Managing your Parisian property from afar: the guide

Owning a property in Paris when you live in Lyon, Geneva or New York means combining two pleasures and one constraint. The pleasure of having an anchor point in the capital. The pleasure of coming back whenever you wish. And the constraint of a home that, in your absence, keeps on existing: mail piling up, contracts renewing, incidents that do not wait.

Here is a simple method for keeping control of your Parisian property from afar, without it turning into an obsession.

Centralise mail and paperwork

An empty apartment always receives mail, and among it, letters that matter: payment notices, letters from the building manager, official reminders. Left unanswered, they turn into penalties or complicated files.

The rule is to centralise. Three options, in order of simplicity:

• Mail forwarding, useful but limited in time and not very selective.
• Scanning on demand: someone empties the mailbox, sorts it, scans the important letters and sends them to you.
• Going paperless at the source: switching as many contracts as possible to electronic billing and direct debit.

The right reflex is to combine all three: go paperless wherever possible, and have the rest collected at regular intervals.

Set up regular monitoring

A water leak spotted the same day is a mop. Spotted three months later, it is a parquet floor to redo and a dispute with the neighbour below. Regular monitoring is the best investment for a property at a distance.

In practice, a periodic inspection visit makes it possible to check the general condition, safety, the absence of leaks or damp, and that the equipment is working properly. Ideally, each visit produces a time-stamped photo report that you keep. You thus retain a visual record of your property, month after month.

The frequency depends on use: monthly for a completely unoccupied home, quarterly for a pied-a-terre used regularly.

Anticipate deliveries and call-outs

From a distance, the slightest technical appointment becomes a headache. A meter reading, the installation of an internet box, the delivery of a piece of furniture: so many time slots where someone needs to be present on site.

Rather than asking a neighbour for a favour each time, it is better to arrange a reliable point of contact, able to wait during the announced slot, welcome the technician, check the work and report back to you. You avoid the back-and-forth and the lost days of presence.

Keep contracts under control

Energy, water, internet, home insurance, building service charges: a Parisian property rests on about a dozen contracts that live their own lives. Tariffs change, contracts renew, direct debit details change.

Keep a single summary up to date: for each contract, the provider, the customer reference, the renewal date and the payment method. This simple table, readable at a glance, spares you most unpleasant surprises. In the event of a change of occupant or a contract switch, it becomes your best ally.

Prepare for every return

The comfort of a property at a distance is measured on the day you arrive. A home that is aired, clean, heated, with a stocked refrigerator, turns a simple stay into a real homecoming. Conversely, arriving in an apartment that has stayed closed for six months always begins with a chore.

Anticipating the return calls for preparation in advance: airing, cleaning, fresh linen, the first groceries. Nothing insurmountable when you are on site, but impossible to improvise from abroad.

Delegate without giving up control

Everything above can be handled on your own, provided you have the time and a Parisian network. When that is not the case, delegating to a dedicated concierge changes everything: a single point of contact who knows your property, collects the mail, carries out the monitoring, welcomes the technicians and prepares for your returns.

At French Realty, this intendance is billed by time spent, in prepaid hours, with no subscription. You stay in charge: you decide when to call on the service, and you receive a report after each visit. Distance then ceases to be a constraint and becomes what it should be: a mere detail of geography.