Our guarantees. MCA Maisons de la Côte Atlantique, builder of houses since 1986 with more than 750 sales in 2007, present throughout Aquitaine and Charentes with 34 agencies.

Building without Damage Repair Insurance

Building without financial guarantees for completion at the agreed price and on the agreed date

This insurance is a legal requirement

The cost of this is around 6% of building costs (Note that this is not the mandatory 10-year building defects insurance for which the company is responsible)

Some Project Managers or Contractors claim to provide these policies together in one insurance package, this is not how it works!!!
The Damage Repair Insurance has to be a policy between you and an insurance company (with you named in the policy)

As it is you who takes out the policy with the insurer, this requires that you sign up to a ten-year policy in your name.

In ensuring that the work is carried out correctly, the insurer will require you to use a specialist concrete structural engineer.
These are additional fees you will have to pay, and, also additional requirements that will not make the Contractor happy, because the contractor will be subject to inspection and thus less able to manipulate you.



Contractors or project managers that do not offer this sort of contract fall into the following categories:

• Either they have been refused cover by the financial sector.
• Or they are not concerned about your future as in the event of a problem with their company you will have to cope with the suspension or abandoning of work, with the consequences:
  The manager may authorise you to restart the work with other contractors chosen by you
  
  • Once the work actually carried out has been assessed and inspected by a Court appointed expert.
  • you have paid them the money they estimate due.

Restarting work in the place of another contractor is not something insurance companies like because of issues with liability in the event of a claim.

This means that whoever takes over for you, will not be offering any bargains.

The outcome of this will be completion delayed by around 1 year, and a cost increase of around 40%.



The legislation known as the "Spinetta Law" defined the requirements in terms of construction insurance, for both:

• Industry - contractors, tradesmen, project managers, architects = 10-year building defect and Civil Liability insurance.
• Individuals = the owner (the client) must have a Damage Repair cover policy contracted directly with the insurance company.

This is stated in the Planning Permission: "Damage repair insurance must be held by the owner before the start of the work"

Under Article L243-3 of the French Insurance Code any person failing to comply with the provisions of Articles L.241-1 to L.242-1 of that Code can be punished by a term of imprisonment of six months and a fine of €75,000.

• With the company’s 10-year building defect liability insurance it is your responsibility to prove that the contractor is liable.
  This is often impossible to do, and if the contractor no longer exists, or has even just changed its name as is often the case, you will find yourself without any protection in the event of having to enforce a claim.
  
  The advantage of contracting your own insurance contract directly with your insurer is that you are covered against this eventuality, and you have not been a party to any bad faith on the part of a contractor, or its failure.
   
• The impossibility of selling the house for 10 year, the Notary and legal officials cannot draw up legal documents that are in breach of the law.
  
  If you do sell a house you built, or had built, within the previous 10 years you are required to provide the purchaser with a Damage Repair guarantee in the same way that those in the construction industry are required to provide the 10-year building defects insurance – Supreme Court ruling of 12 March 1997 -
   
• Some financial services providers will not release funds for the construction work.

If you negotiate this yourself, this will cost you about 6% of building costs.
You will also be required to appoint a concrete structural engineer (on top of the 6%).

MCA has negotiated with 2 insurance companies to obtain special prices for these policies for our clients. The cost of this separate Damage Repair insurance policy is included in our prices.



This guarantee is also known as the "Performance Bond"
This is one of the main provisions of the law passed in December 1990 increasing protection for purchasers. It is also mandatory for anyone building houses.
You must ensure your contract contains, at the latest with the start of work, the declaration of the guarantee of completion at the agreed price and on the agreed date.
This guarantee must be in your name and be issued by the guarantor itself in the form of an original document. This guarantee is an absolute guarantee for you and gives you the certainty that your house will be build under the best possible conditions.

• Who?
  The key innovation in the 1990 law was that this guarantee became mandatory for all contractors, regardless of what they were called (builders, contractors, project managers, tradesmen, etc.), who were engaged in the construction of a dwelling within the meaning of Article L.231-1 of the French Construction and Housing Code.
   
• Why?
  The fact that this guarantee has been provided means that a approved credit organisation, or specifically insurance company, is acting as the guarantor for your builder and has made a commitment on its behalf to you whatever happens.
   
• How?
  The guarantee of completion works in your favour in a number of cases:
  • To guarantee the agreed price in the event of the failure of the builder: your house will be completed at the price as agreed in the initial contract.
  • To guarantee completion: in the event of the failure, for instance, bankruptcy, of the builder, the guarantor undertakes the continuation of the work at the same price and with the same deadlines.
  • Whatever happens you have protection from all the risks associated with the failure of your builder.
  • To guarantee meeting the deadline: if the builder fails to meet the deadline, the guarantor takes responsibility for the agreed contractual late completion penalties when the delay exceeds 30 days.

The house construction contract is precisely defined by the law of 19 December 1990, whose provisions are matter of public order. The client has only one point of contact: the builder.

The day after the first submission of the recorded delivery letter acting as notice of the signed contract, the client has a cooling down period of 7 days in which to withdraw.

The content of the contract is checked by the lender which makes sure that all the mandatory clauses have been included.

When the contract is signed, the client knows the total cost of the construction project. This price is definitive - this means that it can only be changed during the construction subject to joint agreement between the parties.

If an advance is paid to the builder on the signing of the contract, the builder must have a reimbursement bond that will enter into force if the suspensive conditions have not been satisfied within the period as agreed or if work is not started on the agreed date.

Price reviews are regulated as the law lays down two options for price reviews based on movements in the BT 01 index.

Payments are governed by the law which sets a maximum percentage of the agreed price that can be required by the builder at each stage of the construction.

The builder agrees to perform all of the construction work within a time limit specified in the contract, if there is a delay, late delivery penalties become payable.

Once the work is started, the client has the reassurance of knowing that even if the builder fails, the house will be completed at the agreed price and by the date agreed thanks to the completion guarantee which is mandatory in all house building contracts.



In place as of the start of the work or the contract is null and void:

• Mca will provide you with a certificate of 10-year Damage Repair insurance in your name.
• Mca will provide you with an insurance certificate for the financial completion guarantee.

On signing
You will not be asked to hand over any advance payment cheque.
A soil survey will be carried out in your presence, to check the quality of the ground on your piece of land.