You own a house in the Dordogne, the Luberon or the Pays Basque, you hold a British passport, and you live most of the year in the United Kingdom. Since Brexit you are a third-country national in European Union law, which means your stays in France are counted, recorded and, if you get the counting wrong, punished. The question every British second-home owner asks — how many days can I spend at my own house without a visa, what happens if I stay one day too many, and how do I challenge a refusal at the border or a removal order — is governed by a small number of precise texts: the Schengen Borders Code, the CESEDA (the French Code on the Entry and Residence of Foreigners and the Right of Asylum), two European border-management regulations, and a line of administrative case law that leaves little room for improvisation. This guide explains the 90/180-day rule as it applies to a British owner, the traps that catch owners who believe that owning property confers a right to stay, the consequences of an overstay from refusal of entry to the OQTF (obligation to leave France, the French removal order), and the lawful routes for spending longer in France, with the practical points that matter in Paris and the Île-de-France.

I. How Many Days Can I Spend in My French Second Home Without a Visa?

A. How Is the 90 Days in Any 180 Days Counted?

British citizens do not need a short-stay visa to enter France for a holiday at their own house. The exemption comes from European law, relayed into French law: Article L. 311-1 of the CESEDA provides that entry requires, save for exemptions, “des visas exigés par les conventions internationales et par l’article 6, paragraphe 1, points a et b, du règlement (UE) 2016/399 du Parlement européen et du Conseil du 9 mars 2016 concernant un code de l’Union relatif au régime de franchissement des frontières par les personnes (code frontières Schengen)”, and British nationals are on the visa-exempt list for short stays. The exemption, however, is strictly time-limited. Article 6 of the Schengen Borders Code, Regulation (EU) 2016/399, allows a stay of no more than 90 days in any 180-day period across the whole Schengen area, and the official text is available on Eur-Lex at Regulation (EU) 2016/399 (Schengen Borders Code).

The computation is rolling, not per calendar year and not per trip. For every single day you are present in the Schengen area, you look backwards over the preceding 180 days and you count the days of presence: days spent in France, Spain, Italy or any other Schengen state all count towards the same 90-day allowance, while days spent in the United Kingdom, Ireland, or outside Europe do not. The day of entry counts as a day of presence and the day of exit counts as well. A British owner who spends January, February and March in France (90 days), returns to the United Kingdom for April, and flies back on 1 May has no allowance left: in the 180 days preceding 1 May, the owner was already present for 90 days, so any further day is an overstay until enough old days fall out of the 180-day window. In practice, after a continuous 90-day stay, you must remain outside the Schengen area for a full 90 days before a new 90-day stay becomes possible. Shorter alternating stays — for example three weeks in France, two weeks in the United Kingdom, repeated — keep the rolling total under 90, but the margin must be recomputed before every trip, because one extra weekend can tip the balance.

The European Commission publishes an official short-stay calculator that applies this backwards-counting method, and owners should run their planned dates through it before booking travel. Keep your own evidence as well: boarding passes, Eurotunnel and ferry bookings, and bank statements showing presence in the United Kingdom. Since the Entry/Exit System (EES), created by Regulation (EU) 2017/2226, began replacing manual passport stamping with biometric registration of third-country nationals at the external Schengen border from October 2025, your entries and exits are recorded centrally with fingerprints and facial image, and an overstay is detected automatically when the record is checked at your next crossing. The days of relying on a missing stamp are over. Alongside the EES, the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS), created by Regulation (EU) 2018/1240, will require British travellers to obtain a pre-travel authorisation, subject to a EUR 7 fee for applicants aged 18 to 70, before boarding: it is not a visa and it does not extend the 90-day allowance, it simply conditions boarding and arrival. Check the operational status of both systems before each trip on the official European Union travel pages and on gov.uk guidance for entering the Schengen area.

French domestic law mirrors this architecture. The service-public.fr page on stays of under three months confirms that a foreigner admitted for a short stay may remain for no more than three months, and Article L. 313-1 of the CESEDA, available at Article L. 313-1 of the CESEDA, requires a visitor coming for a family or private visit to present an attestation d’accueil (a hosting certificate signed by the person providing the accommodation and validated by the town hall) where one is required. An owner staying at their own house does not need an attestation d’accueil for themselves, but any British family member or friend joining them and staying with them does where the rule applies, and the border police (police aux frontières) may ask every arriving British national for proof of accommodation, whether a title deed (titre de propriété), a recent taxe foncière bill, or a hotel booking, alongside proof of sufficient means, return travel, and medical insurance. Prepare the file for each trip as if it were the first: the exemption from the visa is never an exemption from the entry conditions.

