Re: Window cleaning
 

French OH tends to agree with this, although it's out of the question to close the downstairs shutters whenever we go out. The one downstairs window that hasn't got shutters has a decorative grille.

Re: Window cleaning
 

The stupid thing is that closed shutters are an blatant invitation to would be thieves and if you're going to shut them then you really have to bar them too as without barring a simple pair of shutters on their own can be opened by an enterprising 5 year old !

As I said before my insurance company require me to close mine (close mind you, not bar) if the house is going to be unoccupied for more than 24 hours, it's specified in the policy document and I specifically asked about it, and that being so if I got burgled when I had only gone to the shops for 30 minutes then I fail to see how they could wriggle out of a claim on the grounds that I hadn't closed them for that.

Having been burgled once when we were away for a couple of weeks I also have an alarm and a CCTV system !

Re: Window cleaning
 

Check out a few French forums Im & Er ;) Can you post on here precisely what this clause in your contract says, please. According to the police, insurance courtiers and a million Frenchmen if you're absent and burgled they won't pay up unless your volets are closed.

Not a single one says the insurance will pay out if the property is burgled and the shutters were not closed.

This was in response to someone living in a ground floor appartment. Attention à un point, des assurances oblige les volets au rez-de-chaussée (et oblige à ce qu'ils soient fermés en votre absence, même pour 5 minutes).
Alors si pas de volets ou pas fermé, pas d'assurance en cas de cambriolage...

Re: Window cleaning
 

Slightly off-topic from OP's query, but relating to shutters, this may be useful for some.
We rented a villa which had shutter security stays fitted to each individual shutter, and we found it really useful. Not only to hold the shutters securely ajar, but also as an added 'belt & braces' to hold the shutters securely closed for periods when one is away longer.
When we moved and bought our own property, OH said we just had to have similar security stays on all the shutters - and guess who was tasked to find and fit 'em?
THIS is what they look like, available from most good bricolages.
http://www.bricozor.com/crochet-crem...opping+Flux%29

Every morning when OH opens the bedroom windows (INWARDS!) and opens the shutters to air the bedrooms, she's paranoid that during the next 5mins or so someone might climb in (and steal her mother's dentures?), so she attaches the shutters to the 'safety' stay. This effectively allows one to have the shutters just slightly open and air the room without great fear that someone is going to climb in.
This is the now the routine each morning, and to date, much to the chagrin of the mum-in-law, her prince charming on a white charger has yet to leg it through an open shutter/window.

Re: Window cleaning
 

To get back on topic, there were fewer than 400 inhabitants in St Jean de Côle in 2008 (admittedly according to Wikipedia and 5 years ago), i.e. how many households at present? OP would have to travel around a lot to find work, and, someone will correct me if I'm wrong, Auto-Entrepreneurs can't claim back petrol and other expenses.
Just another factor to take into account (if OP is still around).

Re: Window cleaning
 

Re closing shutters, this is what my policy says:

first it tells you than any window area less than 3m from the grounds needs to have volets or persiennes or bars or an alarm system and it goes into detail about all those; then it says
Vos obligations
Pendant toute absence, quelle qu'en soit la durée, il faut:
fermer les portes a clé
fermer, soit les fenêtres dont la partie inférieure est a moins de 3m du sol, soit les volets ou persiennes (so obviously, don't go out and leave the windows wide open so people can get in)
mettre en service le système d'alarme si celui-ci remplace les volets.
En plus, si l'absence excède 24 heures, il faut fermer tous les volets et persiennes protégeant des fenêtres dont la partie inférieure a moins de 3m du sol.

