The acceptance report fixes the list of reservations. It does not show what they looked like, nor the state the area was handed back in after the repair. Six months later, that is exactly where the discussion goes. Sealway lets you document precisely the defects, imperfections or outstanding work at the moment of acceptance, then their lifting.
Built for
Yet everything that follows depends on what could be seen that day.
Acceptance is the moment everything turns: the project owner accepts the works, with or without reservations, and the guarantees start to run. What is visible and not under reservation that day becomes, in principle, hard to invoke later. What is under reservation must be repaired, then the repair recorded. In between, each side keeps its own photographs, usually without an independently established date.
Six months later, the discussion rarely bears on the list of reservations: the acceptance report fixes it. It bears on their appearance. Was this defect this extensive at acceptance? Was it properly repaired? Did this damage appear after the lifting? Those are questions of state on a given date, and that is precisely what a timestamped proof makes it possible to establish.
Acceptance is not a formality: it triggers the guarantees and freezes what could, or could not, have been the subject of a reservation.
Acceptance (réception) is the act by which the project owner declares that it accepts the works, with or without reservations. It is pronounced with all parties present, by agreement or, failing that, by the court. Service-Public.fr recalls that it is the common starting point of the one-year guarantee of perfect completion, the two-year guarantee of proper functioning and the ten-year guarantee.
For one year after acceptance, the contractor is bound to repair all the defects notified by the project owner, either by way of reservations recorded in the acceptance report or by written notification for those revealed after acceptance. Service-Public.fr specifies that the request for repair is sent to the contractor by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt, with a deadline for the work. Normal wear is not covered. The completion of the repairs is recorded by mutual agreement or, failing that, by the court.
Acceptance without reservations covers apparent defects: a project owner who fails to make a reservation about a visible defect on the day of acceptance can no longer, in principle, claim its repair from the builders on that basis. That is what the courts regularly hold, including in the decision quoted below. Everything therefore turns on what was visible that day, and on what was written down.
Cour de cassation · 3rd civil chamber · 13 July 2016
Partial quashing on another point · judgment under appeal: Montpellier Court of Appeal, 26 March 2015
Private owners have a building refurbished by a general contractor, whom they also appoint to represent them at acceptance, assisted by an architect with a full mission. The acceptance report is signed. The court-appointed expert later records defects on the staircase, a floor and an interior render, held to have been apparent at acceptance; none had been the subject of a reservation. The Montpellier Court of Appeal rules out the builders’ guarantee for those defects, but holds the representative and the architect contractually liable for having failed to make reservations about them.
The Cour de cassation dismisses the appeal on that point: those defects, apparent at acceptance, had not been the subject of any reservation.
Since acceptance has the effect of purging the works of the apparent defects and non-conformities not reported at acceptance in the form of reservations by the project owner or its representative, whether through inattention or negligence or deliberately, it amounts to a waiver of the right to invoke them later.
What Sealway takes from it
What is visible on the day of acceptance must be covered by a reservation that day. And it is better to be able to show, later, what was.
Read the decision on the Cour de cassation website (in French) →
The acceptance report lists, the photographs show, Sealway dates. Together, the three form a file each party can produce, with a date that depends on neither of them.
From the app, reservation by reservation, in the order of the report. The certificate shows for each file that it was captured live.
The signed report, as a PDF or a photograph, joins the proof. The certificate distinguishes what was captured from what was imported: the report appears as an import, which is accurate.
Up to 10 files per proof. Name it by reservation number and package: “reservation 4 · living-room window”, not “acceptance photos”.
After the repair, photograph the same points again, from the same angle, and create a new proof. The site’s collection shows before and after, dated separately.
The proof establishes that the report and the images existed, in this form, on this date. It replaces neither the signing of the acceptance report with all parties present, nor the written notification of a defect discovered later.
Example on a refurbished flat: each stage is a separate proof, in the site’s collection.
Report signed. Each reservation photographed, overall view and detail. One proof per reservation, the report attached.
Five reservations repaired. Reservation no. 4, a glazing unit, awaits the part.
Same points, same angle. New proof. Partial lifting report signed and attached.
Glazing replaced, photographed, dated. Final lifting report.
The lifting of a reservation is recorded by mutual agreement or, failing that, by the court. The proof shows the state of the repaired area on that date; it is not the lifting itself.
What is under reservation, and in what state. What is accepted without reservation, and in what state. Both will serve: the project owner for the repair, the contractor if later damage is attributed to it.
Photograph it as soon as it is found and create the proof before notifying it. The date of the proof establishes when you recorded it in this form; written notification remains necessary to notify the contractor (a registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt is recommended).
The same points, photographed again after repair. If the repair is disputed, or if the area deteriorates afterwards, each side holds the state on the date of the lifting.
The guarantee of perfect completion runs for one year. A dated state of the sensitive points before the deadline makes it possible to notify what has to be, with images whose date enjoys a presumption of accuracy.
A proof of state is not one side’s weapon: it fixes what both saw.
Show the extent of a reservation on the day of acceptance, the state of a defect discovered later, and obtain a repair on the basis of what was recorded rather than what is remembered.
Fix the state handed over, areas without reservation included, and the state after repair. If a defect is reported months later, the contractor can show what was visible, or not, at acceptance and at the lifting.
Attend the acceptance with a dated file. The decision quoted above is a reminder: an architect charged with assisting the project owner may incur contractual liability for failing to make a reservation about an apparent defect.
12 cm scratch on the glazing of the left-hand sash in the living room. Three photographs, a reference mark, the report attached.
Photographs of the new glazing from the same angle. Proof created, lifting report attached.
The project owner questions the repair. The contractor produces the proof of 24 October.
The proof of 24 October establishes the state of the glazing on that date, as the photographs show it. It does not say where the new scratch comes from nor who answers for it: that is a question of fact and of contract, for the expert where it comes to that. But it removes one unknown: nobody has to reconstruct from memory what was handed over.
The acceptance report, the notification and the lifting remain the parties’ acts. Sealway gives them images and documents whose date and integrity depend on nobody.
The acceptance report fixes the list of reservations; it does not show what they looked like. Photographs do, provided their date cannot be disputed. When the proof is created, the fingerprint of each file is bound to a qualified electronic timestamp issued by a qualified trust service provider.
What project owners, homeowners and contractors ask before an acceptance.
Texts, decision and official documents cited on this page (in French).
Sealway does not provide legal advice. These references are given for information; the evidential weight of the material produced is for the court to assess, after an expert report where one is ordered. The French official sources are in French.
Acceptance closes a cycle that starts long before: the condition of the neighbouring properties before the first shovel goes in, then the progress at each stage.
Photograph and date the condition of a building, a plot or the neighbouring properties before the works start.
Learn more →Build a dated chronology of the state and progress of the site at the important stages, before they are covered up.
Learn more →Build timestamped evidence that your planning permission was displayed on site, and document its continuity over time.
Learn more →One proof per reservation, on the day, then at the lifting: SHA-512 fingerprint, qualified electronic timestamp under eIDAS, evidence file verifiable by a third party. Join the waitlist to be notified at launch.
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