Hi all so glad i found this forum! Me and my husband have a busy successful window cleaning business here in the uk, we are planning the big move to france very soon, will our business do well over there.
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You realise that you need to register your business before you can start to offer your services don't you and that French social charges (cotisations) are exceptionally high. Where are you considering moving to and why?

Window cleaners don't exist generally in France apart from in the cities for corporate businesses' offices where they are part of the general maintenance teams. The French are fanatical about cleaning (in general) and only the exceptionally rich with vast houses would pay for their windows to be cleand but it would normally be included within the duties of their femme de ménage (housekeeper) or odd-job person anyway. Most of us Brits are either working, unemployed, or retired - none of whom would use a window cleaner normally! We either can't afford such an extravagence or have more time on our hands than we know what to do with to clean them ourselves!

I hope you've done extensive research and have about 40k behind you to support you for a couple of years in case your business doesn't succeed (which is almost inevitable unless you are going to do cleaning, gardening, pool maintenance and all the other domestic chores). Otherwise, it's a no brainer. There is no assistance whatsoever in France for non nationals who haven't paid their cotisations.

I hope your move to France isn't yet finalised on the strength of needing an income to survive here. Sorry if this is negative but you asked the question and from over a decade of living here, alongside the French, that's your answer. In a nutshell, no, France is not the place for a window cleaning business. It just isn't going to work.

AmyW

I wonder if you realise that in France we don't need window cleaners because windows here open inwards so can be cleaned from the inside?

I agree with all the other points already made too. Sorry to sound negative.

Thanks for your advice its very difficult to judge i have a friend over there who runs a business directory and says it will do very well i suppose its just opinion, we have visited a house in st jean de cole so that would be our base, i have also looked into business fees and didnt think it was not that bad!
How do you find life in france?

Not all houses that have being built recently have windows that open inside, also aimed at properties that are left standing while unoccupied for long periods

So this is presumably an English friend running an English directory? Don't listen to them. Listen to those of us who live in France, among the French, and collectively have decades of experience of what works and what does not here.

Saint-Jean-de-Côle as in near Thiviers in Périgord?? A non-starter for a window cleaning business.

Business fees not too bad? Do you know how much of your turnover (not profit) you will have to pay in cotisations then income tax on top (if applicable)? Me thinks a little more research is required and don't move here on the strength of someone who runs a business directory.

How do I personally find life in France? Very difficult. I'm bilingual and can't find work since I was made redundant a couple of years ago, neither can my son who went through the education system here.

Please do some more research and listen to people who need to earn a living here to survive and not someone selling advertising space in some English business directory. Window cleaning businesses DO NOT exist in this part of Aquitaine that you are looking at - why? Because, quite simply, there is no demand.

And you know this for a fact do you??? Sorry Amy but having lived in numerous French houses, new and old, and worked in real estate for some years in France, I have yet to come across a house where the windows open outwards

Properties that are left standing while unoccupied for long periods? No, the shutters are closed so they remain in the same state as they were when vacated.

Amy - I know you want positive answers, but it's a defo no-no. Don't try to convince yourself(ves) otherwise. It's a recipe for disaster.

hi, have to agree with everything said above. The only window-cleaners in our area are part of teams for cleaning Administrative buildings/schools/stores, etc... It's normally DIY at home, or odd-job men put small ads in the local free paper. The unemployment rate in France is much higher than in the UK.
You must really do your homework on this. Apart from the problem of finding potential clients, you obviously aren't aware of all the Côtisations/insurance/miscellaneous expenses that you have to pay before you can put any income in your pocket.
Do you speak adequate French to cope with bureaucracy and communicate with potential French clients?
If your business in the UK is successful, I'd advise you to stay put. You can always buy a holiday home in France and observe what goes on, and decide later whether you want to try to work here.
Like the others, sorry to be so pessimistic, but fore-warned is fore-armed!
P.S. I've lived in France for over 40 years and haven't seen outwardly opening windows either! And empty houses are literally shuttered up.

Listen to us, please, Amy. We are only trying to warn you off potential disaster not scare-mongering.

The windows don't open outwards because by law in France for insurance purposes they have to have 'grills' (bars) or shutters which have to be in place if a property is unoccupied (even if you just go to the shops). If you have a robbery and your shutters aren't closed and you're absent or you don't have bars on the windows (max 16cm apart so as not allow an adult human skull through) your insurance is void. Therefore I'm sorry but whoever's told you that windows open outwards is telling porkies. We close our shutters in the hot weather all day and open the windows inwardly at night to let the cool air in. I could continue to explain why the windows ALL without exception open inwardly but somehow I think I'm wasting my time.

That's interesting. I didn't know that about shuttering the windows when out. Does that apply to apartments as well? We live on the fifth floor. If they wanted to rob the place, I think that they would more likely to try to do something to the door rather than somehow climb up five floors and then onto the balcony.

When we had a somewhat hilarious encounter with the insurance people when we tried to insure our very old three storey house. On the top floor - it used to be a silk worm farm, there were double doors with a pulley above them through which the mulberry leaves were hauled.

We replaced said door with a glazed porte fenetre and the shutters were being made when the jobsworth arrived to do the inspection. We were told that until the shutters were in place we would not be insured should some (rock climbing?) burglar enter the house by this means. Possibly by attatching a rope to the pulley and hauling themselves up?

As for côtisations. I earn very small amounts of money by writing but even though I am a pensioner I still have to pay up on my earnings - they must be an absolute killer for anyone trying to start a business.

Ours is new-build 2008 and modern doubled-glazed windows open in.
We do have window cleaners that from time-to-time come to clean the glazed entry area (common area) which is glazed from the ground up to the 3rd floor.
They are employed by the factor and paid by the collective owners.
Why don't you rent a gite or an apartment for several months and see for yourselves.

If you search www.pagejaunes.fr for "Nettoyage de vitres" and choose the town (name or postal code) or the departement number - you will see how many window cleaners there are.
Normally, the companies who do window cleaning are general cleaning and maintenance companies who are employed to clean apartment blocks. Cleaning the windows is part of this service.
Good luck

uh oh...didnt know the shutters ruling for insurance... better get them made and up asap then

No doubt individual insurance companies will have different policies on the matter but mine only require me to close the shutters if the house is going to be unoccupied for over 24 hours.

It's utterly impractical, not to mention unreasonable, to have to close all the shutters every time you so much as step away from your property for 5 minutes and I certainly don't know anyone who does, English or French !

If your insurance company do insist on that then give them the heave ho.

I don't close my shutters every time I go out either but I have a guard dog now. We were burgled about 6 years ago and they got in by prising open one of the windows (they're really tall, wooden and the frame's a bit warped so it's difficult to close - I've now learnt the knack!). When I called the police out they told me that as I'd gone to work and left the shutters open I wouldn't stand a chance with the insurance. They were right. That's how I found out that if you are burgled and your shutters aren't locked or grills not in place on unshuttered windows your insurance company won't say you took adequate protection of your property. Im and Er - heaven forbid if you're burgled you'll have a hell of a game getting the insurers to pay out if the shutters aren't closed. A French bloke I know was renting a property and there were no bars on a small bathroom window. Robbers got in through it and he didn't get a cent nor could he claim against his landlord. The first thing I did when I moved into this house was tell the landlord to put bars on my upstairs loo window and a downstairs bedroom window which opens directly onto a public alley.

I know it sounds mad, but if you ask any French people they'll all tell you the same. Shutters open, break-in, no pay out.