[crustovich]

With a number of mentions on other posts about the prevalence of squatters in France, I would be interested to hear the strategies deployed by others to secure their holiday homes that lay vacant for extended periods of the year.

 

[bhamham]

Neighbors. Ask to have them keep an eye on your place. I just returned from being away for 2-1/2 months and had my neighbors check on things. All good and they love my wife's homemade cookies.

 

[Poloss]

Same thing here, the farmer who comes to care for his cows just opposite keeps an eye on the place.
A couple of neighbours at 3 minutes' walk keep an eye open too.

 

[Befuddled]

Sound advice if you have neighbours. But that doesn't prevent squatters. It only gives the owner notification that it has happened. If it is discovered near the end of the year the squatters are legally protected until spring. Then you have the task of filing eviction proceedings. This applies to squats and also to rented properties.

 

[ccm47]

A lot of people round here, where there are no neighbours , tend to have exterior shutters over all the doors which can be padlocked in place.
Most thieves are opportunist and go for a simple life, an obviously unoccupied dwelling is less likely to have easily stolen treasures, cash or credit cards lying around!

 

[Bevdeforges]

tend to have exterior shutters over all the doors which can be padlocked in place.

And in other areas, they recommend not closing up the house so that it is "obvious" that there is no one living there. (The closed off shutters can simply offer a "challenge" to the most experienced squatters.) You may want to have a little sit down with the local gendarmes to see what they recommend (which will be based on experience in the area). In some areas, the local gendarmes (or the municipal police) will regularly patrol in certain areas (at least during the vacation periods) to check on unoccupied property.

 

[Ms Chocolate]

Our agent immobilier recommended Verisure, which apparently is very popular in the area. (She uses the video feature to keep an eye on her cat while during the day.) If someone breaks in they have round-the-clock monitors and will alert the police, along with other optional bells and whistles. We like our system very much, although having just bought the house no break-ins yet.

Of course you pay for this, so you have to weigh the costs and benefits. Also our experience was they have very hard-sell sales tactics compared with other French services we’ve dealt with so far. When we contacted them they set up the appointment and installed the system very quickly. Fortunately we’d done our research and knew exactly what we wanted, so it worked well in our case, but I would review the website offerings carefully before reaching out.

 

[Bevdeforges]

Do an online search for "systeme securite residentiel" and you'll get a number of companies that do security and alarm systems including telesurveillance. Verisure has a big ad campaign running on French TV currently and Hominis is another service that advertises quite a bit and seems to be popular. Somfy, which is a company best known for the rolling shutters many folks use here to cover their windows and doors, also seems to now offer security and alarm products and services.