When you have a home in France but you’re not always on site, it’s a relief to have reliable neighbours who will watch over your property and keep you informed. It’s even better if those neighbours are professionals that you can trust to manage all the aspects of your home when you can’t be there in person and that’s where Les Bons Voisins, the best property management service in France, can help.
Les Bons Voisins
Named after the French for ‘good neighbours’, Les Bons Voisins started in 2002 as a property-management business for people with second homes in France. Responding to demand, this gradually grew into a network of 18 teams covering most of the western and central regions of the country. In 2019, the company was taken over by Carmel O’Connell and husband Joe Wilson, who had experienced first-hand the challenges of owning a home in another country.
“We’d bought a property in France in 2007,” explains Carmel, “but we were living and working in Asia, so we could only visit two or three times a year. We needed to find reliable people to help maintain the garden and the house while we weren’t there, but the whole process was incredibly frustrating. With the language barriers, long-distance communication and potential risks of entrusting your home to someone else, it was more complicated than we’d anticipated. That was how we first heard about Les Bons Voisins and became part of the management team when we decided to move to France permanently, and eventually took over the network.”
The head office is now in their hometown of Lectoure, about 100 km northwest of Toulouse, and as well as managing teams across the country, Carmel and Joe are also property managers for their own region, keeping hands-on experience.
Neighbourly yet professional
What might a good neighbour take care of for you? LBV covers all of this and several extra options, depending on each person’s location and needs:
Holiday homes support
LBV offer a full support service for owners who rent out their property as a holiday home or gîte. They can carry out key-holding and guest-greeting services, cleaning and preparing the house for guests and providing regular garden maintenance so that guests arrive to find a welcoming home and, if required, a friendly face to hand over the keys. Property managers will either handle each aspect personally, or they will source reliable, local professionals such as chimney sweeps, pest control, and sanitation specialists, acting as the single point of contact.
Maintenance help for property owners in France
Even if you don’t rent out your property, LBV offer regular garden maintenance and cleaning or can organise for your home to be ready when you arrive for your own holiday, from a full spring clean and beds made up, to providing firewood and gas bottles ready for a winter break, or even leaving some milk, butter and grocery basics in the kitchen.
Practical chores
Some aspects that homeowners don’t necessarily plan for when buying a dream home in France are practical chores such as regular pool maintenance or sweeping the chimney, which can be a legal requirement for your home insurance. Being on-site makes it a lot easier to organise visits from tradespeople, and your local property manager can be there to let them in and ensure the work is done to the required standard.
The unexpected
One of the major concerns for absent owners is when an unexpected event occurs and they have no idea if their property has been damaged. Consider the forest fires that took place in western France earlier in 2024 and back in 2022 when over 150,000 acres of land were burned: many homeowners had no idea if their property was in the affected area or what to expect when they returned – but having a local contact on hand to visit in person makes all the difference.
This was also the case during the floods in the Aude region, for example, when LBV managers were able to help homeowners to deal with the practical aspects of an unforeseen flood as well as the paperwork of insurance claims.
“There’s no doubt about it,” agrees Carmel, “it gives you a lot of peace of mind knowing someone is there on the ground, able to tell you what’s happening, what to expect and tell you the real picture. Even knowing who to contact and where to start in these situations is a weight off your mind and helps you breathe more easily. That’s what we’re here for.”
How does it work?
As a homeowner, you agree with your property manager exactly what’s required, and you get an invoice at the end of each month. Costs are in line with professional rates in your area, and local tradespeople are used wherever possible. As a guideline, cleaning and changeovers cost around €25 an hour, gardening is around €30 per hour and maintenance is from €35 per hour plus materials.
LBV can also offer translation or administrative services, priced depending on the project and you can sign off on the quote before any work takes place.
With LBV’s help, there’s no time wasted trying to source the right people from a distance, you don’t need to navigate the French language, and you always have visibility on what you’ll be paying for before you receive any invoice.
Thanks to their reliability, professionalism and positivity, it’s no surprise that many homeowners have developed ongoing friendships with their ‘Bons Voisins’ property managers. In the words of the Australian TV soap theme tune: that really is when good neighbours become good friends!
Find out more about Les Bons Voisins services: propertymanagementinfrance.com
