Completion guarantee (France, one-year defects liability)
The contractor's obligation, for one year after acceptance of works, to repair all defects reported by the owner, whatever their seriousness; it precedes the two-year and ten-year guarantees.
French construction law provides three statutory guarantees running from the acceptance of works. The first, under article 1792-6 of the Civil Code, is the completion guarantee. For one year, the contractor must repair all defects reported by the owner, whether noted as reservations in the acceptance report or notified in writing during the year. It covers all defects, whatever their seriousness and cause, except normal wear and use: a crack in plaster, a door that closes badly, poor tiling. It differs from the two following guarantees, the two-year guarantee of proper functioning of detachable equipment and the ten-year guarantee for serious damage. Importantly, it is not in principle covered by compulsory insurance: the contractor performs it itself, with its own resources. If the contractor fails to act, the owner may have the work done at the contractor's expense after formal notice, and, where the defect also falls under the ten-year guarantee, the building damage insurance may step in. For a ten-year liability underwriter, how a contractor honors its completion guarantees is a good indicator of the quality of its work and its financial strength.
Textbook case: three months after taking delivery of her house, an owner notices leaks around a window and reports it by registered letter. The contractor, bound by the completion guarantee, redoes the sealing at its own cost; its insurer is not involved, the guarantee being the contractor's own obligation.
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