// glossary

The vocabulary of French construction law

Every subject has its vocabulary. Each term is defined and tied to its statute or case law — mastering the vocabulary is the first requirement of the exam. French statutory references are kept as they stand: they are the working language of this field.

Abnormal neighbourhood disturbanceart. 1253 C. civ. (loi n° 2024-346 du 15 avr. 2024): Strict liability of the owner, tenant or occupier who causes a disturbance exceeding the normal inconveniences of neighbourhood — codified since the Act of 15 April 2024 in the new art. 1253 C. civ. Its application to builders working on land (“occasional neighbours”) under the new provision remains to be settled.Study this notion — subject 01: Builders' liability →
Acceptance of the works (réception)art. 1792-6 C. civ.: The act by which the building owner declares that it accepts the works, with or without reservations. Starting point of all the statutory warranties, transfer of risk, end of the TRC policy, extinguishment of apparent defects not reserved. It may be express or tacit.▶ See the animated diagram in the course sheet (in French) →
Attributability (imputabilité)Cass. 3e civ., 11 sept. 2025, n° 24-10.139: Connecting the defect to the sphere of work of the builder being sued. It is enough for the building owner to show that it cannot be ruled out, given the nature or location of the defects, that they are connected with that sphere; uncertainty as to the exact cause then falls on the builder.▶ See the animated diagram in the course sheet (in French) →

BIM (Building Information Modeling)art. 1792-1 C. civ.: Collaborative process for designing and managing a building around a shared digital model. With no statutory definition, it is organised by the BIM protocol, incorporated into the contractual documents of the project. For builders, BIM is a tool — not a new activity to declare to the insurer; the BIM manager, for their part, sits between IT service provider (ordinary law) and technical contractor for work (art. 1792-1) depending on whether they take on coordination and clash-detection duties.Study this notion — subject 01: Builders' liability →see also
Builder (constructeur)art. 1792-1 C. civ.: For decennal purposes: any architect, contractor, technical consultant or other person bound to the building owner by a contract for work; the vendor after completion of works it built or had built; the owner's agent performing a role akin to a contractor for work. The subcontractor is not a builder.Study this notion — subject 01: Builders' liability →
Building owner (maître de l'ouvrage): The person for whose account the works are built: they commission the works, accept them upon completion and hold the benefit of the statutory warranties. Not to be confused with the maître d'œuvre.Study this notion — subject 01: Builders' liability →

CCMI (single-family home construction contract)art. L. 231-1 et s. CCH: Regulated, public-policy contract whereby a builder undertakes the construction of a single-family home according to a plan it proposes or has proposed. Protective formalism (compulsory particulars, conditions precedent) and a mandatory delivery guarantee at the agreed price and time.Study this notion — subject 01: Builders' liability →
Contractor for work (locateur d'ouvrage)art. 1779 C. civ.: Person bound to the building owner by a contract for work (architect, contractor, technical consultant…). This is the first category of builders within the meaning of art. 1792-1.Study this notion — subject 01: Builders' liability →

Deliberate breach (faute dolosive)Cass. 3e civ., 27 juin 2001, n° 99-21.017: Breach by the builder, deliberately even without intent to harm, by concealment or fraud, of its contractual obligations. The builder answers for it notwithstanding the expiry of the ten-year time bar. Mere negligence, however serious, does not amount to it.▶ See the animated diagram in the course sheet (in French) →