Re making a living from window cleaning in France - I wish I could give the OP some encouragement but don't see it myself. Here, the town has a special cleaning division that goes round every day keeping the streets tidy and washing the windows of the commercial and office premises. Not sure how it works - I imagine either the service is part of what they pay for in the commercial rates or it is an optional extra, but if the latter then everyone seems to opt in cos the team seems to go from one shop to the next. In fact, in France everyone is legally obliged also to keep the pavement immediately in front of their premises clean, which is why you see the shopkeepers washing the pavement of a morning - they're not doing it out of the goodness of their hearts, they're doing it because they have to. So I suspect you will find it difficult to break into the commercial market, keeping your shop and pavement looking spick and span is part of being a shopkeeper and everyone will already have an arrangement in place.

Also, it is a fact that if you run exactly the same business in France as you did in the UK, with the same number of clients and working the same hours and charging the same fees, your profit in France will be a fraction of what it would be in the UK because business cotisations are so much higher. I've been self-employed in the UK, now I'm self-employed in France, my turnover now is far higher than it was in the UK because I have to charge more, but I still end up with a lot less disposable income. As I recall, in the UK I paid something stupid like £4 a month NI contributions, and very little tax because there were so many allowable expenses. Here, if you are on AE which is the simplest regime, deductions are a flat rate of 23.5% of total income - and yes I do mean total turnover, not profit; as DMU says, on AE you can't offset any expenses.

So keep looking into it, but I fear your business-directory friend may not be living in the real world.

Re: Window cleaning
 

FWIW we have electric volets roulants on the ground floor street side, which we close at night and if we're not here overnight. The windows looking on to the (fully enclosed) cour have old fashioned "concertina" metal volets which are only closed when we're not in France. They're utterly impenetrable.

And we don't have any window cleaners in this town that I've ever seen.

Re: Window cleaning
 

Hi there,

Take it from me and go for it. I have been living here for 7 years I am running a very successful window cleaning business. If you can get your hourly rate right then you will be ok. All my customers are English and with an ageing UK population and professionals who do not have time, I find there is plenty of work. If you google window cleaner, dordogne and you will see that there are very few window cleaners. If you contact me I would be more that happy to give you some pointers.

Tony Sinclair Charente/Dordogne

Re: Window cleaning
 

I have never understood the fact you need to close your shutters before going away for an "x" number of days! Surely that shows everyone you are not there :thumbdown:

Re: Window cleaning
 

Not necessarily - wooden shutters, at least, are closed during the day in the summer to keep the heat out, and often in the winter to keep the cold out. :)

Re: Window cleaning
 

Our new shutters are remote controlled and can be set to open and close by themselves for periods when you are away and you can close them over the internet if you forget to shut them. Most folk around here use them like curtains as well so the shutter state does not really indicate whether they are in our not.

Re: Window cleaning
 

That's smart...I like that idea! I am sure at times that there was a smidgen of superiority going on with our neighbours, of the, 'lazy Englishwomen, still abed at 6.00 am, whilst we've been up and weeding the veggies for ages' variety. With electric shutters, I could have been vastly more superior:thumbsup:

Re: Window cleaning
 

I'm with most of the posters on this thread. We've lived in the Loire Valley for 6 years and have never seen a window cleaner.

I'm also an AE, and dmu is correct. You can't claim back mileage or expenses.

As most good folks have said, do plenty of homework.

Re: Window cleaning
 

Yes they are there for weather purposes but they still look unoccupied with closed shutters! In our region there are alot of places closed up in the winter, so is clear they are not there.

Re: Window cleaning
 

Of course you don't have to be an AE, but you need plenty of confidence to go for one of the more complex tax régimes.

From what's been said I think the OP needs to find a big expat community. I just cannot see any of my elderly French neighbours using a window cleaner. Keeping their house trim is the habit of a lifetime, old ladies still do that even when they can barely walk, it seems to be a point of pride with them.

Erm, if you don't close the shutters when you are away, would not the fact that people can see there are never any lights on in the house be an equally clear sign that there's no-one at home? At night with shutters closed you can't see if the lights are on or not. But surely the point about shutters is they deter opportunist burglars. Serious burglars will stake the place, watch your comings and goings and know you're away, shutters will make it harder but if they are determined they will get in.