; the manager is not your tax adviser, hence the importance of the right accountant. Distance next: the lease and the inventories are handled remotely by the mandated manager, and receipts stand in for your presence. Representation last: service of documents, court representation where needed, and emergencies handled across shifted time zones; precisely the routine French Realty covers on its side, with the caretaking of the property.

Note: the account receiving the rents can be French or foreign; what matters is that the mandate clearly names the payout account and that your filings follow your country of residence's obligations. Our country guides detail these rules, treaty by treaty.

What should you check before signing a management mandate?

A mandate reads like a lease in reverse: you are the one delegating, so you set the limits. Systematically check the professional licence and its scopes, the exact description of the powers granted, the rent payout account, the scope of re-billed costs, the termination terms, and the reporting cadence. The table below works as a checklist.

What risks does a let property run without professional management?

The first risk is financial: a missed payment that settles in, a procedure that drags, a rent wrongly indexed. The second is technical: a water damage claim badly declared, an unmaintained boiler, a loss aggravated by slow reaction. The third is legal: a notice served incorrectly, a deposit wrongly returned, a charge reconciliation past its deadline. For an owner abroad, distance multiplies these risks: you do not see, so you do not know. Professional management does not remove the risks, it handles them at human speed, during your night.

How do you secure the rents and the property itself?

Two insurances frame the letting for an absent owner. Rent guarantee insurance (GLI) covers, for a premium and tenant acceptance conditions, missed payments and sometimes damage; the manager offers it or accepts it within their screening process. Non-occupying owner insurance (PNO) covers your liability and the property itself when nobody occupies it or the tenant is under-insured; for a vacant property between two leases it is often the only cover available. How they fit together is decided BEFORE the letting starts, with the manager and the insurer.

What mistakes should you avoid when handing over management from abroad?

What does French Realty actually do on your letting?

French Realty frames your letting project (empty or furnished, yield, calendar), introduces you to the partner manager holding the professional licence, suited to your property and country of residence, and carries out on site the caretaking the manager does not do: furnishing and inventory of the let, accompanied inventories, make-ready between tenants, mail follow-up, standing in with the building manager. Regulated letting management stays with the partner, under their responsibility; caretaking is billed on quotation by French Realty; the landlord's accounting belongs to a partner accountant. A single contact coordinates it all: that is your personal study's cockpit.