What counts as a small service in France?
French housing law lets the agreement include small services provided without profit for either party, on top of the modest payment. It gives no list. In practice, these are neighbourly gestures that make an older person's daily life easier without turning the guest into staff.
A 2021 pilot run by the French national pension fund and family benefits fund gave concrete examples: doing some shopping, closing the shutters, taking out the bins and being present in the evening. The INC adds a caring presence that respects the host's privacy.
Is help compulsory?
No. Many French pairs agree on no services at all and simply share the home. Help is an option the parties may write into the contract, and the law treats it as a complement to the financial contribution rather than a substitute for it.
How the UK model differs
Homeshare UK describes a different bargain: the homesharer gives around ten hours of support a week, such as cleaning, shopping, gardening, walking the dog or overnight companionship, in exchange for affordable accommodation. Even there, personal care is excluded and remains the job of professional carers.
Who is this arrangement suited to?
Students with regular timetables usually find evening commitments easier to keep than apprentices on shifts or young workers who travel. On the host side, frailer and older people tend to value a presence at night more than active retirees looking mainly for company.
Where help ends and employment begins
French law excludes any relationship of subordination and sets aside the Labour Code. A 1996 Court of Cassation ruling, cited by the INC, defines subordination as working under someone who can give orders, check how they are carried out and penalise failures.
If a host imposes strict hours, inspects the work and threatens sanctions when a task is refused, the relationship starts to look like a job. ANIL warns that such abuse can lead a court to reclassify the arrangement as an employment contract.
Examples sorted by status
The table classifies requests that families and hosts frequently make. It does not replace advice from a matching organisation, but it helps spot tasks that clearly fall outside the scheme and those that need careful handling.
| Request | Status | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Cooking dinner together twice a week | Allowed | A shared moment, no supervision |
| Bringing back bread on the way home | Allowed | One-off neighbourly favour |
| Closing shutters, taking out bins | Allowed | Simple task named in the 2021 pilot |
| Showing the host how to video-call | Allowed | Exchange of skills |
| Sleeping at home on agreed nights | Handle with care | Fine if flexible and agreed |
| Daily dog walk at a fixed hour | Handle with care | Can become a timetable |
| Cleaning the whole home weekly | Forbidden | Equivalent to domestic employment |
| Help with washing or dressing | Forbidden | Personal care is excluded |
| Preparing or checking medication | Forbidden | A care act, however simple |
| Covering for an absent carer | Forbidden | Replaces a professional |
Why care tasks are ruled out
The national charter states that small services will never be nursing care. French notaries add that even handing over a medicine is excluded, as are tasks resembling those of a home-services company or a directly employed domestic worker. This protects the host's safety.
What about housework?
A regional charter of the Cohabilis network bars the guest from acting as a home help or cleaning beyond their own room and the shared areas they use. Clearing the table after a joint meal is natural; scrubbing the house alone every weekend is not.
Do services have a cash value?
They cannot be paid for: no wages, no bonuses, no hourly rate. In the 2021 pilot's more supportive formula, the young person contributed only a share of utilities capped at 60 euros a month, in return for evening presence and agreed small tasks.
The official French portal for older people also describes free lodging in exchange for presence or services. That differs from paying someone: the room is not a wage, and neither side may count hours or turn missed favours into debts or extra charges.
Writing services into the agreement
Precise, dated wording protects both parties against a gradual and often unnoticed slide towards disguised employment. French organisations recommend treating services as a short, revisable list rather than as a promise of general availability around the clock.
- Name each expected task in concrete terms.
- Give an indicative frequency, never a fixed timetable.
- State any evenings of presence and the flexibility around them.
- Explain how the guest reports an absence.
- List excluded tasks explicitly.
- Plan a review whenever the host's health changes.
Warning signs to watch for
French organisations observe the same slow drifts in many pairs, and they are rarely deliberate on either side. Spotting them early lets the parties amend the agreement before tension builds or the homeshare becomes undeclared work.
- Adding new tasks over the weeks without a written amendment.
- Keeping a tally of hours owed by the guest.
- Requiring the guest to sleep at home every single night.
- Handing over medication management for convenience.
- Relatives relying entirely on the guest instead of visiting.
When to bring in professionals
As soon as the host needs help washing, dressing or taking treatment, a home-care service or nurse should step in. The homeshare can continue alongside: the young person remains an attentive housemate, not a care assistant, exactly as in British homeshare programmes.
Questions about services
Borderline cases raise many questions among families abroad, older hosts and young guests, especially when the host's health changes. The answers below draw on French rules and on nonprofit charters, and point out where practice in other countries differs.
Can the guest go with the host to the doctor?
Occasional company, as one would offer a neighbour, is a form of mutual help. It must not become a regular duty replacing adapted transport, and the guest should never take part in medical decisions or treatment follow-up.
Can the guest refuse an agreed task?
The guest has committed to the agreed services, but the host cannot discipline them like an employer. If disagreement lasts, the normal routes are a written amendment, mediation by the organisation or ending the agreement with notice.
Can the guest babysit the host's grandchildren?
An occasional favour, freely accepted, is possible. Regular childcare for other family members falls outside the spirit of the scheme and resembles employment. A regional charter also forbids the guest from taking over the family's own support obligations.
What are the risks of reclassification?
If a court finds an employment contract, the host may owe wages and social contributions and could face penalties for undeclared work. The guest, meanwhile, loses the security of stable housing if the relationship breaks down abruptly.
Useful organisations and resources
- Homeshare UK — British homeshare network describing around ten hours of weekly help and the clear exclusion of personal care.
- Cnav and Cnaf pilot scheme — French pension and family funds' 2021 pilot describing evening presence, small tasks and a capped utility contribution.
- French national portal for older people — Official French portal stressing that the young person is not a substitute for a home help.
Official and legal references
- ANIL expert guidance — French housing information agency page on small services, excluded care and the risk of reclassification as employment.
- French National Consumer Institute (INC) — Consumer institute factsheet on excluded services, the absence of subordination and the 1996 court ruling it cites.
- 119th Congress of French Notaries report — Notaries' analysis of small services, the ban on medical tasks and competition with home-care providers.