A pieno inverno il riscaldamento si è spento

The message landlords dread most

Sophie had owned a small one-bedroom apartment in the 11th arrondissement in Paris for six years. She had bought it as an investment while working in the city, and when a job opportunity took her to London, she put it on the rental market.

It had worked well for two years. The tenant was reliable, rent was always on time, and the apartment had needed only minor maintenance.

Until January.

At 8:30 on a Thursday morning, she received a WhatsApp from her tenant: "The heating stopped working last night. It was 4 degrees inside this morning. Can you sort this urgently?"

The temperature in Paris that week was forecast to drop to minus three overnight.

The chain of calls a landlord has to make

Managing property from abroad means depending on a chain of people and services that were designed for in-person relationships. In this case, Sophie had to:

1. Contact the building management company (syndic) to establish whether the heating failure was a building-wide issue or limited to her apartment 2. Contact her plumbing and heating insurance to understand what was covered before authorising work 3. Find a certified heating engineer who could attend the same day, since temperatures were falling and a tenant cannot legally be left without heating in France 4. Authorise any repair costs verbally, since French contractors typically require owner authorisation before beginning work on a rented property

All four of these parties had landline numbers. None had WhatsApp. The building management company's website listed only a Paris office number and opening hours of 9 AM to 12:30 PM, Monday to Friday.

"It was suddenly very clear that I needed to make four phone calls to Paris before lunchtime, and I was sitting in a Canary Wharf office."

The mechanics of calling French landlines from London

Sophie's employer provides a mobile phone, but it is on a UK corporate plan that charges £1.20 per minute for calls to French geographic numbers. She had four calls to make with no idea how long each would take. The building management company alone, she knew from experience, often put callers on hold for 20 to 30 minutes.

She estimated the total call time at somewhere between 90 and 150 minutes. At £1.20 per minute, that was between £108 and £180 in call charges on a work phone, an expense she could not easily justify to her employer.

She opened WorldDial on her laptop. The rate for calls to French landlines was clearly displayed: approximately €0.02 per minute, practically free by comparison.

How the problem was resolved

The first call to the syndic took 23 minutes, including 14 minutes on hold. The heating failure was confirmed as limited to Sophie's apartment, a faulty pressure valve on the boiler. The syndic gave her the number of a certified engineer they regularly worked with.

The second call, to her home insurance company's technical assistance line, confirmed that emergency boiler repair was covered under her landlord insurance policy, with a €150 excess.

The third call, to the heating engineer, took 12 minutes. He was available that afternoon.

The repair was completed by 4 PM. The tenant confirmed the heating was working by 4:30. Sophie's total call time across all four calls was 68 minutes. Total calling cost using WorldDial: €1.36.

What property owners managing from abroad should have ready

• ›The international contact number for your building management company. French syndicats de copropriété often have a "permanence téléphonique" outside normal hours for genuine emergencies
• ›Your home insurance policy number and the insurer's claims line. Most French landlord policies include assistance téléphonique 24/7
• ›A list of certified tradespeople in the area. Platforms like Habitissimo and Allopro let you find certified plumbers, electricians, and heating engineers in France by postcode
• ›A browser-based calling service with credit loaded. Situations like this always happen when you're least prepared. Having €10 of credit ready on a service like WorldDial means you can make four emergency calls to France for less than €0.50

The broader picture for remote landlords

The number of French property owners living abroad is substantial, French tax authorities estimate more than 1.5 million non-resident property owners in France. Many manage their properties with a mandataire (property management agent), but even with an agent, owners regularly need to make decisions that require direct calls to contractors, insurers, or administrators.

International calling costs are an operational reality for remote landlords. The practical answer is to treat browser-based calling credit the same way you treat insurance, a small ongoing cost that protects you against a much larger unexpected expense.