Construction law is a complex area that applies at every stage of a building’s life: from design to completion, and well beyond, through the statutory guarantees that apply for several years after handover.
Before the dispute — advice and prevention
A significant part of the firm’s work takes place before any litigation, to secure your project and prevent difficulties:
- Review and negotiation of contracts (works contracts, individual house-building contracts, off-plan/VEFA, architect or sub-contracting agreements) before they are signed;
- Assistance at works acceptance: recording of reservations, advice on the guarantees available, securing your rights for the future;
- Analysis of guarantees and insurance (dommages-ouvrage, decennial guarantee) to check their scope and the conditions for triggering them;
- Amicable resolution: formal notice, amicable expert appraisal, negotiation with the company or its insurer to try to settle the dispute without court proceedings.
Owners and developers
Have you had construction or renovation work carried out and defects have appeared? Were defects noted at handover or discovered in the months that followed? Maître Toorawa assists you in asserting your rights against the contractor, its insurer or in expert proceedings.
Several statutory guarantees apply: the perfect completion guarantee (1 year), the two-year guarantee for equipment items, and the ten-year decennial guarantee for defects compromising the structural integrity of the building or rendering it unfit for its intended purpose.
Construction professionals
Builders, developers, architects, contractors: the firm advises you on the drafting and negotiation of your contracts, assists you during works handover, and defends you when your liability is called into question before the civil courts.
Where your professional indemnity liability (RCP) is engaged, the defence is also played out with your insurer: notification of the claim, review of the scope of the cover taken out and its exclusions, challenging a refusal of cover. Maître Toorawa assists you on both fronts, litigation and insurance.
Off-plan sales (VEFA)
Off-plan purchases offer the buyer specific legal protections. In the event of late delivery, non-conformity or unresolved snagging items, Maître Toorawa represents you before the developer or before the competent courts.