This article is provided for general information only and does not constitute legal, tax or financial advice. Rules change and individual situations differ. Always confirm the current position with a qualified professional before acting.
The message arrives on WhatsApp while you’re at your desk in Leeds. A firm says your house in the Dordogne qualifies for insulation paid for by MaPrimeRénov’, and all it needs is a copy of your tax notice and a signature by email. It looks official enough, but it’s a kind of message French law has banned since July 2025, and a contract it leads to is void.
More than a million French households carry out energy renovation works every year, according to the economy ministry’s guide to avoiding renovation scams. Its fraud investigators keep finding firms that mislead their customers. Owners who live abroad make an easy mark, because they can’t see the house, they sign at a distance and they may have to take the firm’s word that the job is finished. Here’s what the ministry advises, what the law now adds, and the checks that matter most when you’re managing works from another country.
Sources: French economy ministry, October 2026, and articles L221-10, L242-16 and L242-16-1 of the French consumer code.
What the fraud investigators keep finding
The DGCCRF, France’s consumer and fraud watchdog, investigates and inspects the firms and tradespeople who do energy renovation, in response to complaints from owners who were misled. Its investigations have uncovered many frauds, including:
- quotes the customer can’t make sense of
- credit hidden inside the deal
- false quality labels, especially false claims to hold the RGE label
- misleading sales practices
- consumer rights ignored
- breaches of the rules on showing prices
- fake online simulators that claim to tell you which grants you can get
The last one deserves a word of its own. The official tool is the grant simulator on the France Rénov’ website, run by the public renovation advice service. Use that one, and treat any other simulator that asks for your bank or tax details as a warning sign.
Calls, texts and WhatsApp: banned, and the contract is void
Under the law of 24 July 2020, firms may not phone consumers to sell energy-saving equipment or works, though that law covered calls only. The law of 30 June 2025 against public-aid fraud went further, and since 2 July 2025 the same pitch is also banned by text, by email, on messaging apps and on social networks. The ban now also covers works to adapt a home for old age or disability. The only exception is a firm you already have a contract with, contacting you in the course of that contract about something related to it.
A firm that breaks either ban faces an administrative fine of up to €75,000 for an individual and €375,000 for a company. More useful to you, a contract signed with a consumer after a banned call is void under article L223-1 of the consumer code, and so is one that follows a banned message, under article L242-16-1. Nullity doesn’t depend on the 14-day deadline explained below. If work has already been done, though, unwinding the contract may still take a negotiation or a court.
A wider change came on 11 August 2026. Since then, no firm in any sector may cold-call you unless you’ve given your prior consent. Before that date the rule ran the other way: calls were allowed unless you’d signed up to Bloctel, the national opt-out list. For energy works, the specific ban keeps its single exception, the existing contract, so a consent box ticked on some website shouldn’t open the door.
Two things remain lawful. A firm can still knock on the door, unless you’ve said clearly and unambiguously that you don’t want such visits (article L221-10-1). The law doesn’t say how, but a clear written notice at the door is the obvious way. And advertising isn’t canvassing: the bans are aimed at approaches you didn’t ask for, so they don’t stop you contacting a firm you found yourself.
For an owner abroad, the doorstep visit tends to land on a tenant, a neighbour or an empty house, while the call or message reaches you in another country. We wouldn’t rely on these bans to settle which law governs a call that reaches a UK number, and you don’t need to: a firm that pitches energy works on your French home by phone or message is the warning sign in itself.
Be especially wary of anyone who says a public body sent them. The ministry says French public services never canvass, whether online, by phone or at your door. Don’t give bank or tax details during a sales contact, or on a website you reached through one, and report the firm on SignalConso, the DGCCRF’s reporting platform.
The first test from abroad: can your property get the grant at all?
