French construction law time limits all run from one single event: the réception des travaux, the formal acceptance of the completed works. They do not run from the day a crack appears, from the day a survey confirms the damage, or from the day a purchase completes at the notary. For an international buyer of a newly built villa, a renovated apartment or a development plot in France, that starting point decides whether a defect claim is still open or already extinguished.
Key points
- Every statutory warranty runs from réception, the formal acceptance of the works defined in article 1792-6 of the Code civil.
- Ten years for structural damage or unfitness for purpose (articles 1792 and 1792-4-1), a minimum of two years for other equipment (article 1792-3), one year for snagging (article 1792-6).
- Article 1792 binds the constructor towards the maître ou acquéreur de l’ouvrage, the client who ordered the works or the person who buys them, so a later purchaser inherits the balance of the ten years.
- The ten-year period of article 1792-4-3, which covers damage falling outside the statutory warranties, is a forclusion, a fixed cut-off. The Cour de cassation held on 10 June 2021 that an acknowledgement by the debtor does not interrupt it.
- Under article 2241, a court application, including an emergency référé, interrupts a forclusion period. Article 2244 adds conservatory measures and enforcement acts.
- Dommages-ouvrage insurance, the no-fault cover taken out on the owner’s side, must be in place before the site opens and follows successive owners (article L. 242-1 of the Code des assurances).
Why the acceptance date, not the purchase date, sets the clock
Article 1792-6 of the Code civil defines réception as the act by which the client declares acceptance of the works, with or without reservations. It happens at the request of the more diligent party, amicably or failing that judicially, and it is always pronounced in the presence of both sides. The document recording it, the procès-verbal de réception, carries the date from which every French construction law time limit is counted.
For a resale purchase, the consequence is direct. A house accepted in June 2019 and bought in 2026 arrives with roughly three years of ten-year cover left, not ten. The acceptance report therefore belongs in the due diligence file alongside the title deed, and its absence is itself a finding.
Foreign buyers are a small but high-value share of the market. The Notaires de France study covering 2022 put foreign non-residents at 1.8 percent of transactions in existing housing in metropolitan France, with Belgian buyers first at 19 percent of the purchases made by that group, British buyers second at 17 percent and German buyers third. A study published by the bank CCF in July 2024 found that the average acquisition by a foreign non-resident in 2023 stood at 364,000 euros, against 230,000 euros for resident buyers.
Forclusion: the cut-off that ends the claim
French law separates two families of deadline. Ordinary limitation, prescription, is set for personal and movable-property claims by article 2224 of the Code civil: five years from the day the holder of a right knew or should have known the facts enabling them to exercise it. Knowledge moves the starting point. A forclusion works differently: article 2220 states that forclusion periods are not governed by the prescription rules unless the law provides otherwise.
French practitioners group these questions under the heading forclusion en droit de la construction, the label used by French practices working in construction law such as Tabordet-Merigoux Avocats. The label decides which toolbox applies: article 2220 places the Code civil title on extinctive prescription, articles 2219 to 2254, outside the period, so the suspension and interruption rules set out in that title reach a forclusion only where a text says so.
The Cour de cassation, third civil chamber, ruled on 10 June 2021 (appeal no. 20-16.837, published in the Bulletin) that the ten-year period for suing constructors under article 1792-4-3 is a forclusion period, not governed by the prescription rules unless otherwise provided, and that an acknowledgement of the right by the debtor does not interrupt it. Article 2241 provides that a court application, even in référé, interrupts both prescription and forclusion, and article 2244 adds a conservatory measure or an act of forced enforcement taken under the code des procédures civiles d’exécution.
Which warranty covers what, and for how long
Several regimes overlap in the years following acceptance, and they do not all start or end together. The table below sets out which French construction law time limit applies to a given defect, and on which article it rests.
| Regime | What it covers | Duration | Runs from | Who is bound / basis |
| Garantie de parfait achèvement | All defects listed as reservations in the acceptance report, or notified in writing afterwards. Excludes normal wear and normal use. | 1 year | Réception | The contractor. Article 1792-6 |
| Garantie de bon fonctionnement (biennale) | The “other” equipment elements, meaning those that do not form an indissociable part of the works listed in article 1792-2. | Minimum 2 years | Réception | The constructor. Article 1792-3 |
| Garantie décennale | Damage, including damage from a soil defect, compromising the solidity of the works or making them unfit for their purpose. Article 1792-2 extends the same liability to damage affecting the solidity of equipment that forms an indissociable part of the site servicing, foundation, frame, envelope or roof works. | 10 years | Réception | Every constructor, strict liability towards the owner or the purchaser. Articles 1792, 1792-2, 1792-4-1 |
| Other claims (désordres intermédiaires) | Damage falling outside the statutory warranties above. | 10 years | Réception | Constructors and their subcontractors. Article 1792-4-3 |
| Claims against a subcontractor | Damage under articles 1792 and 1792-2, and separately equipment under article 1792-3. | 10 years, or 2 years | Réception | The subcontractor. Article 1792-4-2 |
Article 1792 sets strict liability: the constructor escapes only by proving that the damage comes from an external cause. Article 1792-4-1 then discharges him ten years after acceptance. In the 2026 edition of its Observatoire de la qualité de la construction, published on 18 June 2026 from its Sycodés claims database, the Agence Qualité Construction reports that water-tightness failures accounted for 67 percent of decennial defects over 2023 to 2025, ahead of stability defects at 11 percent.
