BUILDING SITE AND CONSTRUCTION

CONSTRUCTION INSURANCE BUILDERS’ LIABILITY

Specific extensions offered by Suisscourtage

• Cover for proper operation (separable items of equipment).

• Cover for consequential immaterial damage.

• Cover for damage to existing structures due to the performance of the new works.

• Cover for subcontractor’s liability in the event of ten-year guarantee damage.

• Architect, contractor, technical expert or other linked to the project owner by a work contract. The work contract is the agreement by which a contracting authority, i.e. the person on whose behalf the work is carried out, secures one or more persons or companies to complete it.

• The seller of a building they have constructed themselves or had built by others.

Other parties concerned are people who sell buildings that have not yet been built, property developers, builders of individual homes and technical inspectors.

Suisscourtage has acquired technical expertise in construction both in Monaco and in France, thanks to its close association with the Pastor Group . Some one hundred companies trust us for their ten-year civil liability guarantee.

BUILDER’S RESPONSIBILITIES

DURING THE WORKS

From the beginning of the work to its acceptance, you bear all the risks affecting your work (article 1788 of the Civil Code). Thus, you are responsible for damages that occur during the execution of the work, whatever the cause: theft, deterioration of materials, or loss of the work, destroyed by a fire of unknown cause, when the acceptance has not taken place, remain at your charge.

AFTER ACCEPTANCE OF THE WORKS

Builders are liable to the owner or purchaser of the building in case of defects in the construction work. Thus, after the acceptance of the work, you are bound to three types of legal obligations limited in time.

COMPLETION GUARANTEE

During the year following the reception, you must repair all the disorders, of decennial nature or not, announced by the owner at the time of the reception or during the year which follows.

OPERATIONAL WARRANTY

For two years, you are required to repair defects that affect the proper functioning of equipment that can be separated from the body of the work without deteriorating their support such as electric radiators, air conditioning …

TEN-YEAR CIVIL LIABILITY

For ten years after acceptance, you are liable to the owner for damages, including those resulting from a soil defect, which :

• compromise the solidity of the structure;

• affect the solidity of one of its inseparable elements. An element is considered as inseparable when its removal, its dismantling or its replacement cannot be carried out without deterioration or removal of material of the work;

• render the work unfit for its purpose, in which case it cannot fulfill the function for which it is intended.

You are required by law to have decennial insurance to cover this liability.

AVANT ET BEFORE AND AFTER ACCEPTANCE OF THE WORKS

Your civil liability may be sought by the project owner and third parties for bodily injury, material or immaterial damage caused during the work carried out which does not affect the work.

ACCEPTANCE AN IMPORTANT ACT

Acceptance is the procedure by which the client accepts the work, with or without reservation. It can be requested by either party, either amicably or, failing that, judicially. In any case, it is decided jointly, and in addition the builders and owner of the work must be present, represented or at least duly convened.

Most often, acceptance results in the drafting of a deed (agreed report or ruling) which although not obligatory is strongly recommended. Taking possession of the premises or simply paying for the works can only be judged a tacit acceptance if they reflect the unequivocal will of the interested party to accept the work.

Acceptance transfers custody of the work from the builder to the building owner, the builder is no longer responsible for apparent damage not reported. The date of receipt of the work, with or without reservations, marks the starting point for deadlines, liabilities and guarantees.

WHAT IS THE DURATION OF THE COMMITMENT?

You are liable for an incompressible period of ten years to the project owner and any successive purchasers. The acceptance date of the work constitutes the starting point of the liability period incumbent on you. Acceptance is the procedure by which the client states they accept the work, with or without reservation. It can be requested by either party and is generally a deed is drawn up. It is, in any case, decided jointly.

RECEPTION