Proving you occupy a home you do not live in all year
In a town where a large share of homes are occupied only a few weeks a year, checking occupancy looks nothing like it does in a building lived in from Monday to Sunday. A second-home owner will usually produce a property tax notice or a second-home council tax notice, an electricity contract or a water invoice issued at the address. A short-stay occupant relies instead on the holiday rental agreement and on confirmation from the owner or the agency managing the property. It is best to have those documents viewable from a phone before you find yourself standing on the landing.
Furnished holiday lets are worth thinking about before the holiday even begins. A guest staying a week is neither the owner nor the holder of a standard tenancy: the door is opened with the agreement of the owner or the manager, reachable by phone, and it helps to have that number written down somewhere other than in the welcome folder left on the living-room table. In the seafront buildings, a flat's entrance door is a private part, whereas access to the lobby or to a shared room falls to the building managing agent (syndic). Separating those two levels from the first phone call saves time standing in front of the lift.
Joinery that moves with the climate of the Bassin
On the Bassin, the air stays damp for much of the year and the timber of older joinery moves accordingly. A villa door that closes effortlessly in August can rub in its frame in February, to the point where the latch bolt stays caught in the strike plate: what is described on the phone as a simple door slammed shut turns out to be a door under strain, and more delicate to deal with. In the sloping lanes of the Ville d’Hiver, the original front doors, often non-standard in size, add their own quirks of clearance, rebate and threshold.
Sand and salt find their way into outdoor mechanisms too. In Le Moulleau, in L’Aiguillon and along the seafront, garden gates, garage doors and bike-store locks take the spray all year round, and a fouled cylinder eventually refuses the key even though the door itself is fine. Before calling, it is therefore still worth checking the other ways in: the service door on the garden side, the terrace patio door left ajar, the gate onto a back lane, the spare key held by the neighbour who collects the post. An opening avoided is still the best kind of opening.
How does this service work?
Techniques, typical situations, standards and things to watch out for: it is all on our door opening page. This page focuses on what the service involves in Arcachon.