1. The three statutory warranties: the summary table
The Civil Code and the Construction Code organise constructor liability around three automatic warranties. They apply as of right, without needing to be written into the contracts, from the moment practical completion has taken place.
| Warranty | Duration | Who is liable | What it covers | What it does NOT cover | How it is triggered |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| One-year making-good warranty | 1 year | The contractor holding the package | Every defect appearing within the year, whether listed at completion or notified by recorded letter | Fair wear and tear, lack of maintenance, external cause | Recorded letter to the contractor, formal notice after 15 days if there is no reply |
| Two-year warranty on equipment | 2 years | Manufacturer and installer | Removable elements of the building (equipment, joinery, roller shutters, taps, radiators) | Equipment damaged by misuse or lack of maintenance | Letter to the installer or manufacturer; if the reply is inadequate, court action within the period |
| Ten-year structural warranty | 10 years | Constructors (architect, contractors, engineers) | Defects compromising the stability of the building or making it unfit for its purpose (structure, weatherproofing, foundations) | Purely cosmetic defects with no effect on stability or fitness for purpose | Claim on the structural damage policy; the insurer funds the repairs then recovers from the constructors |
| Professional indemnity | Variable | Professional consultants (architect, engineers, economist) | Errors of design, sizing or coordination that caused a loss | Ordinary construction hazards, contractor faults unconnected with the design | Direct claim plus notification to the consultant's professional indemnity insurer |
The fundamental distinction between the three warranties is their subject matter. The one-year warranty covers any defect appearing in the first year; it is exhaustive but short-lived. The two-year warranty covers specifically the items of equipment that can be removed from the building without damaging it. The ten-year warranty covers defects that compromise stability or make the building unfit for its purpose; it is the most powerful and the hardest to establish.
2. The one-year warranty: the most neglected and the most valuable
What it actually covers
The one-year making-good warranty is widely misunderstood. It does not only cover "bad workmanship" in the everyday sense; it covers every defect appearing in the year following practical completion, whether it stems from poor execution, a defective material or a design error. The only exception is a defect resulting from fair wear and tear or from a maintenance failure on the client's part.
The trap of an incomplete snagging list
The warranty only covers defects that have been notified, either on the snagging list drawn up at completion or by recorded letter within the following year. A defect that is not notified is a right given away. That is why the snagging list at completion has to be as complete as possible, and why the design team should track the closing-out of the snags until the end of the making-good year.
ℹ The critical date: day 365 after completion The right expires exactly one year after the date of practical completion, not one year after the defect was discovered. A defect found on day 350 must be notified before day 365. A defect found on day 366, however obviously it stems from poor execution, falls under the two-year or ten-year warranty, with harder conditions to satisfy. Good practice: schedule a systematic inspection at month eleven, a month before the warranty expires, to identify and notify every defect that has appeared during the year.
3. The ten-year warranty: the most powerful, the least well used
What it covers
The ten-year warranty (articles 1792 and following of the Civil Code) covers, for ten years from practical completion, defects that compromise the stability of the building or make it unfit for its purpose. That wording is broader than it looks: persistent water ingress that makes a flat uninhabitable does compromise the building's fitness for purpose, even if it poses no threat to its stability.
Structural damage insurance: the indispensable pre-funder
The ten-year warranty is a liability of the constructors, but obtaining compensation by pursuing the constructors directly takes years. That is why the 1978 legislation requires the client to take out structural damage insurance before the works start. The policy funds the repairs without any prior determination of liability, then recovers from whichever constructors turn out to be responsible.
Failing to comply with that legal obligation exposes the client to criminal sanctions and, more importantly, means the property can only be sold as an uninsured building, which collapses its resale value and creates a personal liability towards each successive buyer.
