No Decennale Insurance in France: What Penalties Apply?

Under French law, article L.243-3 of the Code des assurances (France's Insurance Code) makes it a criminal offence to build without garantie décennale (France's mandatory ten-year structural liability cover for construction professionals): up to six months' imprisonment and a €75,000 fine, or either penalty alone. The obligation applies both to the builder and to the professional project owner, with an exception for private individuals building their own home.

The essentials

• Building without decennale cover is a criminal offence under article L.243-3 of the Code des assurances: up to 6 months' imprisonment and a €75,000 fine, or either penalty alone.
• The obligation covers both the builder's garantie décennale and the professional project owner's dommages-ouvrage (mandatory pre-financing property damage cover taken out by the project owner, ahead of any liability finding) — both fall under articles L.241-1 to L.242-1 of the same code.
• Only an individual building a home for themselves, their spouse, or their ascendants or descendants to live in is exempt.
• An insurer's refusal to provide cover does not excuse the obligation: the legal remedy is to refer the case to the Bureau central de tarification (BCT — France's central rate-setting bureau, which can compel an insurer to cover a risk it has refused), not to start work uninsured.
• Lack of insurance does not erase the builder's underlying ten-year civil liability toward the client: the builder still owes repairs, just without an insurer sharing the risk.

What exactly does French law say about building without decennale insurance?

Article L.243-3 of the Code des assurances punishes anyone who breaches the insurance obligation set out in articles L.241-1 to L.242-1 of the same code with six months' imprisonment and a €75,000 fine, or either penalty alone. This is a maximum sentence; the code does not publish data on how often prosecutions are actually brought, so no conviction statistic can be cited without a primary source.

The text is short but broad in scope: it does not only apply to garantie décennale in the strict sense (the builder's cover). It applies to the entire mandatory construction-insurance regime set out in articles L.241-1 to L.242-1, which also includes the dommages-ouvrage cover taken out by the project owner. A failure to hold either falls under the same offence.

Who is covered by this insurance obligation?

Two parties are subject to distinct insurance obligations, sanctioned by the same article: the builder, who must take out garantie décennale before work starts, and the professional project owner, who must take out dommages-ouvrage. A private individual building to live in the home themselves, or to house a close relative, is not covered.

Situation	Insurance required	Covered by L.243-3
Construction company carrying out the works	Garantie décennale (ten-year builder's liability cover)	Yes
Professional project owner (developer, landlord, company)	Dommages-ouvrage	Yes
Individual building a home to live in themselves, or to house a spouse, ascendant or descendant	No obligation	Not covered

This distinction matters in practice: a subcontractor working on a site is subject to the same garantie décennale obligation as a main contractor, as soon as its work engages ten-year liability under article 1792 of the French Civil Code. The exemption for owner-occupiers never applies to a business.

From what point is the offence established?

French legal practice treats the absence of decennale insurance as an instantaneous offence: it is committed as soon as the site opens if the mandatory insurance has not been taken out by that date. No claim needs to occur, and no client needs to complain, for the offence to exist.

This classification affects the limitation period for criminal prosecution: the clock starts running from the date the site opened without insurance, not from the date a later claim reveals the lack of cover. For a company, this means that fixing the situation after the fact, once work has started uninsured, does not erase the offence already established when the site opened.

Does an insurer's refusal to provide cover excuse the obligation?

No. An insurer's refusal to cover a company or a project owner does not suspend the legal obligation to be insured, and therefore does not remove the offence if work starts regardless. French law provides a specific remedy for a refusal: referring the case to the Bureau central de tarification (BCT), which can compel an insurer to cover the risk, leaving the insurer to set the premium.

A company facing an explicit or implicit refusal does not have a choice between waiting and starting work uninsured: the lawful path is to open the BCT procedure before the site starts, precisely to avoid falling under article L.243-3.

Does lack of insurance erase the builder's liability toward the client?

No, and this point is often misunderstood. The absence of decennale insurance does not erase the underlying ten-year liability itself, which stems from article 1792 of the French Civil Code and applies to the builder regardless of insurance. An uninsured builder remains liable, for ten years from handover, to repair damage that compromises the structure's soundness or makes it unfit for its purpose.

What disappears without insurance is the risk-sharing: if a claim arises, the builder must pay for repairs out of its own funds, with no insurer stepping in. For a construction SME, an uncovered ten-year liability claim can represent an amount far beyond available cash, with a direct risk to the company's survival.

Frequently asked questions

Can the offence of building without decennale insurance be prosecuted years after the site opened?

The limitation period starts running from the date the site opened without insurance, since this is an instantaneous offence. For a criminal offence of this category (délit), the limitation period is six years (article 8 of the French Code of Criminal Procedure, as amended by law n° 2017-242 of 27 February 2017), subject to any acts that interrupt it.

Can a company's director be prosecuted personally?

Article L.243-3 targets "anyone" who breaches the insurance obligation, without distinguishing by the builder's legal form. In practice, criminal liability can therefore be pursued against the director who allowed the site to open uninsured, in addition to or instead of the company itself.

Does an individual building their main residence need to take out dommages-ouvrage cover?

No, provided the home is intended to be occupied by the individual, their spouse, or their ascendants or descendants: this situation is expressly excluded from the insurance obligation set out in articles L.241-1 to L.242-1 of the Code des assurances, and therefore from the article L.243-3 penalty.

What can a company do if no insurer will cover it before a site opens?

French law provides for referral to the Bureau central de tarification in case of an explicit or implicit refusal. This procedure allows a company to obtain the designation of an insurer required to cover the risk, for a premium the insurer sets itself, and to avoid starting work uninsured.

Does building without decennale insurance have consequences beyond criminal penalties?

Yes. Beyond the penalties under article L.243-3, an uninsured company remains civilly liable for ten-year defects out of its own funds, and is often excluded in practice from public contracts and many private contracts, which require a valid decennale insurance certificate before a site opens.

What McLer does

McLer is an insurance brokerage specialised in corporate risk for the French road transport and construction sectors. Based in the Paris region, McLer supports French SMEs and mid-sized companies in structuring, negotiating and managing their insurance programmes.

Wondering about your decennale or dommages-ouvrage cover? Depending on your situation, several options exist to secure your business — the McLer team can help you make sense of them.

This article describes insurance obligations under French law and is intended for readers seeking to understand the French construction insurance framework.