Real estate and construction

Real estate and construction: document a building site before the situation changes.

Before the works, during the site, at acceptance or at each change of tenant, some situations have to be documented precisely, by construction professionals as well as by tenants and landlords. Sealway lets you create a proof that binds photographs, videos or documents to a date and to their exact content, with a qualified electronic timestamp under eIDAS.

Join the waitlist See the five use cases

Built for

Building contractors and tradespeople
Project managers and architects
Developers and builders
Engineering firms
Property managers
Project owners
Tenants and landlords
Homeowners having works done

On a building site, the dispute is rarely about what exists today.

It is about what existed on a given date.

Did this crack exist before the works?
Was this wall already damaged?
Had the works really reached this stage on that date?
Was this defect visible at acceptance?
Had this reservation already been identified?
Had these works been carried out before they were covered up?
Was this statutory notice on display on that date?
Was this scratch on the floor already there at move-in?

Why photographs are not always enough, months later.

Everyone photographs a building site. The problem appears when you have to establish, before a project owner, an insurer, an expert or a court, that a given photograph was taken before a given date and has not been retouched: did the crack exist before the works opened, was the reinforcement in place before the pour, was the defect visible on the day of acceptance?

A photograph remains evidence: in French civil matters, a fact may be proven by any means. But its date, written by the device in the file’s metadata, can be changed in seconds, and an image may have been cropped or replaced. Sealway binds each file to a date and a fingerprint that depend neither on the device nor on the company producing the photograph.

What Sealway is not.

Sealway builds items of evidence; it neither inspects nor judges. What the file shows, its cause and its compliance remain the business of the professionals and, where it comes to that, of the court.

a building expert or a technical inspection body;
a commissaire de justice (the French judicial officer, formerly huissier);
a court-appointed expert;
a project manager;
site-management or property-inventory software;
a substitute for a référé préventif, the pre-trial expert survey of French construction practice, or for the statutory état des lieux.

Five moments, five use cases.

Each page covers one situation, with the applicable French law, the method on site, Sealway’s precise role and its limits.

Building permit display

Build timestamped evidence that your planning permission was displayed on site, and document its continuity over time.

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Pre-works condition and neighbouring properties

Photograph and date the condition of a building, a plot or the neighbouring properties before the works start.

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Site progress and follow-up

Build a dated chronology of the state and progress of the site at the important stages, before they are covered up.

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Acceptance of works and reservations

Document precisely the defects, imperfections or outstanding work at the moment of acceptance, then their lifting.

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Property condition report

Complete the move-in and move-out état des lieux with photographs whose date and integrity can be verified.

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What a qualified timestamp changes on a building site.

On a building site, the date is the evidence: the date of the display, of the initial state, of a stage now covered up, of the acceptance. When a proof is created, the fingerprint of each file is bound to a qualified electronic timestamp issued by a qualified trust service provider.

SHA-512 fingerprint of each file: the proof bears on this exact version; modifying the file changes the fingerprint, and the fingerprint cannot be turned back into the file.
Qualified electronic timestamp: presumption of accuracy of the date and time and of integrity of the data (eIDAS Regulation, art. 41(2)). The date comes neither from the device nor from Sealway.
Evidence file verifiable without Sealway: certificate, manifest, timestamp token and fingerprints, with the references of the anchoring on public blockchains.

The mechanism in detail: create evidence from your files

Frequently asked questions

What site teams and legal departments ask before using Sealway on a building site.

What is the difference between a site photograph and a Sealway proof?

The photograph is the same. What changes is what comes with it: a SHA-512 fingerprint that lets anyone verify it has not been altered, and a qualified electronic timestamp that establishes it existed, in this form, on that date. The date of a phone photograph rests on editable metadata; the date of a Sealway proof rests on a qualified third party.

Does Sealway replace a commissaire de justice’s report or a référé préventif?

No. A commissaire de justice’s report (constat de commissaire de justice) rests on the personal findings of a public officer; a référé préventif brings in a court-appointed expert, with all parties summoned. Sealway lets the contractor, the project manager or the project owner build dated, intact material themselves. The approaches complement each other: Sealway covers the sites and the areas the formal measures do not, and the regular follow-up between two reports.

Who can create a proof on a building site?

Anyone with a Sealway account: the contractor, a subcontractor, the site manager, the project manager, the project owner, a property manager or a homeowner. The certificate identifies the depositing account (name or verified email address) and, where applicable, its organisation.

Document your next site before the situation changes.

One proof per area and per stage: SHA-512 fingerprint, qualified electronic timestamp under eIDAS, evidence file verifiable by a third party. Join the waitlist to be notified at launch.