4. The most frequent post-handover defects
| Defect | Warranty | Average repair cost | Most frequent cause | Likely cover |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Façade cracking (non-structural) | 1 yr / 10 yr | 5 – 30 k€ | Render shrinkage, poorly formed joint | One-year if under a year, ten-year if stability is affected |
| Roof water ingress | 1 yr / 10 yr | 8 – 50 k€ | Weatherproofing defect, badly formed valley | Ten-year if recurrent, one-year if listed at completion |
| Structural defect (concrete cracking) | Ten-year | 50 – 500 k€ | Inadequate foundations, poorly placed concrete | Ten-year necessarily, funded by the structural damage policy |
| Inadequate sound insulation | 1 yr / 10 yr | 20 – 80 k€ | Undersized partitions, badly formed junctions | Ten-year if habitability is affected, one-year otherwise |
| Faulty roller shutter | Two-year | 0,5 – 2 k€ each | Manufacturing defect or poor installation | Two-year, installer or manufacturer |
| Boiler or heat pump failure | Two-year | 2 – 8 k€ | Manufacturing defect in the equipment | Two-year against the manufacturer if within two years |
| Tiling debonding (floor or wall) | 1 yr / 2 yr | 5 – 20 k€ | Adhesive failure, missing movement joints | One-year if under a year, two-year if it is removable equipment |
| Basement water ingress | Ten-year | 20 – 150 k€ | Inadequate tanking, drainage failure | Ten-year; it compromises the use of the space |
| Accessibility non-compliance found after completion | Professional indemnity | 30 – 100 k€ | Design error by the architect or the engineer | Consultant's professional indemnity, direct claim by the client |
Two defects deserve particular attention. Roof and basement water ingress are the most frequent and the most expensive, and they fall under the ten-year warranty when recurrent, which makes the structural damage claim the first reflex. Accessibility non-compliances discovered after completion fall under the professional indemnity of whichever consultant made the design error, a claim clients often overlook because they wrongly assume that practical completion amounts to final acceptance.
5. The step-by-step procedure for each warranty
| Step | One-year warranty | Two-year warranty | Ten-year warranty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Recording | Record the defect as soon as it appears, dated photograph plus precise description | The same | Have a bailiff record it if the defect is serious, for incontestable evidence |
| Notification | Recorded letter to the contractor with a description and a 15-day deadline to attend | Recorded letter to the manufacturer and the installer | Claim to the structural damage insurer within five working days of becoming aware of the loss |
| Response time | Reply within 15 days, otherwise formal notice and intervention | Formal notice within 30 days if there is no reply | The insurer has 60 days to make an offer and 90 days to pay |
| If refused | Apply to the court for the urgent appointment of a court expert | The same, urgent application | If the offer is inadequate, action against the insurer plus action against the responsible constructors |
| Limitation | Action before the first anniversary of completion, plus one further year after the defect is recorded | Action within two years of completion; the days count | Ten years from completion, running from the completion date, not from discovery |
| Budget allowance | Budget 0,5 – 1 % of the works cost for warranty follow-up (design team and economist) | Low cost, handled by the client directly | Structural damage premium of 1,5 – 3 % of the works cost, to be provided for before the works start |
ℹ The warranty follow-up fee: often missing from the design appointment Following up the making-good warranty, the month-eleven inspection, drafting the notifications, tracking the closing-out of the snags, is a duty that many design appointments never formalise, and that many architects therefore never perform systematically. Writing an explicit fixed fee for warranty follow-up into the appointment (800 to 2 000 € depending on the size of the project) is an investment that prevents a great many defects going untreated. A well-drafted notification, descriptive, located, with a stated closing-out criterion, is often the difference between a repair at the contractor's cost and a dispute at the client's.
6. Off-plan sales and buyer warranties: the special case
Where a home is sold off plan, the buyers of new dwellings enjoy the same three statutory warranties, but the clock starts on the date their own flat is handed over to them, not on the date the developer took over the building from the contractors.
The completion guarantee, specific to off-plan sales, assures buyers that the works will be finished even if the developer fails. It is compulsory for every off-plan sale and is provided either by a bank, which is the more robust form, or out of the developer's own resources, which offers less protection.
- A point to watch for developers: a bank completion guarantee costs 0,5 to 1 % of the total sale value and has to be budgeted from the moment the scheme is structured. Its absence, or a poorly structured in-house version, is a major legal and reputational risk.
In summary
Three statutory warranties protect the client after practical completion: the one-year making-good warranty (every defect, notification compulsory before day 365), the two-year warranty (removable equipment) and the ten-year warranty (stability and fitness for purpose, pre-funded by structural damage insurance). The most frequent and expensive defects are roof and basement water ingress (ten-year, 8 to 150 k€), structural cracking (ten-year, 50 to 500 k€) and late accessibility non-compliances (professional indemnity, 30 to 100 k€). Triggering any of them comes down to one reflex: a recorded letter within the deadline, plus a structural damage claim for any recurrent water ingress. Scheduling an inspection at month eleven is the simplest and cheapest preventive measure there is.
The nature of the figures quoted
The percentages and amounts quoted on this page are orders of magnitude for framing, not measurements. They illustrate mechanisms and proportions, and they substitute neither for a tender exercise nor for an estimate prepared on drawings.
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Sources: the BT construction cost indices published monthly by INSEE on its 2010 base, used to update the figures · construction cost statistics from SDES, the statistical service of the ministry responsible for construction · regulatory texts published in the Journal officiel and consolidated on Légifrance for the requirements cited.