Pitches like the one above lean on a grant, and for an owner abroad the quickest test is whether the property could get it in the first place. MaPrimeRénov’, the grant paid by the national housing agency (Anah), is for homes occupied as a main residence, either by the owner or by a tenant. The éco-prêt à taux zéro (éco-PTZ, an interest-free loan of up to €50,000) follows the same main-residence rule. While it’s being repaid, the home can’t become a second home or a seasonal let.
So a second home or a holiday let gets neither, whatever the firm says. The reduced VAT rates on works are different. They apply to second homes too, provided the home was finished more than two years before the works start. One exception catches people out: since 1 March 2025, supplying and fitting a gas or oil boiler is taxed at the full 20% in mainland France, so a quote showing 5.5% or 10% on one is wrong.
| Help with the cost | Main home (yours or a tenant’s) | Second home or holiday let | Age of the home |
|---|---|---|---|
| MaPrimeRénov’ | Yes, for owner-occupiers and landlords | No | Built at least 15 years ago (2 years for some heat pumps) |
| Éco-PTZ (interest-free loan) | Yes, for owner-occupiers and landlords | No, and the home can’t become one until the loan is repaid | Finished more than 2 years before the works start |
| Reduced VAT (10% or 5.5%) | Yes | Yes | Finished more than 2 years before the works start |
Landlords who let a home as the tenant’s main residence are within MaPrimeRénov’s scope on the official rules. The grant is worked out from French tax data, though, so if you’re not tax resident in France, ask a France Rénov’ adviser how your case is treated before anyone files a claim.
The rules also move. Until 31 August 2026, MaPrimeRénov’ Rénovation d’ampleur, the version for whole-home renovations, could still fund a house that kept gas heating after the works, or a heat pump with a gas or oil back-up. Since 1 September 2026 it can do neither, so a firm selling either as covered by the grant is out of date at best. Our article on the new heat-pump grant rules covers the other bonus that changed that day.
Landlords get a second kind of pitch, built on the DPE letting rules. On current law, a home rated G doesn’t meet the decency standard for letting, and F-rated homes join it on 1 January 2028 (our DPE guide explains the calendar). A real deadline makes fake urgency easy to sell, so check your own DPE before you believe a firm that says your flat is about to become unlettable.
Checking the firm before you sign
Before you commit, or whenever you have doubts about a firm, a France Rénov’ adviser will give you free, personalised advice, including on choosing firms and comparing quotes. You can find your local adviser on the France Rénov’ site or call 0 808 800 700, where the service is free and the call costs the normal rate.
For MaPrimeRénov’ or the éco-PTZ, the works must be done by a firm holding the RGE label (reconnu garant de l’environnement, recognised environmental guarantor). You can check a firm in the official RGE directory. The label isn’t a clean bill of health, though, because holding it doesn’t stop a firm using misleading sales practices.
The 2025 law turned part of the ministry’s advice into an obligation. Before you sign a contract for works where a grant depends on a label, the firm must tell you in writing whether it holds that label for the work concerned and, if it doesn’t, what that means for your grant (article L224-114). If it claims the label, it must give you proof issued by an approved body before you sign, and that proof is annexed to the contract. If it uses subcontractors, it must name them and say whether they hold the label too (article L224-115). A contract signed in breach of these rules is void (article L242-51).
One more check is built into the grant rules. When the RGE label is required, the firm must visit the site before the works to make sure the materials and equipment suit your home, and the date of that visit must appear on the devis (quote) and on the invoice. For an owner abroad, that means arranging access and checking the date. A quote for grant-funded works with no visit date, put together from photos and a phone call, doesn’t meet the rule.
The rest is careful reading of the firm’s website and paperwork before you sign, and comparing the work and the price with other firms. Check that the RGE label is clearly displayed. If the reduced VAT rate applies, a statement on the devis or the invoice is now enough. Until 1 March 2025 you had to sign a separate certificate.
Signed at home or by email? Your 14 days, and the 7 days before any payment
If you signed a contract for works after a doorstep visit, or at a distance by phone, email or online, you have 14 days to change your mind without giving a reason (article L221-18). For works alone, which count as a service, the 14 days run from the day you signed. A contract that also supplies equipment, such as a heat pump or new windows, can be treated as a sale (article L221-1), and the 14 days then run from the day the goods are delivered. Either way, after a doorstep signing you can withdraw from the day you sign.
