Project Management Services Provided by Dordogne Homes to help you with the renovation of your property in the Dordogne and surrounding regions of south west France.

Many older stone houses on the market are in need of some work to make them comfortable having been left empty for some years or just neglected. Many people who buy a property in France have a romantic dream of restoring the house to some degree themselves. When you are new in France and have little or no knowledge of the laws, practices and local requirements this can be a very difficult and treacherous task to complete without experienced help and advice.

There are obviously certain advantages to buying a run-down property but there can be problems unless you follow the rules and regulations here in France. Can you say you knows these? If not then this is where the team at Dordogne Homes can help. With our experience, expertise and close partnerships with many French registered artisans We can take away the stress from start to finish.

No matter how much or how little work there is to do we will use local tradesmen if possible or those with local experience and who are properly registered in France. Our highly competent architects and builders can see major defects in buildings and let you know what to expect and even more importantly can see the most efficient way to restructure the building when you only see a ruin before you.

There are many things you need to think about when arranging works at organising for them to be completed, one such thing is:

In French law you have no recourse if you use unregistered labour. In France all traders must have a SIRET NO. Dordogne Homes will ensure everyone is registered and correctly insured. This includes decinal insurance (relevant insurance on the work carried out) and responsabilite civile (third party insurance).

There has recently been a case where an owner of a property that was being renovated, who did not know of this was taken to court as there was an accident during the works being completed on his property. The artisan working on his property was in hospital for a short period, the costs of which had to be met by the owner of the property, who was also fined 4,000 Euros and banned from France for three years!

We can also arrange for essential insurance called Dommage et Ouvrage Assurance. This is in addition to buildings insurance and covers you against the builder or one of his men having an accident on your property. It will also help you to claim against bad workmanship.

Dordogne Homes will meet with you and arrange for local architects and fully experienced tradesmen to give detailed estimates. Don't forget, some alterations to the house will require planning consent, Dordogne Homes can also arrange this planning permission through the relevant planning offices.

We can arrange for plans to be drawn up with written specifications for work to be undertaken by the builders. We can obtain devis (estimates). We can help in preparing this schedule.

Dordogne Homes will keep all receipts for materials and building work carried out to ensure these costs can be offset against the 'gain' on the resale of the property for French Capital Gains Tax and to prove that TVA has been paid on the works if necessary.

On your behalf, as part of the Project Management of the works we will make regular visits to ensure that the building works are going to plan. As part of this we can provide written, photographic and/or video updates of the progress of the works being completed.

For more information about the bespoke services we can provide in relation to your property purchase abroad please contact a member of our team.

At Dordogne Homes we do not sell dreams but provide you with the realities to make your dreams come true.