Collective ten-year liability policy (France, CCRD)

In France, every builder must be insured for ten-year liability. For housing, the cover must pay the cost of repair works with no cap below the cost of the building. For works not intended for housing, the Insurance Code allows builders to cap their cover, and firms' individual policies often carry limits far below the cost of a large project, a shopping center, a hospital, an office building. A serious loss could then exceed the sum of available covers. The collective ten-year liability policy fills this gap. Bought by the project owner for a given operation, it responds for the benefit of all builders, on top of their individual policies, above their limits and up to the full cost of the work. It is often required for major operations, and is frequently placed together with the building damage insurance, with the same insurer, which simplifies claims handling. For the underwriter, it requires assessing the soundness of all parties and their insurers, since the top-up policy responds all the more as the underlying policies are weak.