Construction insurance: No cover if the activity causing the damage is not declared
Published on :
05/08/2025
05
August
Aug
08
2025
Source: www.legifrance.gouv.fr
The project owners had a wood-frame house built. After acceptance, defects appeared. They sued the builders and their insurers on the basis of the ten-year warranty. The insurer of the ‘“wood frame” lot was cleared by the Court of Appeal on the grounds that the policy expressly excluded wood frame houses from the scope of the declared activity.
The Court of Appeal considered that this clause did not constitute an exclusion of cover in the strict sense, but a limitation of the scope of the insured activity. It also noted that the defects affected only elements specific to the wood frame, which were not covered by the warranty.
The Court of Cassation confirmed this analysis. It ruled that the disputed clause limited the warranty according to the declared professional activity and that the defects in question fell within the scope of an uninsured activity.
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