You can use the model withdrawal form the firm must give you, or any clear statement that you’re withdrawing. There’s a bilingual version further down.
Signing at home brings a second protection. The firm can’t take any payment, or anything else in return, in any form, until seven days after the contract was signed (article L221-10). A deposit or a cheque taken on the doorstep breaks that rule.
If the firm didn’t give you the required information about your right to withdraw, the 14 days are extended by 12 months (article L221-20). If it hands you the information during that extension, you then have 14 days from the day you receive it.
Source: articles L221-10, L221-18 and L221-20 of the French consumer code. For a works-only contract. Where the contract also supplies equipment, the 14 days can run from delivery. Not to scale.
If you want the works to start within the 14 days, the firm must record your express request, on paper or another durable medium for a doorstep contract. You can still withdraw, but you’ll owe a sum in proportion to the work done until you told the firm. You owe nothing if it never recorded your request (article L221-25).
Three exceptions matter for renovation. A contract signed at a foire or salon (a trade fair or home show) carries no right to withdraw, and the firm must tell you so before you sign (article L224-59). If that deal is paid for with a linked loan, though, you can withdraw from the loan within 14 days, and the works contract then falls away without penalty (article L224-62).
Urgent repairs you asked a firm to come and do at home aren’t covered either, within the limit of what the emergency strictly needs (article L221-28). And the whole regime excludes contracts for the major conversion of an existing building (article L221-2). The European directive behind these rules describes that as work comparable to a new build, for example where only the façade is kept. Insulating a loft, replacing windows or fitting a heat pump is a long way from that, and the directive says repair and renovation work stays covered.
Paying with a loan? Don’t sign the completion certificate from abroad
Some renovation deals come with a loan arranged through the firm, a crédit affecté (linked credit) that exists only to pay for that job. The lender must give you the credit offer, so read all of it before you sign. Your repayments only start once the work has been delivered (article L312-48). In practice, the trigger is the attestation de fin de travaux (completion certificate). Signing it tells the lender the job is done, releases the money to the firm and starts your repayments.
That’s the trap for an owner abroad: the firm emails the certificate, says the job’s finished and asks for a signature so it can be paid. Once you’ve signed, you’ve confirmed in writing that the work was done fully and properly, as ordered. Don’t sign until someone you trust has seen the work, whether that’s a neighbour, a property manager or an independent professional, or until you’ve seen it yourself. Our guide to managing a French property remotely covers how owners set up that kind of local help.
If the works contract is later cancelled or annulled by a court, the loan falls with it. While a dispute over the works is pending, the court can also suspend your repayments, provided the lender is a party to the case (article L312-55).
Watch for deferred first instalments too. They make a loan feel painless at the start, but they can add significantly to its total cost. Here’s an illustration on a €20,000 loan.
| €20,000 over ten years of repayments at 6% | No deferral | First 12 months deferred |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly payment | €222 | €236 |
| Total interest | €6,645 | €8,288 |
| Extra cost of the deferral | None | €1,643 |
When the works go wrong: where to turn, in order
If you’re already in a dispute with a firm, the steps run from the simplest to the most formal.
- Report the firm on SignalConso. Depending on the dispute, the platform gives you advice on the next steps and on your rights as a consumer. The DGCCRF’s consumer line, RéponseConso, also answers on 0809 540 550, which isn’t a premium-rate number.
- Report an RGE firm to France Rénov’. If the firm holds the label, the France Rénov’ reporting form sends your complaint to the body that granted it.
- Ask an approved consumer association for help. The DGCCRF publishes the list of approved associations.
- Try a conciliateur de justice (court conciliator). Conciliation is free. For a claim of €5,000 or less, an attempt at conciliation, mediation or a participatory procedure is compulsory before you go to court, or the claim can be thrown out (article 750-1 of the Code of Civil Procedure).
