You are leaving for six months. The flat is locked, the keys are in your pocket, the plane is booked.
Now a simple question: if something goes wrong in there on day 12, who will notice?
An empty flat is rarely a problem in itself. The problem is that nobody is looking. Here is how I help owners prepare a Paris flat for a long absence, and what to check before you go.
Start with your insurance
Many home insurance contracts include an inhabitation clause. It limits how long the flat can stay empty, usually between 30 and 90 days depending on the insurer. Beyond that, theft cover can be suspended or reduced (source: JeChange, an insurance comparison site).
The same source says water damage generally stays covered, but frost is treated differently: many contracts require the pipes to be drained or the heating kept on frost-protection if you are away a few days in cold weather.
So look for the “inhabitation” line in the special conditions of your contract, and ask your insurer what applies to a six-month absence. Your contract is the document that decides.
Water, power, gas: it depends on the season
The ANIL lists the usual advice before a long absence (source: ANIL): close the main water supply or the valves of the washing machine and the toilets, close the gas, unplug appliances, turn the heating down. That is a good starting point, but in winter it is not that simple.
The risk is frost. Some contracts ask you to close the water once the flat has been empty for more than 7 days. Others ask you to drain the pipes, even if the heating stays on, and the penalty can be a reduced payout (source: Selectra, on two contracts it quotes). So there is no single rule: your contract decides.
- In summer: closing the water and the gas is the simple option.
- In winter: choose between draining the installation, or keeping a low heating level against frost. If your heating runs on gas, you cannot close it and heat at the same time.
- All year: unplug what does not need power, and know where your valves are.
Switching the heating off completely is not ideal either. Frost protection keeps the pipes safe, not necessarily the walls: some advice sites suggest keeping 10 to 12 °C, because below that, humidity settles in the corners of the outside walls (sources: Savelys, L’Air Sain, a site that sells dehumidifiers). These are advice sites, not official rules.
In an apartment building, finding where your own shut-off valve is, before you leave, is a good use of ten minutes.
If you want to see what happens when this goes wrong, I wrote about it in water damage in a Paris flat when you live abroad.
Your mail
A full mailbox tells everyone the flat is empty. La Poste offers several options (source: La Poste, prices as published in October 2026):
- Mail keeping: your mail is kept at the local delivery centre, for 1 day to 2 months (35 €).
- International forwarding: your mail follows you abroad, for 15 days to 12 months (60 € up to one month, 135 € for one to six months, 218 € for six to twelve months). Letters up to 2 kg only, no parcels.
Forwarding does not cover everything that matters, and some of your mail will still need a person in Paris.
What I see on the ground
I look after flats whose owners live abroad. The pattern is almost always the same: nothing happens for months, and then one problem shows up in a flat nobody has opened for weeks. At the moment I am handling four water damage files, two roof leaks, one leak from works in the flat above and one drain stack problem.
I can also go in a few days before you arrive, to switch the heating back on so that you do not walk into an icy flat. Sometimes the heating can even be adjusted remotely.
The owners who sleep well are the ones who have set up, before leaving, one person who has the keys, knows the flat and can be there within a day.
A person, not just a checklist
The ANIL suggests asking a neighbour or a relative to collect the mail and water the plants, and it mentions a police scheme, Opération Tranquillité Vacances, for reporting your departure. For a few days, that works. For several months, from another country, you need someone who can go in, check, send you photos and act if something is wrong.
I do not give a visit schedule here: it depends on the flat, the building and the season.
Before you leave
- Read the inhabitation line of your insurance and tell your insurer how long you will be away.
- Find your water shut-off, and decide with your insurer: close and drain, or keep a low heating level in winter.
- Unplug the appliances, and close the gas if you do not need it for heating.
- Set up mail keeping or forwarding.
- Give the keys to one reliable person, and write down who can enter.
- Give that person your phone number, your insurer’s number and your syndic’s contact.
Information summarised from ANIL, La Poste, JeChange, Selectra, Savelys and L’Air Sain pages consulted in October 2026. Contracts and prices can change, so check your own documents.
Leaving a Paris flat empty for months? Book a free 30-minute call and tell me about your flat.