Works contract: what obligations for the company and for the client?

The contractor provides the equipment:
- He bears the burden of the risks weighing on the thing he provides.
- On the other hand, it does not bear the risks associated with existing ones. Thus, the contractor will not be held liable if it only carries out renovation work.
The contractor does not supply the material:
- He must check the quality of the materials delivered and refuse to use them, if necessary.
- He will only be liable if the damage caused is attributable to him. If the cause of the damage is unknown, he incurs no liability.

The rules of the art are the know-how that the project owner expects from a contractor with regard to the activity carried out.
Thus constitutes a violation of the rules of the art, the fact of installing devices which are totally prohibited by the technical documents.

The contractor is required to advise the project owner on the risks that the construction of a work and the existing ones could present. If necessary, refuse to perform work that exceeds its capabilities.
The obligation to provide information also extends to the architect. He is thus required to inform him of any element which, in his opinion, would constitute a violation of the rules of the art.
Entrepreneurs are also bound by a duty to advise each other.

The contractor must carry out the work in accordance with the requirements imposed by the contract and obey the service orders given to him by the contracting authority.
Any lack of conformity will engage the responsibility of the contractor, without the project owner having to prove a fault.

The contractor is obliged to complete the work on the date agreed with the client in the contract.
In the event of modifications and in the absence of any dispute by the contractor, the latter will be bound by the new timetable set.
If no date has been agreed, the contractor is obliged to complete the work within a reasonable time.

If the delay is attributable to the contractor, he is liable to several penalties :

The contractor may lose the benefit of the clauses which were favorable to him as regards the determination of the price.
The delay will have the effect of triggering the implementation of the penalty clause if it has been provided for in the contract.
The delay will have the effect of triggering the implementation of the penalty clause if it has been provided for in the contract.
In the most serious cases, the delay may give rise to termination of the contract.

In principle, payment of the price by the contracting authority takes place at the time of delivery of the work. In practice, most often, installments will be paid to the contractor during construction.
Payment must be made within sixty days of receipt. The parties may, however, agree on a maximum period of 45 days.
In the event of non-payment, late payment penalties will apply from the first day of delay, calculated as a percentage of the amount due.
- In any event, the interest rate agreed between the contractor and the client must not exceed three times the legal rate.
- If no interest rate is specified in the contract, it is equal to the interest rate applied by the European Central Bank to its most recent refinancing operation, plus 10 percentage points.

The payment of the contractor must be guaranteed by the registration of a preferential mortgage on the building. To this end, two reports must be drawn up: Before and after the completion of the work.
If the final value of the contract exceeds €12,000, another type of guarantee must be provided to the contractor. The client can choose :

1. Use a credit exclusively and entirely dedicated to the financing of the works.
2. Subscribe to a personal and joint surety with a credit or insurance institution.

The obligation to deliver means that the client must take possession of the goods.
Delivery should not be confused with receipt. Indeed, there may be delivery without receipt.

Acceptance is the act by which the client declares to accept the work with or without reservation.
Acceptance will put an end to the work and produce a ” purge ” effect for apparent defects and non-conformities that have not been the subject of reservations. (Cf.
Acceptance of work ).

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