Tacit acceptance of building works may result from a sale mandate given to an estate agent

Private individuals had structural, framing and roofing works carried out on their house. In March 2007 they sold the plot together with the building, which was still under construction. On 16 September 2016, the buyers complained of defects and brought summary proceedings against the sellers for an expert assessment; the builder and its insurer were joined to the proceedings. Sued on the merits, the insurer relied on the 10-year time bar running from the tacit acceptance of the works. The court of appeal upheld this defence.

The French Supreme Court (Cour de cassation) dismissed the appeal: the sellers, as project owners, had instructed an estate agent to sell the property on 8 August 2006, so that by that date at the latest they had accepted the works as they stood in order to sell them on. They had thus shown an unequivocal intention to accept the works, and the tacit acceptance had to be set at that date. The warranty claim brought on 16 September 2016 was therefore time-barred.