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 \u2014 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 \u2014 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 \u00cele-de-France.<\/p>\n
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<\/a> provides that entry requires, save for exemptions, “des visas exig\u00e9s par les conventions internationales et par l’article 6, paragraphe 1, points a et b, du r\u00e8glement (UE) 2016\/399 du Parlement europ\u00e9en et du Conseil du 9 mars 2016 concernant un code de l’Union relatif au r\u00e9gime de franchissement des fronti\u00e8res par les personnes (code fronti\u00e8res 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).<\/p>\n 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 \u2014 for example three weeks in France, two weeks in the United Kingdom, repeated \u2014 keep the rolling total under 90, but the margin must be recomputed before every trip, because one extra weekend can tip the balance.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n French domestic law mirrors this architecture. The service-public.fr page on stays of under three months<\/a> 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<\/a>, 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 fronti\u00e8res) may ask every arriving British national for proof of accommodation, whether a title deed (titre de propri\u00e9t\u00e9), a recent taxe fonci\u00e8re 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.<\/p>\n 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 Proven\u00e7al 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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<\/a> requires, for those planning to work, “Des documents n\u00e9cessaires \u00e0 l’exercice d’une activit\u00e9 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 salari\u00e9 card and the work-authorisation trap<\/a> before organising their move.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2013United 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.<\/p>\n 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’entr\u00e9e) where the 90\/180-day allowance is exhausted or the other entry conditions \u2014 accommodation, means, insurance, return ticket \u2014 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 r\u00e9f\u00e9r\u00e9-libert\u00e9 (an emergency application to the duty judge for protection of a fundamental liberty) or a r\u00e9f\u00e9r\u00e9-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.<\/p>\n Inside France, a British national found without a right to stay faces the OQTF, the obligation to leave France ordered by the pr\u00e9fet (the state representative in the d\u00e9partement). Article L. 611-1 of the CESEDA, at Article L. 611-1 of the CESEDA<\/a>, states: “L’autorit\u00e9 administrative peut obliger un \u00e9tranger \u00e0 quitter le territoire fran\u00e7ais lorsqu’il se trouve dans les cas suivants”, and the second case covers precisely the overstaying visitor: “L’\u00e9tranger, entr\u00e9 sur le territoire fran\u00e7ais sous couvert d’un visa d\u00e9sormais expir\u00e9 ou, n’\u00e9tant pas soumis \u00e0 l’obligation du visa, entr\u00e9 en France plus de trois mois auparavant, s’est maintenu sur le territoire fran\u00e7ais sans \u00eatre titulaire d’un titre de s\u00e9jour”. The Conseil d’\u00c9tat confirmed the architecture of these removal grounds in its decision of 6 November 2019, No. 431585, available at Conseil d’\u00c9tat, 6 November 2019, No. 431585<\/a>, recalling that “Si l’\u00e9tranger s’est maintenu sur le territoire fran\u00e7ais au-del\u00e0 de la dur\u00e9e de validit\u00e9 de son visa” the administration may order departure. The OQTF is generally accompanied by a voluntary-departure period (d\u00e9lai de d\u00e9part volontaire), usually thirty days, but Article L. 612-2 of the CESEDA, at Article L. 612-2 of the CESEDA<\/a>, allows the pr\u00e9fet 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 fran\u00e7ais, 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.<\/p>\n 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<\/a> \u2014 consult the official version via that link \u2014 requires the decision to be motivated and taken “apr\u00e8s v\u00e9rification du droit au s\u00e9jour, en tenant notamment compte de la dur\u00e9e de pr\u00e9sence de l’\u00e9tranger sur le territoire fran\u00e7ais, de la nature et de l’anciennet\u00e9 de ses liens avec la France et des consid\u00e9rations humanitaires”, and Article L. 614-1 of the CESEDA, at Article L. 614-1 of the CESEDA<\/a>, provides: “La d\u00e9cision portant obligation de quitter le territoire fran\u00e7ais ainsi que la d\u00e9cision relative au s\u00e9jour, la d\u00e9cision relative au d\u00e9lai de d\u00e9part volontaire et l’interdiction de retour sur le territoire fran\u00e7ais qui l’accompagnent, le cas \u00e9ch\u00e9ant, peuvent \u00eatre contest\u00e9es devant le tribunal administratif selon la proc\u00e9dure pr\u00e9vue \u00e0 l’article L. 911-1.” Time limits are extremely short and depend on the type of order \u2014 48 hours where the OQTF carries no voluntary-departure period or follows detention, fifteen days or thirty days in other configurations \u2014 and the applicable limit is printed at the foot of the decision (voies et d\u00e9lais 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 \u2014 “I own a house”, “I spend money locally”, “I did not know the rule” \u2014 do not annul an OQTF.<\/p>\n Detention is the final escalation. A person subject to removal may be placed in an administrative detention centre (centre de r\u00e9tention administrative) pending removal, with review by the liberty and detention judge (juge des libert\u00e9s et de la d\u00e9tention) 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.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>, states: “Tout \u00e9tranger souhaitant entrer en France en vue d’y s\u00e9journer pour une dur\u00e9e sup\u00e9rieure \u00e0 trois mois doit solliciter aupr\u00e8s des autorit\u00e9s diplomatiques et consulaires fran\u00e7aises un visa de long s\u00e9jour dont la dur\u00e9e de validit\u00e9 ne peut \u00eatre sup\u00e9rieure \u00e0 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 pr\u00e9fecture 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<\/a>, confirms that “tout \u00e9tranger \u00e2g\u00e9 de plus de dix-huit ans qui souhaite s\u00e9journer en France pour une dur\u00e9e sup\u00e9rieure \u00e0 trois mois doit \u00eatre titulaire de l’un des documents de s\u00e9jour suivants”, beginning with the long-stay visa, and Article L. 412-1 of the CESEDA, at Article L. 412-1 of the CESEDA<\/a>, adds that “la premi\u00e8re d\u00e9livrance d’une carte de s\u00e9jour temporaire ou d’une carte de s\u00e9jour pluriannuelle est subordonn\u00e9e \u00e0 la production par l’\u00e9tranger du visa de long s\u00e9jour mentionn\u00e9 aux 1\u00b0 ou 2\u00b0 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<\/a>: “la premi\u00e8re d\u00e9livrance d’une carte de s\u00e9jour temporaire est en principe, sous r\u00e9serve des engagements internationaux de la France et des exceptions pr\u00e9vues par la loi, subordonn\u00e9e \u00e0 la production par l’\u00e9tranger d’un visa d’une dur\u00e9e sup\u00e9rieure \u00e0 trois mois”. British owners must therefore organise the long stay from the United Kingdom, not from the terrace of the second home.<\/p>\nB. Which Days Count \u2014 and the Traps That Catch British Owners?<\/h3>\n
II. What Happens If I Overstay in France and How Do I Stay Longer Lawfully?<\/h2>\n
A. Refusal of Entry, Removal Orders and How to Challenge Them<\/h3>\n
B. How Do I Stay Longer Lawfully \u2014 Visitor Visa, Residence Card and Paris Practicalities?<\/h3>\n