- Go to court as a last resort. Which court depends on what the dispute is about, as explained below.
You’ll sometimes read that the choice of court depends on the amount, but strictly it depends on the subject. A claim against the firm over the works goes to the tribunal judiciaire (judicial court), where you don’t need a lawyer for a claim of €10,000 or less (article 761 of the Code of Civil Procedure). A dispute over the linked consumer loan goes to the juge des contentieux de la protection, the judge who hears consumer credit and residential lease cases (article L213-4-5 of the judicial organisation code), where you don’t need a lawyer either.
Before you sign anything from abroad
Who contacted whom? If the firm phoned, texted, emailed or messaged you first about energy works, stop there and report it.
Is it a main home? A second home or holiday let gets no MaPrimeRénov’ and no éco-PTZ, whatever the pitch says.
Where’s the RGE proof? It should come from an approved body, be annexed to the contract and cover any subcontractors.
Is there a site-visit date on the devis? For grant-funded works, there must be.
Has anyone asked for money within seven days of a doorstep signature? They’re not allowed to.
Is there a loan in the deal? Read the credit offer, look for deferred instalments, and never sign the attestation de fin de travaux before the work has been checked.
Have you asked France Rénov’? The advice is free and independent of any firm.
A withdrawal letter you can send from abroad
The French text below follows the model form in the annex to article R221-1 of the consumer code, adapted to a works contract. Send it before the 14 days are up, by email or by tracked post, and keep proof that you sent it.
If the contract followed a banned call or message, you can add a sentence saying so, because that makes it void whatever the date. A France Rénov’ adviser or a consumer association can help you word it.
Our view
The 2025 law does something the advice pages can’t. It makes the usual openings of a renovation scam legally worthless: a contract that starts with a banned call or message, or without the RGE paperwork, is void. That’s a strong tool for anyone who knows it exists. The weak point is still the completion certificate. It asks the person furthest from the work to vouch for it, and it releases the money as soon as they do. For owners who manage French homes from abroad, a rule tying the release of a linked loan to an independent check of the work would do more than any number of warnings.
If the works are on a let property, the cost of genuine work may also cut your French tax bill, and our guide to the déficit foncier explains how.
Readers, have you been contacted about energy works on a French home you don’t live in, and was it by phone, text or WhatsApp? Did you ever sign a completion certificate before anyone had checked the work? Who checks the works for you when you can’t be there yourself?
FAQ: energy renovation scams and owners abroad
Is it legal for a firm to cold-call me about energy renovation in France?
No. Firms may not phone consumers about energy-saving works or equipment, and since 2 July 2025 the ban also covers texts, emails, messaging apps and social networks. The only exception is a firm contacting you in the course of a contract you already have with it, about something related to that contract. A contract signed after a banned call or message is void.
Can I get MaPrimeRénov’ for a second home in France?
No. MaPrimeRénov’ and the éco-PTZ are for homes occupied as a main residence, by the owner or by a tenant. The reduced VAT rates on works do apply to second homes finished more than two years before the works start, except on gas or oil boilers, which are taxed at 20%.
How long do I have to cancel a renovation contract signed at home?
Fourteen days, counted from signing for a works-only contract and from delivery of the goods when the contract also supplies equipment. The firm can’t take any payment in the first seven days after a doorstep signing. If the firm didn’t tell you about the right, the period is extended by 12 months. Contracts signed at a trade fair or show carry no right to withdraw, except from a linked loan.
When do repayments start on a loan linked to renovation works?
Only once the work has been delivered, which in practice means when you sign the completion certificate that releases the money to the firm. Don’t sign it until the work has been checked.
Which court hears a dispute with a renovation firm?
The tribunal judiciaire hears claims about the works, with no lawyer needed up to €10,000. The juge des contentieux de la protection hears disputes about a linked consumer loan. For a claim of €5,000 or less, you must first try conciliation, mediation or a participatory procedure.
