Maître d'oeuvre: who runs a French renovation?

What is a maître d'oeuvre?

A maître d'oeuvre (project manager) is the person or firm you hire to design a renovation, put it out to competing trades, and supervise the site until handover. You, the owner, stay the maître d'ouvrage: the client who commissions the work, sets the budget and signs off the big decisions. An architecte is one type of maître d'oeuvre, but the title is legally protected and covers more than design. A maître d'oeuvre can also be an engineer, a bureau d'études (a technical design office), or an entreprise générale acting in that role.

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

The three roles sit in a clear chain, though the same job can blur them in practice.

Maître d'ouvrage (MOA): this is you, the owner. You commission the project, own the property, set the budget, and take final responsibility for every decision the maître d'oeuvre proposes on your behalf.
Maître d'oeuvre (MOE): chosen by you to run the project. Missions typically span conception (drawings and specifications), the consultation des entreprises (getting comparable quotes from each trade), direction des travaux (site supervision), and réception (the formal handover). A maître d'oeuvre does not have to be an architect; an engineer, a technical design office, or a supervising contractor can hold the role, 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, and the qualification lets them take on both design and full site supervision. Above certain thresholds, the law requires one specifically, which is the next question.
Entreprise générale: a different structure entirely. One contractor takes the whole job and subcontracts each lot (plumbing, electrics, tiling) to specialists, answering to you for the result. It replaces the coordination role a maître d'oeuvre would otherwise play, at a fee in the same range.

On a Cote d'Azur second home, the practical question is rarely which title is correct. It is who is coordinating every trade on your behalf while you are back in London or Geneva, and whether that person is insured for the job.

When is an architect compulsory in France?

An architect is required by law once your project needs a permis de construire (full building permit, as opposed to a lighter déclaration préalable) and the total surface de plancher after the works exceeds 150 m². That 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 de construire without an architect, using a contractor's drawings or their own. That exemption disappears entirely if the owner is a legal entity instead of a person: 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. The rule sits in the code de l'urbanisme, articles L431-1 and R431-2.

Under the 150 m² threshold, or for work that only needs a déclaration préalable, hiring an architect or maître d'oeuvre is optional. Many owners do it anyway on a whole-house job. The reason is practical: someone still has to hold five trades to a schedule and check invoices against the devis, and that work does not go away just because it is optional. The renovation hub covers the same question for owners weighing it up.

What does a maître d'oeuvre cost and what should the contract say?

Fees are usually quoted as a percentage of the works, HT (hors taxes, before VAT). French price guides put a registered architect's full-mission fee at 8 to 15% of the works and a non-architect maître d'oeuvre at 6 to 12%; renovation firms quoting their own rates tend to land at 10 to 12% HT.

A partial mission, drawings only or site supervision only, costs less: roughly 2 to 5% depending on scope. On a 150 m² renovation, the range is wide enough that the actual number depends far more on which missions you're buying than on the percentage headline.

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

Which missions are included: conception, the consultation des entreprises (tendering each lot to get comparable quotes), direction des travaux (site supervision), and réception (formal handover)
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 planning schedule with milestones you can check the project against
An attestation d'assurance: proof of professional insurance, including the décennale (the 10-year structural liability cover) where the maître d'oeuvre's own work could trigger it under Code civil article 1792. Anyone whose liability could be engaged under that article is required to carry the insurance, under Code des assurances article L241-1, so ask for the current certificate, not a verbal assurance that they're covered.

A written devis for the maîtrise d'oeuvre mission itself is worth insisting on. See devis for what a French quote should contain, and garantie décennale for how the 10-year insurance works and how to verify it.

Can you manage a Riviera renovation yourself from abroad?

Nothing in French law stops an owner from hiring each trade directly and running the schedule without a maître d'oeuvre. The catch is that you then carry the coordination yourself: 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 a phone in another country, across 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 the coordination off your hands for the fee outlined above. It also answers the question of who is physically present for the réception, the formal handover where defects get logged before the clock starts on your legal guarantees. If you cannot be on site for that date, you can grant a procuration (a power of attorney) to someone you trust, your maître d'oeuvre, a notaire, or another representative, authorising them to sign on your behalf. A procuration for a specific, clearly described act does not need to be notarised in France; it can be a plain written mandate naming the person and the act, though having the signature legalised makes it easier to rely on if a dispute ever reaches a French court. Whoever signs is putting their name to the state of the works that day, so choose someone who will walk the site before signing.