EPERSart. 1792-4 C. civ.: Element likely to trigger joint and several liability: the manufacturer of works, part of works or an item of equipment designed and produced to satisfy, in service, precise requirements determined in advance, is jointly and severally liable for the decennal obligations of the contractor for work which installed it without modification.Study this notion — subject 01: Builders' liability →
Evolving damage (dommage évolutif)Cass. 3e civ., 31 janv. 2007: Damage whose decennal character, not reached at the outset, is established before the ten-year period expires. The decennal character must be established — not merely feared — before the period expires.▶ See the animated diagram in the course sheet (in French) →
Exclusion or limitation clauses (deemed unwritten)art. 1792-5 C. civ.: Any contract clause whose object is to exclude or limit the builders' statutory liabilities and warranties (art. 1792 à 1792-3, 1792-6) is deemed unwritten: the contract survives, the clause disappears. The system is a matter of public policy.Study this notion — subject 01: Builders' liability →
Extraneous cause (cause étrangère)art. 1792 al. 2 C. civ.: The only ground of exoneration from ten-year (decennal) liability: act of the building owner, act of a third party, force majeure. A subcontractor's fault is not an extraneous cause enforceable against the building owner.Study this notion — subject 01: Builders' liability →

Future damage (désordre en germe)Cass. 3e civ., 11 mai 2011, n° 10-11.713: Defect whose decennal gravity has not yet materialised but is certain: a certain risk suffices. Illustration: non-compliance with mandatory earthquake-resistance rules, a certain factor of risk of loss in an earthquake, compromises soundness and renders the works unfit for their purpose.▶ See the animated diagram in the course sheet (in French) →

GPA (one-year making-good warranty)art. 1792-6 C. civ.: The contractor's obligation to remedy, for one year from acceptance, all defects reserved in the acceptance report or notified in writing.▶ See the animated diagram in the course sheet (in French) →

In solidumCass. 3e civ., 5 juill. 2000, n° 98-20.914: Court-made rule under which each builder whose fault contributed to the whole of the damage is ordered to pay the entire debt to the building owner, subject to contribution claims between co-obligors in proportion to their faults.▶ See the animated diagram in the course sheet (in French) →
Inseparable item of equipmentart. 1792-2 C. civ.: Item whose removal, dismantling or replacement cannot be carried out without damaging or removing material from the works. It falls under the ten-year (decennal) warranty.Study this notion — subject 01: Builders' liability →
Intermediate defect (désordre intermédiaire)Cass. 3e civ., 11 juin 2026, n° 23-22.360: Hidden defect, not reserved at acceptance, which does not reach decennal gravity. It falls outside the statutory warranties and engages the builder's ordinary contractual liability, upon proof of fault.▶ See the animated diagram in the course sheet (in French) →
Interruption of limitationart. 2240 et 2241 C. civ.: Effect of an act which wipes out the time already run and starts a fresh full period. The dividing line with the strict time bar lies here: court proceedings, even interim, interrupt both limitation AND the strict time bar (art. 2241); an acknowledgement by the debtor interrupts only limitation (art. 2240) — never the ten-year time bar (Cass. civ. 3e, 9 oct. 2025, n° 23-20.446). To be distinguished from suspension, which merely freezes the clock.Study this notion — subject 01: Builders' liability →see also
Item of equipment installed on existing worksCass. 3e civ., 21 mars 2024, n° 22-18.694: Since the reversal of 21 March 2024: an item installed by replacement or addition on existing works, which does not in itself constitute works, falls under neither the decennal nor the two-year warranty, but under ordinary contractual liability, outside compulsory insurance.Study this notion — subject 01: Builders' liability →

Maître d'œuvre (design and supervision professional)art. 1792-1 C. civ.: Professional (architect, engineering firm…) engaged to design the works and/or to direct and supervise their execution on behalf of the building owner. As a contractor for work, they are a builder within the meaning of art. 1792-1.Study this notion — subject 01: Builders' liability →

Photovoltaic installations (characterisation)art. 1792 et 1792-7 C. civ. ; art. L. 243-1-1 C. assur.: The characterisation of a photovoltaic installation dictates its regime: integrated into the building and providing weatherproofing, covering or watertightness, it is works (or an inseparable item) subject to decennal liability — the resale of energy is irrelevant; merely laid over existing works, without contributing to the building envelope, it falls under ordinary law (the line drawn by the reversal of 21 mars 2024). Art. 1792-7 (exclusively trade-process function) rarely excludes it. On the insurance side, energy-production works are exempt from the insurance obligation (art. L. 243-1-1 C. assur.), unless ancillary to works that are subject to it.Study this notion — subject 01: Builders' liability →see also
Property developer (promoteur immobilier)art. 1831-1 C. civ. ; Cass. 3e civ., 11 juin 2026, n° 23-22.360: Agent with a common interest who undertakes towards the building owner to have a building programme carried out, for an agreed price, by means of contracts for work. Liable under the statutory warranties, it nevertheless answers for intermediate defects only upon proof of personal fault.Study this notion — subject 01: Builders' liability →

