Guide
Managing a Côte d'Azur renovation from abroad
The kitchen wall in Vence is open and you're in Edinburgh. Whatever is behind it, the only person looking is the contractor. What French firms call suivi de chantier à distance, following the site from afar, comes down to who looks on your behalf and when you pay.
Need an English-speaking contractor for a renovation you'll manage from abroad?
Get quotesOn this page9 sections
- When is a project manager worth paying for a renovation you run from abroad?
- What should a coordinator's contract say when you can't walk the site?
- Is a quote signed online valid, and can you still change your mind within 14 days?
- Why a renovation has no legal payment schedule, and what to agree instead
- How do you check progress on a French building site from abroad?
- Who signs off the finished work if you can't be at the house?
- Insurance, keys and meter readings to settle before work starts on a house you're not in
- French terms you'll meet when managing a renovation from abroad
- Frequently asked questions about managing a renovation from abroad
Who stands in for you
When is a project manager worth paying for a renovation you run from abroad?
On a single-trade job, usually not. On a renovation with several trades and a long schedule, often yes, because someone has to be there on the days you can't. A maître d'oeuvre (project manager) is that person. The fee is usually a percentage of the works, and what it buys depends on the mission. Some cover the drawings only. A fuller one adds site visits, checking each invoice and the handover.
Weigh the fee against a mistake you can't see. A wall built in the wrong place, or a trade paid for work that isn't finished, can cost more to put right. Our whole-house renovation guide covers when the law forces an architect on you (above 150 m², or for any permis filed by an SCI, a property-holding company). Living abroad doesn't trigger that rule, so the choice is yours.
The other routes are an entreprise générale, where one firm answers to you for the result and subcontracts the trades, and a trusted local contact for small decisions and deliveries. A neighbour or a friend can hold a key and meet a delivery driver. They can't judge whether a trade has done the work properly, and they shouldn't be asked to.
The coordinator's contract
What should a coordinator's contract say when you can't walk the site?
In private work, a maître d'oeuvre's mission is whatever the contract says, nothing more. Some contracts cover the drawings and stop there. Yours needs to say who runs the site meetings, who checks each stage invoice against the devis (written quote), and who attends the handover with you or for you.
Ask for a written site report every week, with photos. That is trade practice, not law, so it exists only if the contract says so. Ask too for the name of one person you can call, and a date by which they answer a question from you.
Ask for the professional insurance certificate and keep a copy. The garantie décennale of each trade sits with whoever did the work, so your coordinator's insurance doesn't replace theirs. If you'd rather have the work done under one roof, an entreprise générale contract should name every trade it subcontracts.
Signing at a distance
Is a quote signed online valid, and can you still change your mind within 14 days?
Yes to the first. A devis signed electronically is as valid as one signed on paper, and once signed it's the contract. The price and the scope are fixed, and any change needs a written avenant (a signed change to the contract).
A devis agreed at a distance, or signed away from the contractor's premises, carries a 14-day right to withdraw. You can use it without giving a reason. If you want work to start inside those 14 days, the contractor needs your express request, on paper or in an email. Without it, ask the contractor to wait. The delay protects you when a salesman arrives at your house with a good discount and a pen.
Before you sign, check the devis against the list on our whole-house renovation guide, and ask for a corrected version if anything is missing.
Payments
Why a renovation has no legal payment schedule, and what to agree instead
The staged schedule people quote (15%, then 25%, then 40%) belongs to new-build houses under a CCMI contract. The Cour de cassation has ruled that a renovation isn't one. So no set schedule tells you when to pay, and the stages are yours to negotiate.
Agree a modest deposit. Then tie each payment to a stage that you, or your coordinator, have checked: demolition done, pipes and wiring in place before the walls are closed, plaster dry, tiling finished. Say in the contract that each payment follows the inspection, not the contractor's calendar. Never pay far ahead of the work, whatever discount is offered for it.
Ask whether the devis calls the first payment an acompte, which binds both sides, or arrhes, which either side can walk away from at a cost.
You can also hold back up to 5% as a retenue de garantie until a year after the handover, but only if the contract provides for it. Write the clause in before you sign.
One fraud matters more to you than to a local. A contractor's email arrives shortly before a payment is due, saying the bank details have changed. The message looks right, the logo is right, and the new IBAN belongs to someone else. The state's cyber-crime service warns never to act on a change of bank details received by email. Call the contractor on a number you already had, and pay only to the IBAN on the signed devis.
Tell us where your renovation stands and we'll put you in touch with an English-speaking contractor or maître d'oeuvre who quotes in writing and reports back.
