My Contractor Went Into Liquidation: What Happens to the Defects?

You’ve found a crack running through a wall, a roof leak, or a sinking terrace. You try to reach the company that carried out the work, only to learn it’s gone into liquidation, been struck off the companies register, or simply hasn’t answered for months. The instinct is to assume all recourse is lost. It isn’t, not always.

The problem: the contractor is gone, the defect is real

This situation comes up regularly in our expert assessments across the Côte d’Azur: many small building firms run into financial trouble, close down, or change legal structure within a few years. The client is left alone facing a defect that can be serious — structural, or related to waterproofing — with no one to organise the repair work. The first reaction is often to give up, assuming that with no company left to pursue, no compensation is possible.

But the ten-year structural warranty (garantie décennale), set out in Articles 1792 et seq. of the French Civil Code, is attached to the building itself, not to the survival of the company that built it. The compulsory insurance system was designed precisely for this scenario: the contractor’s decennial insurer remains liable under the guarantee for ten years from handover, even if the insured company has since been liquidated or struck off.

Why this happens

Business failure in the construction sector is far from rare: the industry has a high failure rate, particularly among tradespeople and small firms hit hard by cash-flow swings, unpaid invoices, or poor management of ongoing contracts. Liquidation can happen years after work that itself only reveals its faults over time: a waterproofing defect on a flat roof, for instance, may only become clearly visible after three or four years — by which point the company has often already ceased trading.

The key point to understand is that the compulsory decennial insurance obligation, set out in Article L241-1 of the French Insurance Code, doesn’t lapse when the insured company disappears. This is a founding principle of the French construction insurance system: the guarantee remains payable by the insurer for the full ten-year period, regardless of what later happens to the policyholder. The client therefore needs to identify the contractor’s decennial insurer at the time of the works, which means keeping the insurance certificate issued at the start of the project, or checking the quotes and invoices where it’s usually referenced.

What can be done

The first step is to locate the contractor’s decennial insurance certificate, ideally among your contract documents. If it can’t be found, you can contact the court-appointed liquidator handling the insolvency proceedings, whose details are listed on the companies register (RCS) or in the official insolvency gazette (Bodacc). The liquidator may hold information about the company’s insurance, even though their primary role is winding up the estate, not handling ongoing claims.

Once the insurer is identified, a claim must be sent to them directly, respecting the contractual notification deadlines (generally as soon as possible after the defect is discovered, and in any case within the five-year limitation period that applies to guarantee claims). This claim should include a precise description of the defect and, ideally, an initial technical report.

If the insurer cannot be identified despite these steps, it remains possible to approach the Fonds de garantie des assurances obligatoires de dommages (FGAO), a compensation fund that can step in where the insurer itself has failed or no identifiable insurance exists, under strictly defined conditions.

How an independent expert helps

Faced with a contractor that no longer exists, the decennial insurer will never settle on a simple claim form alone: they require a detailed technical report establishing the cause of the defect, its decennial nature (structural damage or unfitness for purpose), and a costed scope of repair. This is where an independent expert makes the difference. We carry out a detailed inspection with measurements, moisture readings using Trotec equipment, dated photographs, and an assessment of compliance with the relevant French building standards (DTU 43.1 for waterproofing, DTU 20.1 for masonry, DTU 65.14 for underfloor heating, depending on the case), building a solid file to support your claim with the insurer.

We also help clients reconstruct the contractual file when documents are incomplete, identifying the information needed to trace the insurer (company registration number, legal notices on invoices, trade register searches). With fifteen years’ experience in public works and project management, we know exactly what decennial insurers require and how to structure a report that meets their assessment criteria directly.

Frequently asked questions

Does the ten-year warranty disappear if the contractor goes into liquidation?
No. The guarantee remains payable by the contractor’s decennial insurer for the full ten years following handover, regardless of whether the insured company still exists.

How do I find the insurer if I no longer have the certificate?
You can contact the court-appointed liquidator via the companies register or the Bodacc, who may hold this information in the company’s file.

What if no insurer can be identified at all?
The Fonds de garantie des assurances obligatoires de dommages (FGAO) can be approached under certain conditions, notably where there is no insurance or the insurer itself has failed.

Why is an expert’s report essential in this type of case?
Decennial insurers require detailed technical proof of the defect and its decennial nature before agreeing to cover it. Without this report, a claim has little chance of succeeding.

Related reading

• Uninsured contractor
• Poor workmanship
• Contact

📅 Mis à jour le 25/09/2026 — Cassini Expertise, expert bâtiment indépendant (06·83·13·40).