Reservations (réserves)art. 1792-6 C. civ.: Entries in the acceptance report by which the building owner records apparent defects and non-conformities. Reserved defects fall under the one-year making-good warranty; apparent defects not reserved are purged by acceptance.Study this notion — subject 01: Builders' liability →

Subcontractor (sous-traitant)Ass. plén., 12 juill. 1991, n° 90-13.602 (Besse): Contractor to which the holder of the main contract entrusts all or part of the performance. Having no contractual tie with the building owner, it is not a builder within the meaning of art. 1792-1 and answers to the owner only in tort.Study this notion — subject 01: Builders' liability →
Suspension of limitationart. 2230 C. civ.: Temporary freezing of the running of time: the time already elapsed is preserved and the period resumes where it stopped (e.g. investigative measure ordered before any trial, art. 2239). It operates only on limitation periods: strict time bars are not subject to it (art. 2220 C. civ.) — the ten-year period runs come what may. To be distinguished from interruption, which resets the clock.Study this notion — subject 01: Builders' liability →see also

Ten-year (decennal) liabilityart. 1792 C. civ.: Strict, presumed liability of the builder, for ten years from acceptance of the works, for damage compromising the structural soundness of the works or rendering them unfit for their purpose.▶ See the animated diagram in the course sheet (in French) →
Ten-year time bar (forclusion décennale)art. 1792-4-1 C. civ.: The ten-year period is a strict time bar (forclusion) — not a limitation period: it cannot be suspended (art. 2220 C. civ.) and an acknowledgement of liability by the builder does not interrupt it (Cass. civ. 3e, 9 oct. 2025, n° 23-20.446); only court proceedings, even interim proceedings, interrupt it (art. 2241 C. civ., which expressly covers strict time bars). Once the period has run, no decennal claim is admissible, even if the damage came to light afterwards.▶ See the animated diagram in the course sheet (in French) →see also
Time bar under art. 1792-4-3 (claims against builders)art. 1792-4-3 C. civ. ; Cass. 3e civ., 10 juin 2021, n° 20-16.837: Outside the claims governed by the specific statutory warranties, claims by the building owner (and those subrogated to it) against builders and their subcontractors are confined within ten years from acceptance — a strict time bar, which an acknowledgement of liability does not interrupt. It notably confines the claim for intermediate defects. Contribution claims between builders fall, for their part, under the five-year limitation of art. 2224.Study this notion — subject 01: Builders' liability →see also
Two-year proper-functioning warranty (garantie biennale)art. 1792-3 C. civ.: Two-year warranty running from acceptance of the works, covering items of equipment that can be separated from the works (boiler, shutters, taps and fittings).▶ See the animated diagram in the course sheet (in French) →

Unfitness for purpose (impropriété à destination)art. 1792 C. civ.: The second, autonomous limb of decennal gravity: damage rendering the works unfit for their purpose engages the warranty even without any impairment of structural soundness (a waterproofing defect making premises unusable, breach of mandatory safety standards…).Study this notion — subject 01: Builders' liability →

VEFA (off-plan sale)art. 1601-3 C. civ. ; Cass. 3e civ., 3 juin 2015, n° 14-15.796: Sale of a building to be erected whereby the buyer becomes owner of the land and then of the works as construction proceeds. Apparent defects fall under the exclusive regime of art. 1642-1 et 1648 C. civ.Study this notion — subject 01: Builders' liability →see also