Lending your French home to relatives while living abroad: the framework, insurance, upkeep
Lending your home to someone close, a child who is studying, parents staying a while, friends for a month, is one of the best moves an absent owner can make: the property is lived in, heated, aired. But the loan needs a framework: duration, charges, insurance, upkeep, and a clean boundary with letting. This dossier explains how to organise it from abroad, without grey areas.
By Jean Mascla, founder of Home SelectUpdated · 5 min read
What does French law say about lending between relatives?
The loan for use, which French law calls commodatum, allows a relative to occupy a furnished home free of charge, for an agreed use and a set or reasonable duration. Three features define it: gratuity, the agreed use, and the retention of ownership. The lender remains owner and remains liable for the ownership charges, taxes, structural upkeep, insurance of the building; the borrower uses the property responsibly and answers for the damage he causes.
The loan is recorded in writing, however simple: who, what, how long, on which terms. That note wards off the classic quarrel-starters, the stay that never ends, the forgotten bill, and serves as evidence for the insurer as for the managing agent.
The boundary with letting holds in one word: rent. As soon as a regular consideration exists, the loan turns into a letting, with its obligations, a written lease, deposit, taxation of rents. No "small rent" is tolerated: the loan is free, or the letting is written down.
Insuring a lent home
Insurance is the point that reveals the most poorly framed loans. A property held from abroad is declared to the insurer with its real use: owner-occupied, let, vacant, or occupied gratis. Lending the home changes the risk, and three reflexes suffice:
Declaring the loan to the insurer before the relatives move in: the cover keeps running, on honest grounds.
Checking the occupant’s civil liability: the relative covers his own acts, in his host home as at home.
Rereading the occupancy clause: some policies make guarantees conditional on effective presence, and occupation by third parties is precisely a presence that can be proven.
The scenario to avoid: the undeclared loan
A loss in an undeclared lent home is the costliest scenario of the chapter: cover disputed at the worst moment. A declared loan, on the contrary, turns the occupant into a witness and first responder, the one who sees the leak and shuts the water.
Seignosse, Pays basque
Who maintains what in a lent home?
The sharing rule follows ownership. The lending owner keeps structural upkeep: roof, boiler, major equipment, repainting of the facade, and the co-ownership charges voted at meetings. The gratis occupant takes the running part: cleaning, replacement of small parts, utilities, electricity, water, internet, and everyday minor repairs.
Between the two lives a zone settled in writing at the time of the loan: the garden, the pool, the shutters, the heating in winter. The dossier on the annual upkeep checklist gives the base of gestures, and the loan hands the daily share of that base to the occupant.
Then comes the absent owner’s point of view: even lent, the property gets checked. An annual inspection visit, agreed with the occupant, verifies the condition of the home without replacing him; it protects both parties and feeds the written trail an insurer likes.
Running the loan from another time zone
The loan is steered from a distance like a mandate: through writing and dates. Four moments get prepared:
Moving in: a joint inventory, even a simple one, meter readings, a traced handover of keys, a signed loan note.
The stay: a local emergency contact, the breakdown circuit, who calls whom; utilities are tracked on the bills, and administrative mail keeps flowing through the mail management set up beforehand.
Incidents: the loan says who declares what to the insurer, and within which deadline; the occupant is often best placed for the first report, the owner for the decision.
Moving out: a date announced in advance, a check-out inventory, meters read, keys returned, and the assessment of any damage beyond normal use.
This framing fits on one page and spares remote arguments. And to arbitrate between lending and leaving empty, the panorama on who can manage your property puts each option in its place.
What Home Select organises for lending your home
A property held from abroad is prepared from the purchase. During the viewings, your Home Select property finder spots what will need upkeep; before the signing, they introduce the concierge service that will watch over the house in your absence.
After the keys, the Home Select concierge service organises the visits, the call-outs and the photographed reports. Tradespeople, the insurer and the managing agent act under their own responsibility; you decide on documents, wherever you are.
Frequently asked questions
Can I lend my property to my family for free?
Yes, the loan for use, called commodatum in French law, lets a relative occupy the home free of charge, furnished, for an agreed use. Three precautions frame it: a written duration, an insurer who knows about the occupancy, and clear rules on running costs and upkeep.
Does my insurance cover a lent home?
It can, provided it is informed: a home occupied by third parties changes the risk, and some guarantees become conditional on occupancy. Declare the loan to your insurer, check where each guarantee stands, fire, water damage, civil liability, and ask your relative for his own civil liability insurance.
When does a loan become a letting?
As soon as rent exists, however modest: the loan for use is free by definition, and any regular consideration turns it into a letting, with the attached obligations, lease, deposit, taxation of rents. Keep the boundary clean: free, or a written lease.
What does French law say about lending between relatives?
The loan for use, which French law calls commodatum, allows a relative to occupy a furnished home free of charge, for an agreed use and a set or reasonable duration. Three features define it: gratuity, the agreed use, and the retention of ownership. The lender remains owner and remains liable for the ownership charges, taxes, structural upkeep, insurance of the building; the borrower uses the property responsibly and answers for the damage he causes.
Who maintains what in a lent home?
The sharing rule follows ownership. The lending owner keeps structural upkeep: roof, boiler, major equipment, repainting of the facade, and the co-ownership charges voted at meetings. The gratis occupant takes the running part: cleaning, replacement of small parts, utilities, electricity, water, internet, and everyday minor repairs.
How do you organise a relative’s arrival and departure in a lent home?
On arrival: a condition report, even a simple one, meter readings, a logged handover of keys and the signed loan note. On departure: a date announced in advance, an exit condition report, meter readings, keys returned and a review of any damage beyond normal use.
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