Is one responsible for the work one does oneself?

Are you an individual and are you planning to sell your home on which you have carried out important work yourself? As such, you are considered to be the "contracting authority". For some work, you are a “builder” and you are liable for the same guarantees as a trader, including the ten-year guarantee.

Home buyers sued the property's sellers because in 2016, just over a year after the transaction, they discovered cracks in a wall separating their property from the neighboring plot, ripping out vegetation on top of it. The vendors built the retaining wall themselves in 2007. An investigation revealed a bulging of the wall with a risk of collapse.

Are salespeople responsible?

Service-Public.fr replies:

In that case, the appeals court first dismissed the seller’s liability, on the grounds that “no construction contract” was binding on buyers and sellers.

However, the Court of Cassation ruled on the contrary that "a person who sells, after completion, a work which he has built or has had built, is deemed to be a builder, is liable for fault", in case of malpractice.

This applies to construction, renovation, extension or elevation work.

In addition, since the damage was discovered less than 10 years after the wall was built, the ten-year warranty applied.