B. Which Days Count — and the Traps That Catch British Owners?

The first trap is the belief that owning a house in France confers a right to stay in it. It does not. French law draws no link between property ownership and residence rights: the title deed proves where you sleep, not how long you may remain. Border officers apply the same 90/180-day count to an owner of a Provençal farmhouse as to a first-time tourist, and administrative courts have never treated property ownership as a ground for annulling a removal order on its own. The house is an asset and an argument about ties to France (attaches), not a permit.

The second trap is the Schengen-wide scope of the count. Days spent in a Spanish apartment, an Italian hotel or a Greek cruise port that calls at Schengen ports all consume the same allowance as days in your French house. Only time in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Cyprus and non-Schengen states leaves the allowance untouched. Owners who winter partly in Spain and partly in France are regularly surprised at the French border when the officer totals both. Transit days count too: if you drive through France, Belgium and the Netherlands to reach a ferry, each calendar day on Schengen soil is a day of presence.

The third trap is work. A short stay without a visa does not authorise any professional activity in France, even remote work performed from your second home for your British employer or your own British company. Article L. 311-1 of the CESEDA requires, for those planning to work, “Des documents nécessaires à l’exercice d’une activité professionnelle s’il se propose d’en exercer une”, and any work envisaged in France requires the corresponding authorisation before entry. A British owner who tells the border officer they will spend three months “working from the house” invites a refusal of entry; a pattern of long repeated stays combined with professional activity in France can later support findings of unlawful residence and undeclared work, with tax and social-security consequences beyond immigration law. Keep holidays as holidays. British owners who genuinely wish to work from France should read our guide to the salaried route and work authorisation at British employees in France: the salarié card and the work-authorisation trap before organising their move.

The fourth trap is healthcare and insurance. A European Health Insurance Card issued by the United Kingdom (the GHIC, the British global health insurance card) covers only medically necessary state care during a short stay; it does not cover a 90-day convalescence, private treatment, or medical repatriation, and border officers may ask for proof of travel medical insurance covering emergency care and repatriation. Owners with chronic conditions who plan the full 90 days should carry insurance whose certificate states the cover, the ceiling and the territorial scope in plain figures, plus a summary of prescriptions under their generic names. An owner who falls ill without adequate cover faces not only the bill but questions at the next entry about means of subsistence.

The fifth trap is tax residence by stealth. Spending close to 90 days repeatedly, keeping the family home, the spouse and the centre of economic interests in France, can make you French tax-resident under Article 4 B of the French Tax Code even within the immigration allowance, with worldwide income then declarable in France under the France–United Kingdom double tax treaty. Count days for the tax test separately from the immigration count: the tax test looks at 183 days, the location of the main home, professional activity and centre of economic interests, while the immigration count looks only at the 90/180-day physical-presence rule. Owners approaching either threshold should align both calendars at the start of each year.

II. What Happens If I Overstay in France and How Do I Stay Longer Lawfully?

A. Refusal of Entry, Removal Orders and How to Challenge Them

An overstay is detected at exit, at the next entry, or during any identity check in France. The consequences escalate. At the border, the border police may refuse entry (refus d’entrée) where the 90/180-day allowance is exhausted or the other entry conditions — accommodation, means, insurance, return ticket — are not met. The refusal is notified on a standard form with reasons; the traveller is placed in the waiting zone (zone d’attente) at the airport or port and may be removed on the next available crossing. A refusal of entry can be challenged before the administrative court (tribunal administratif) by an action for excess of power, and where removal is imminent a référé-liberté (an emergency application to the duty judge for protection of a fundamental liberty) or a référé-suspension (an emergency application to suspend the decision) can be filed within hours: in practice the lawyer meets the traveller in the waiting zone, obtains the notification and the EES printout, and files the same day, because the remedy must be faster than the return flight.