Get quotesSeeing progress
How do you check progress on a French building site from abroad?
Agree the method in the contract, because nobody volunteers it once the work is under way. A weekly compte-rendu de chantier with dated photos is the baseline. Ask for photos of anything that will be covered over, such as pipes before the plaster goes on and wiring before the walls are closed.
A video call from the site at set stages beats any written summary. Ask the coordinator to show you the room, then the detail you asked about. Decide the stages in advance: after demolition, before the walls close, before the finishes start.
If you can travel, plan two or three visits around those same stages instead of one trip at the end. Problems found at a stage visit cost less to put right than ones found behind finished walls.
Keep every report, photo and message in one folder. If a dispute comes, a dated record of what you were told and when is your best evidence.
The handover
Who signs off the finished work if you can't be at the house?
The owner pronounces the réception des travaux, so your stand-in needs your written authority. A signed mandate naming the person, the house and the handover is enough. An architect can't bind you without one. Put your instructions in it: what to test, and that nothing is signed "sans réserves" if something fails.
The person you send should be able to tell a finished job from a clean one, which usually means your maître d'oeuvre or someone with building experience. They list every visible defect on the procès-verbal as a réserve. A visible defect left off the PV counts as accepted.
Don't pay the balance before the walk-round. Réception tacite exists: moving in and paying in full can count as acceptance, without any paper. If the contract includes a retenue, it stays with the agreed third party, or is covered by the firm's bank guarantee, until a year after handover.
For one year afterwards, the garantie de parfait achèvement makes the contractor put right any defect you report in writing. Send each report by registered letter. Online registered mail counts, so you can do it from your laptop. A phone call or a message leaves nothing to show.
Insurance and practicalities
Insurance, keys and meter readings to settle before work starts on a house you're not in
Dommages-ouvrage is the owner's obligation and is taken out before work starts when the job touches the structure. A private owner who skips it faces no fine, but at a sale within ten years the notary records that it's missing. Get the quote alongside the devis. Tell your home insurer about the works at the same time, so a claim made during the works isn't refused.
Then the practical things. Decide who holds keys and who may let people in, and write it down. Note the meter readings on day one, and name your local contact in the contract with a phone number. If the house is empty while work continues, read our guide to winterising a second home and our second-home energy guide.
Renovating an apartment or an old stone house adds its own decisions: see apartment renovation and stone house renovation. For the wider rules on contracts and guarantees, our guide to renovating in France covers the devis, insurance and the years that follow.
French terms
French terms you'll meet when managing a renovation from abroad
Key French terms for this service
Questions
Frequently asked questions about managing a renovation from abroad
If your question isn't here, send it with your request and we'll answer it directly.
No. Only the owner pronounces the réception, so whoever attends needs your written authority. A short signed mandate naming the person, the property and the act is enough for a single handover. Add your instructions on what to list as réserves, and ask the person to walk the whole house before they sign anything.
Set a written limit in their contract: small decisions on site, such as the position of a socket or a delivery date, up to an amount you choose. Anything that changes the price, the scope or a finish you picked needs a written avenant that you sign. That keeps the signed devis as the contract.
No, a transfer from abroad works. What matters is that the account belongs to the firm named on the devis. Pay only to the IBAN printed on the signed devis or contract, and check any later change by phone on a number you already had. Keep every transfer confirmation with the invoice it settles.
Write to the contractor within the first year after the réception, and send it by lettre recommandée with acknowledgement of receipt. Online registered mail counts, so you don't need to post anything from abroad. Describe the defect, its location and the date you noticed it, and attach a photo. A text message or phone call leaves no proof.
Only for their own mission. Each trade stays liable for its own work and must hold its own décennale cover. The maître d'oeuvre answers for what the contract says they do, such as supervising the site or checking invoices, so read that clause before you rely on them to catch a fault.
Sources
Official sources for signing, paying and handing over a renovation from abroad
- Service-Public.fr: contracts signed at a distance or off premises (F10485) The 14-day withdrawal right, and the express written request needed for work to start inside it.
- Service-Public.fr: guarantees after réception of the works (F2958) A visible defect left off the réception report counts as accepted.
- Service-Public.fr: dommages-ouvrage insurance (F2032) The owner takes out the policy before work starts.
- Légifrance: loi no. 71-584 of 16 July 1971 on retentions A retention of up to 5% only if the contract provides for it, released one year after réception unless you object.
- Cybermalveillance.gouv.fr: transfer and fake bank-details fraud (fiche réflexe) Its guidance on fraudulent transfer requests: never act on a change of bank details received by email.
Rules checked against these sources in October 2026.