Monday, July 27, 2009

The changing face of building in France

In our local area work for some builders appears to be drying up and several local builders have closed down. The august break means that a there will be no change in this situation. It appears that medium to large sized companies are being affected the most at the moment. We have seen offers of 30% discount in prices for building work being offered by some unknown or newly formed companies, however 30% of what is not clear.
The introduction of a new way of registering a company in France means in effect anyone can set up a business as a tradesman without any qualifications or experience and without the need for a ten year guarantee for building work. All this means, in a roundabout way is that the customer takes on the responsibility for vetting the competence of tradesmen.
This seems to imply that in case of faulty, bad or dangerous workmanship the only option open to the dissatisfied or injured client is direct legal action against the tradesman concerned, whereas at present, a claim is made against the insurance company that the registered tradesmen has to have.
As far as the liability of these new businesses are concerned it appears that certain assets can be declared as "unseizeable" which means that any claims for damages may be limited, or non-existant.

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