Inside France, a British national found without a right to stay faces the OQTF, the obligation to leave France ordered by the préfet (the state representative in the département). Article L. 611-1 of the CESEDA, at Article L. 611-1 of the CESEDA, states: “L’autorité administrative peut obliger un étranger à quitter le territoire français lorsqu’il se trouve dans les cas suivants”, and the second case covers precisely the overstaying visitor: “L’étranger, entré sur le territoire français sous couvert d’un visa désormais expiré ou, n’étant pas soumis à l’obligation du visa, entré en France plus de trois mois auparavant, s’est maintenu sur le territoire français sans être titulaire d’un titre de séjour”. The Conseil d’État confirmed the architecture of these removal grounds in its decision of 6 November 2019, No. 431585, available at Conseil d’État, 6 November 2019, No. 431585, recalling that “Si l’étranger s’est maintenu sur le territoire français au-delà de la durée de validité de son visa” the administration may order departure. The OQTF is generally accompanied by a voluntary-departure period (délai de départ volontaire), usually thirty days, but Article L. 612-2 of the CESEDA, at Article L. 612-2 of the CESEDA, allows the préfet to refuse any such period where there is a risk the person will evade removal, for example after a previous removal order or false statements. The OQTF may also be accompanied by an IRTF (interdiction de retour sur le territoire français, a ban on returning to France) of up to three years, which is recorded in the Schengen Information System and causes refusals at every Schengen border for its whole duration: a two-week overstay can thus cost three years of holidays.

Every OQTF must be reasoned and preceded by an examination of the right to stay. Article L. 613-1 of the CESEDA, at Article L. 613-1 of the CESEDA — consult the official version via that link — requires the decision to be motivated and taken “après vérification du droit au séjour, en tenant notamment compte de la durée de présence de l’étranger sur le territoire français, de la nature et de l’ancienneté de ses liens avec la France et des considérations humanitaires”, and Article L. 614-1 of the CESEDA, at Article L. 614-1 of the CESEDA, provides: “La décision portant obligation de quitter le territoire français ainsi que la décision relative au séjour, la décision relative au délai de départ volontaire et l’interdiction de retour sur le territoire français qui l’accompagnent, le cas échéant, peuvent être contestées devant le tribunal administratif selon la procédure prévue à l’article L. 911-1.” Time limits are extremely short and depend on the type of order — 48 hours where the OQTF carries no voluntary-departure period or follows detention, fifteen days or thirty days in other configurations — and the applicable limit is printed at the foot of the decision (voies et délais de recours). The challenge must therefore be filed within hours or days, never weeks: send the appeal by the method stated on the decision, keep proof of dispatch, and ask the court for suspension of enforcement pending judgment where the procedure allows it. Arguments that succeed are concrete and evidenced: EES records showing the count was wrong, boarding passes proving an exit the system missed, family ties in France, length and seriousness of property ties, health reasons with medical certificates, and disproportionality of the return ban. Abstract arguments — “I own a house”, “I spend money locally”, “I did not know the rule” — do not annul an OQTF.

Detention is the final escalation. A person subject to removal may be placed in an administrative detention centre (centre de rétention administrative) pending removal, with review by the liberty and detention judge (juge des libertés et de la détention) within days. British owners are rarely detained for a first short overstay, but a repeated pattern, false identity statements, or breach of a return ban changes the assessment. Anyone placed in detention should ask immediately for the duty lawyer (avocat de permanence), the interpreter, and the written order with its reasons.

B. How Do I Stay Longer Lawfully — Visitor Visa, Residence Card and Paris Practicalities?

The lawful route for an owner who wants more than 90 days without working in France is the long-stay visitor route. Article L. 312-2 of the CESEDA, at Article L. 312-2 of the CESEDA, states: “Tout étranger souhaitant entrer en France en vue d’y séjourner pour une durée supérieure à trois mois doit solliciter auprès des autorités diplomatiques et consulaires françaises un visa de long séjour dont la durée de validité ne peut être supérieure à un an.” The application is lodged before departure, in practice through the outsourced visa application centre in London for United Kingdom residents, and the file must already contain everything the préfecture will later want: proof of resources, insurance, accommodation, and the signed undertaking not to work. Article L. 411-1 of the CESEDA, at Article L. 411-1 of the CESEDA, confirms that “tout étranger âgé de plus de dix-huit ans qui souhaite séjourner en France pour une durée supérieure à trois mois doit être titulaire de l’un des documents de séjour suivants”, beginning with the long-stay visa, and Article L. 412-1 of the CESEDA, at Article L. 412-1 of the CESEDA, adds that “la première délivrance d’une carte de séjour temporaire ou d’une carte de séjour pluriannuelle est subordonnée à la production par l’étranger du visa de long séjour mentionné aux 1° ou 2° de l’article L. 411-1”. The lesson the courts repeat is blunt: you cannot arrive without a visa and regularise on the spot as a visitor. The administrative court of appeal of Toulouse put it in these terms on 18 March 2025, No. 24TL00156, available at CAA Toulouse, 18 March 2025, No. 24TL00156: “la première délivrance d’une carte de séjour temporaire est en principe, sous réserve des engagements internationaux de la France et des exceptions prévues par la loi, subordonnée à la production par l’étranger d’un visa d’une durée supérieure à trois mois”. British owners must therefore organise the long stay from the United Kingdom, not from the terrace of the second home.

