Maître d'oeuvre: who runs a French renovation?

Maître d'ouvrage, maître d'oeuvre, architecte: who is who?

The roles sit in a clear chain, though a real project can blur them.

• Maître d'ouvrage (MOA): this is you, the owner. You commission the project, set the budget, and take final responsibility for every decision the maître d'oeuvre proposes on your behalf.
• Maître d'oeuvre (MOE): the person you choose to run the project. Their missions usually cover the drawings and specifications, getting comparable quotes from each trade, site supervision, and the formal handover. They don't have to be an architect, provided they carry the right insurance.
• Architecte: a maître d'oeuvre with a protected title. Only someone registered with the Ordre des architectes can call themselves an architect in France. Above certain thresholds, the law requires one, as the next section explains.
• Entreprise générale: a different set-up. One contractor takes the whole project, subcontracts each trade (plumbing, electrics, tiling) and answers to you for the result. It replaces the coordination a maître d'oeuvre would do, at a fee in the same range.

On a Côte d'Azur second home, the title matters less than two questions. Who is coordinating every trade on your behalf while you're back in London or Geneva? And is that person insured for it?

When is an architect compulsory in France?

You need an architect once your project needs a permis de construire (full building permit) and the total floor area after the works exceeds 150 m². A lighter déclaration préalable (planning declaration) never triggers it. The threshold counts existing and new floor area together. A 130 m² house extended by 25 m² crosses it at 155 m², even though the extension itself is modest.

Below 150 m², a private individual building or extending for their own use can file the permis without an architect, using a contractor's drawings or their own. That exemption doesn't apply to a company. An SCI (a French property-holding company, common among second-home owners for succession planning) must use an architect for any permis de construire, whatever the size.

Otherwise, hiring an architect or maître d'oeuvre is optional. Many owners do it anyway on a whole-house renovation. Someone still has to hold five trades to a schedule and check invoices against the devis (written quote), and that work doesn't go away. Our whole-house renovation guide covers the same choice for owners weighing it up.

How is a maître d'oeuvre's fee set, and what should the contract say?

Fees are usually quoted as a percentage of the works, before tax (HT). The percentage depends on which missions you buy: drawings only, tendering each trade, site supervision, the handover, or all of them. Compare two proposals on what each mission covers as well as on the percentage.

Before signing a contrat de maîtrise d'oeuvre, check that it states:

• Which missions are included: design, tendering each trade to get comparable quotes, site supervision, and the formal handover (réception)
• The fee basis: a fixed percentage, a fixed sum, or a mix, and what happens to the fee if the works budget changes mid-project
• A schedule with milestones you can check the project against
• Proof of professional insurance, including the décennale (the 10-year structural liability cover) wherever their own work could trigger it. Ask for the current certificate, not a verbal assurance that they're covered.

Insist on a written devis for the maîtrise d'oeuvre mission itself. See devis for what a French quote should contain, and garantie décennale for what proof of insurance to ask for.

Can you manage a Riviera renovation yourself from abroad?

Nothing in French law stops you hiring each trade directly and running the schedule yourself. You then carry the coordination. The plumber's first fix has to finish before the tiler arrives, and the electrician needs the walls open at the right moment. Doing that from another country, with trades who mostly work in French, is a logistics problem more than a legal one.

An entreprise générale or a paid maître d'oeuvre takes that coordination off your hands. It also settles who attends the réception, the formal handover where defects get logged before your legal guarantees start running. If you can't be on site that day, you can give a procuration (power of attorney) to someone you trust, such as your maître d'oeuvre or a notaire (notary).

For a single, clearly described act, the procuration doesn't need a notaire. A plain written mandate naming the person and the act will do. Having your signature legalised makes it easier to rely on if a dispute ever reaches a French court. Whoever signs is accepting the state of the works that day, so choose someone who will walk the site first.

More on renovation quotes, insurance and projects

• Devis: what your quote should contain
• Garantie décennale: the 10-year builders liability insurance
• Renovating in France: contracts, insurance and the devis
• Insulation and window upgrades
• Outdoor and pool projects