The final account: steps, statutory time limits and points of vigilance

The final account comes after handover, which starts the statutory time limits running. It should not be confused with the last interim valuation, which is a monthly progress document: the final account is the definitive settlement, encompassing and closing all the valuations that preceded it.

Its structure is cumulative. It restates the original contract sum, adds every signed variation, deducts contractual damages and retention, and arrives at the total due to the contractor over the whole contract. The balance shown is the difference between that total and the sum of the valuations already paid.

ℹ The final account and the statutory warranties: two different horizons Signing the final account settles the contract financially, but it does not end the contractor's obligations. The statutory warranties run independently: the one-year defects liability period, the two-year warranty on equipment, and the ten-year structural liability. Retention itself is repaid within thirty days of the end of the guarantee period or, where defects notified during that period have not been cleared by its end, within thirty days of their clearing (R2191-35), or replaced by an on-demand bank guarantee where the contract so provides.

On public contracts governed by the general conditions, the final account procedure is rigorously framed. Each step carries a time limit whose breach has precise consequences for whoever is responsible.

The most critical steps are the contractor's submission of its statement, the design team's tacit agreement, and payment of the balance. A design team that fails to respond to the draft final statement within 30 days has agreed to it tacitly, even if it contains contestable items. A client slow to authorise the balance generates interest automatically.

ℹ Claims being barred The step most often overlooked is the bar on claims: if the contractor does not object to the general account within 30 days of notification, it permanently loses the right to claim, even where it believes items have been unfairly excluded. The rule cuts both ways: it protects the client against late claims, but it obliges the economist to make sure the account issued to the contractor is complete and correct before notification.

A properly drawn final account contains the following, in this order:

• The original contract: the sum notified at signature, before variations.
• The signed variations: a list and the amount of each, with its number and date of signature. Work carried out without a signed variation does not appear, which is precisely why formalising variations during construction matters so much.
• Price revisions: the contractual revisions calculated on the parametric formula in the administrative conditions, with the reference indices at the date of application.
• Delay damages: the number of days of delay established, the contractual daily rate, the total deducted. The economist checks that they are correctly calculated and that the base contract period, before any extensions granted, is the one used.
• Retention: 5 % of the total excluding VAT, deducted cumulatively from the valuations. It is repaid within thirty days of the end of the guarantee period or, where defects notified during that period have not been cleared by its end, within thirty days of their clearing (R2191-35).
• The net balance: the amount due to the contractor after deducting every valuation paid, the damages and the retention.

How to read it: on this package the client has already paid 189,000 € through the monthly valuations. The final account establishes a balance of 9,660 € payable immediately, plus 10,500 € of retention to be repaid within thirty days of the end of the guarantee period or, where defects notified during that period have not been cleared by its end, within thirty days of their clearing (R2191-35). The rate of 1/3000 of the value of the whole contract excluding VAT per day of delay is the one in the CCAG-Travaux 2021 (art. 19.2.3), for a contract that refers to it. The same CCAG, however, exempts the contractor from damages whose total does not exceed 1,000 € for the whole contract (art. 19.2.1): the 840 € in this example would therefore not be applied under a contract that keeps to the CCAG on this point.

The economist makes sure every signed variation is included, no more and no less. An omitted variation prejudices the contractor; an unsigned one included in the final statement creates a contractual commitment the client never approved.

Calculating revisions is a frequent source of error and dispute. The economist verifies the indices used, reference date, base index and index at application, the parametric formula applied and the result. In a period of strong material inflation the effect of revisions can be significant, several percentage points on long contracts.

Delay damages are calculated on the real contract period, taking account of every extension granted by written instruction during construction. A calculation that overlooks a legitimate 15-day extension can generate a dispute over a substantial sum.

If the contractor has carried out additional work without a signed variation and includes it in its draft statement, the economist must handle it precisely. On public contracts, work carried out without a written instruction is not, in principle, payable. On private contracts, the account procedure is the one the contract sets, and standard NF P 03-001 applies only if the contract lists it among its contract documents. Under a lump-sum contract within the meaning of article 1793 of the Civil Code, which covers the construction of a building to a plan settled and agreed with the landowner, the contractor can obtain an additional payment only for a change authorised in writing, at a price agreed with the client. The courts require that prior agreement; failing it, the additional payment is due only if the client accepted the works expressly and unequivocally once carried out, and neither its silence on the final statement nor failure to follow the account-closing procedure amounts to such acceptance (Cass. 3e civ., 8 June 2023, no. 22-10.393, published in the bulletin). Silence can, on the other hand, prove costly on the rest of the statement where the standard's procedure has been agreed: clients deemed to have accepted it could no longer raise either delay damages or the cost of remedying a defect recorded at handover (Cass. 3e civ., 6 July 2023, no. 21-25.214, published in the bulletin).

The contractor may contest the general account if it considers that work carried out has not been paid for, that the damages are unjustified or excessive, or that the price revisions have been miscalculated. It has 30 days from notification to record its objections and its claim.

The economist examines those claims: verifying the material the contractor produces, setting its reading of the file against the contractor's, and proposing a settlement to the client. If disagreement persists, litigation or arbitration takes over.

The client may for its part contest items it considers non-compliant or not carried out. The economist helps document those objections precisely: reference to the specification, the handover certificate with its defects, inspection reports. An insufficiently documented objection rarely succeeds.

The final account is the document that closes a works contract financially. Producing it follows a precise timetable whose breach carries direct contractual consequences: tacit agreement, interest for late payment, claims barred. Its content brings together the original contract, the variations, the price revisions, the damages and the retention to arrive at the net balance due. Rigour in drawing it up, checking the variations included, verifying the revisions, handling work done without a variation, is what guarantees a calm close with no residual dispute.

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.