The visitor card itself (carte de séjour temporaire portant la mention visiteur) is governed by Article L. 426-20 of the CESEDA, at Article L. 426-20 of the CESEDA: “L’étranger qui apporte la preuve qu’il peut vivre de ses seules ressources, dont le montant doit être au moins égal au salaire minimum de croissance net annuel, indépendamment de l’allocation aux adultes handicapés mentionnée à l’article L. 821-1 du code de la sécurité sociale et de l’allocation supplémentaire mentionnée à l’article L. 815-24 du même code, se voit délivrer une carte de séjour temporaire portant la mention ” visiteur ” d’une durée d’un an.” Three conditions follow: yearly resources at least equal to the net annual SMIC (the French statutory minimum wage, roughly one full minimum wage per year and per adult applicant), health insurance covering the whole stay, and a written undertaking to carry on no professional activity in France, since the card “n’autorise pas l’exercice d’une activité professionnelle”. Pensions, rental income, dividends and savings qualify as resources if they are stable, documented and genuinely available; a single bank balance screenshot does not. The long-stay visa used for this route is commonly issued as a VLS-TS (visa de long séjour valant titre de séjour, a long-stay visa that counts as a residence permit for its first year), which must be validated online with the OFII (the French Office for Immigration and Integration) within three months of arrival, followed by a medical visit where required. Renewal is applied for at the préfecture two to four months before expiry, with updated proof of resources, insurance, accommodation and continued absence of professional activity; the file should also show genuine residence in France — utility bills, insurance, tax notices — because a visitor card held while living eleven months a year in the United Kingdom will not be renewed.

For owners whose anchor is Paris or the Île-de-France, add the local layer. Border refusals at Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Orly and Beauvais are handled by the border police under the authority of the préfet de police for Paris, and challenges to detention or waiting-zone placement go to the Paris judicial court (tribunal judiciaire de Paris) with appeal to the Paris Court of Appeal, while OQTFs issued by the préfet de police are challenged before the administrative court of Paris (tribunal administratif de Paris, 7 rue de Jouy). Renewal appointments for visitor cards in Paris are booked through the préfecture de police online portal, where slots are released in batches and waiting times of several weeks are normal: start the renewal four months early, keep every receipt (récépissé) as proof of maintained residence rights, and never travel on an expired card without the valid receipt and a return visa where required. Owners based in the inner suburbs (Petite Couronne) fall under the préfectures of Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis or Val-de-Marne, each with its own booking portal and documentary habits — Nanterre, Bobigny and Créteil do not ask for the file in quite the same order — so re-read the local checklist the week you apply. Keep a Paris paper trail from day one: lease or title deed, electricity and buildings-insurance bills, French bank statements, and the OFII validation certificate, because the withdrawal-agreement generation taught Paris préfectures to decide on papers, not on promises. Our guide to withdrawing-agreement cards and travel on expired documents at British WARP cards: renewal, travel and challenging a refusal shows the method Paris expects even though your status as a newcomer differs.

Conclusion

Owning a house in France gives a British national a reason to travel, never a right to stay. Count every Schengen day in a rolling 180-day window, keep the total at or below 90, keep the proof of every exit, and treat the EES record as the officer’s starting point, not as an appealable opinion. Never attempt to live in the second home on successive tourist stays, never work from it without authorisation, and never ignore a refusal, an OQTF or a return ban in the hope that the next crossing will be easier: each unchallenged decision hardens the next. Where a longer presence is genuinely wanted, the visitor long-stay visa and the visiteur card provide the lawful path, provided the application starts in the United Kingdom with a full year of resources, full health cover and a clear undertaking not to work. Prepared owners enjoy their house without fear; unprepared ones discover that French administrative law counts better than they do.