Dommages-ouvrage insurance and the successive owner
Article L. 242-1 of the Code des assurances requires anyone commissioning construction works as owner, seller or agent of the owner to take out insurance before the site opens, on their own account or on that of successive owners. Public bodies, and large companies building for a use other than housing, are outside that obligation. The cover pays for repairing damage of the kind for which constructors are liable under article 1792, and it does so en dehors de toute recherche des responsabilités, without first establishing who is at fault. It takes effect once the one-year parfait achèvement period has expired.
Two situations open the cover earlier, both of them after a formal notice that has gone unanswered: where the building contract is terminated before acceptance because the contractor has not performed, and where the contractor has not carried out its obligations after acceptance.
The same article imposes a timetable on the insurer: sixty days from the claim declaration to notify its position on cover, ninety days to present an indemnity offer, and fifteen days to pay once the insured accepts. If the insurer misses one of those deadlines or offers a manifestly insufficient sum, the insured may notify the insurer, commit the repair expenditure, and receive an indemnity increased by interest at twice the legal rate. On a recently built or heavily renovated property, the policy sits in the same due diligence file as the acceptance report.
Two scenarios that show how the deadlines bite
In the first case, works are accepted on 12 March 2018, so ten years run to March 2028. Cracking appears on the external render in 2026. It neither compromises the solidity of the building nor makes it unfit for its purpose, so the claim falls outside the statutory warranties and is governed by article 1792-4-3. The owner writes to the builder, the builder admits the defect in writing, and the exchange runs past March 2028 with nothing filed in court. Under the 10 June 2021 ruling that admission does not restart the period, because article 2220 keeps the prescription rules out. A court application under article 2241, including a référé to appoint a judicial expert, would have interrupted it.
In the second, a buyer acquires in 2024 a property accepted in 2016. Infiltration appears in 2025. Article 1792 makes the constructor liable towards the acquéreur as well as the original client, so the new owner can act, but only on the balance of the original ten years, which article 1792-4-1 closes in 2026. Ownership changed; the clock did not.
Frequently asked questions
Does the ten-year warranty transfer to me when I buy an existing French property?
Article 1792 of the Code civil states the constructor’s strict liability towards the maître ou acquéreur de l’ouvrage. A subsequent purchaser can therefore rely on it. What transfers is the remaining balance of the ten years counted from the original acceptance of the works, not a fresh ten-year period.
What is the difference between forclusion and prescription in French law?
Prescription under article 2224 runs, for personal and movable-property claims, for five years from the day the right holder knew or should have known the facts. A forclusion period runs from a fixed event, here the acceptance of the works, and article 2220 excludes it from the prescription rules unless a text provides otherwise. Practically, the mechanisms that suspend or interrupt an ordinary limitation period cannot be assumed to apply.
Does writing to the builder or their insurer stop the deadline?
Not by itself. In its decision of 10 June 2021 (appeal no. 20-16.837), the third civil chamber of the Cour de cassation held that an acknowledgement by the debtor does not interrupt the forclusion period of article 1792-4-3. Article 2241 provides that a court application, even in référé, interrupts both prescription and forclusion periods.
This article is general information on French law and is not legal advice. The rules described apply to construction in France and their application depends on the facts of each project.
Sources
- Code civil, articles 1787 to 1799-1, including articles 1792 to 1792-6, Légifrance, legifrance.gouv.fr/codes/section_lc/LEGITEXT000006070721/LEGISCTA000006150293
- Code civil, article 2220, Légifrance, legifrance.gouv.fr/codes/article_lc/LEGIARTI000019017126
- Code civil, article 2224, Légifrance, legifrance.gouv.fr/codes/article_lc/LEGIARTI000019017112
- Code civil, article 2241, Légifrance, legifrance.gouv.fr/codes/article_lc/LEGIARTI000019017098
- Code civil, article 2244, Légifrance, legifrance.gouv.fr/codes/article_lc/LEGIARTI000025033281
- Code des assurances, article L. 242-1, Légifrance, legifrance.gouv.fr/codes/article_lc/LEGIARTI000019265425
- Cour de cassation, 3e civ., 10 June 2021, no. 20-16.837, published in the Bulletin, Légifrance, legifrance.gouv.fr/juri/id/JURITEXT000043658820
- Agence Qualité Construction, Observatoire de la qualité de la construction, 2026 edition, published 18 June 2026, qualiteconstruction.com/actualite/desordres-decennaux-aqc-2026-flop-10-sinistralite-francaise-06-2026/
- Notaires de France, foreign non-residents on the French property market, 2022 data, notaires.fr
- CCF, who buys real estate in France, study published July 2024, groupeccf.fr/en/press-release-who-buys-real-estate-france
