2024-01-20 08:00:09
And real estate agent must inform the purchaser of a home of the existence of defects which were perfectly visible. In the name of its duty to advise, the Court of Cassation ruled, in a decision rendered on December 21, 2023. In a recent case, the courts ruled in favor of a buyer who, after undertaking renovation work on a recently purchased house, complained about the poor condition of the facade joinery and the poor waterproofing of a roof terrace. .
These are external defects, the real estate agent contested, and they were perfectly visible to anyone. The poor condition of the window joinery, which was very degraded, and the traces of infiltration, could not escape anyone, according to this professional. But the Court of Cassation, which usually requires a minimum of attention from buyers during visits, ruled otherwise. If the defect was necessarily known to the buyer at the time of signing the deed, since it was enough to look, it was also necessarily known to the real estate agent who, in his capacity as a real estate professional, does not could ignore it and had to draw her client’s attention to this point, she said.
The buyer received compensation
On this basis, the judges allowed the buyer to obtain the resolution of the sale on the basis of the guarantee of hidden defects and to obtain compensation from this intermediary. In another judgment dated the same daythe Court however approved a court of appeal which explained to a purchaser that the importance of the defects in question did not allow him to complain because they had not “been able to escape a normally diligent purchaser “.
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