How can Covesta help you manage your property? Our tasks, one by one.

Many owners manage their property themselves, out of habit or to save on fees. That works as long as all goes well. The day a tenant leaves in the middle of winter, a water heater fails on a Saturday evening, or a rent is missing two months in a row, direct management turns into a second job. This article describes, without jargon, what Covesta takes on when you entrust us with a management mandate, what you keep, and what it costs.

Before the first rent: letting the property

Everything starts with an inventory of the file, not of the dwelling. Your property manager checks that the property can be let: surveys up to date, a DPE (diagnostic de performance énergétique, the French energy performance certificate) outside the letting-ban timetable, landlord insurance (assurance propriétaire non occupant) in place, the equipment required for a furnished letting. Whatever is missing is ordered. This step avoids unpleasant surprises at the time of signing.

• Setting the rent on the basis of the local market and, in the municipalities concerned, the rent-control ceiling.
• Listing written and published on the main portals, careful photographs, viewings organised by us.
• Tenant selection: verification of identity, solvency and the consistency of the documents, then presentation of the chosen application. You approve in one click from your portal.
• Drafting of the lease, unfurnished or furnished, compliant with the French law of 6 July 1989 with its mandatory appendices, and of the guarantee deed when a guarantor is involved.
• Check-in inventory carried out by a Covesta agent, with photographs and a digital report shared in your portal.

Every month: collect, transfer, report

This is the heart of the task, and what distinguishes professional management from simply keeping track of transfers. Covesta issues the rent demand, collects the rent, sends the receipt to the tenant and transfers the sums due to you within ten working days, net of fees. The first and last months are calculated pro rata to the exact number of days of occupation, rent and charges included.

The deposit does not pass through your account: Covesta collects it and holds it in escrow until the end of the lease. It is never transferred to you during the tenancy, and we return it to the tenant ourselves, within the legal time limits, after deduction of any amounts justified by the check-out inventory.

Each month, you receive a management report: rents and charges collected, fees, expenses paid on your behalf, sums held in escrow and balance transferred. This document is archived in your landlord portal, alongside the lease, the receipts and the surveys. At the end of the year, everything is ready for your tax return or for your accountant.

When things get complicated: arrears, claims, works

A late rent is dealt with from the first day, not in the third month. Your property manager sends reminders, proposes a payment schedule if the situation warrants it, then issues the formal notice and begins the recovery procedure when dialogue is no longer enough. You are informed at every stage; you have no letter to write and no court officer (commissaire de justice) to instruct.

• Tenant repair requests received in the tenant's portal, assessed by your property manager, then entrusted to a tradesperson from our network. Quotes are sent to you for approval: you approve, we carry out.
• Claims: declaration to the insurers, follow-up of the loss assessment and the repairs, coordination between the tenant, the co-ownership and the contractors.
• End of lease: receipt of the notice, verification of the notice period, check-out inventory, return of the deposit and re-letting without unnecessary interruption.
• Co-ownership: review of the calls for funds and the general meeting minutes, annual adjustment of recoverable charges with the tenant.

Your landlord portal, and your tenant's

Each owner has an online portal where everything is visible: the property, the current lease, the tenant, the rents month by month, the documents and the accounting position kept up to date. Your tenant has their own: lease, inventory, receipts available every month, and a form for reporting a problem. Exchanges go through the platform, with a complete history and a dedicated property manager who knows your file.

We also monitor your insurance policies. Landlord insurance, mandatory in a co-owned building, and unpaid rent insurance if you have it, are recorded with their expiry dates; your property manager alerts you thirty days before they are due for renewal.

What you keep

The management mandate takes nothing away from you. You remain the owner and the decision-maker: choice of tenant on our proposal, approval of each quote, level of rent, decision to sell or to take the property back. Covesta acts on your behalf, with the obligation to report, and holds your funds only for the time needed to transfer them or, in the case of the deposit, to return them.

What it costs

Management fees are 7.2% incl. VAT of rents collected, charges included, i.e. 6% excl. VAT. They are deducted from the rents before transfer and appear line by line in your monthly report. They are deductible from your rental income under the actual regime (régime réel), for unfurnished and furnished lettings alike. On a rent of €800 including charges, management represents €57.60 per month.

Covesta currently manages dwellings in Montpellier and its metropolitan area, and supports the investors it has helped to buy in its other cities. If your property is elsewhere, let's talk: the answer depends on the property, not just on the postcode.