Acceptance of works (France)
The act by which the owner declares acceptance of the work, with or without reservations; it starts the statutory construction guarantees and shifts risk from the contractor to ten-year liability insurance.
Article 1792-6 of the French Civil Code defines acceptance as the act by which the owner declares acceptance of the work with or without reservations. It takes place at the request of the more diligent party, jointly, and is usually recorded in a signed report listing observed defects as reservations. Case law also recognizes tacit acceptance, when the owner takes possession of the work and pays the balance without objection, and judicial acceptance, ordered by a court. Its date is a legal and insurance pivot. Before acceptance, the work is in the contractor's custody, which bears the risk of damage, covered by contractors' all risks insurance and its contractual liability. On acceptance, three statutory guarantees start to run: completion for one year, proper functioning for two years, ten-year liability for ten years, and with them the compulsory construction insurance. Visible defects not reserved at acceptance are deemed accepted and can no longer be invoked under the guarantees. Hence the importance of careful acceptance, often assisted by a professional. For the ten-year liability insurer, poorly documented acceptance is a source of disputes over when its cover starts and whether defects were visible or hidden.
Textbook case: an owner moves into a new house and pays the balance, without signing an acceptance report. Two years later, settlement cracks the walls. The ten-year insurer disputes when its cover started; the court finds tacit acceptance on the move-in date, and the cover applies.
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