Annulment of Real Estate Sales Contract Based on Defects of Consent and Hidden Defects

Extract

[...] Cornille) under the angle of the application of the criteria of 'decent housing'. It seems interesting to approach it from another angle concerning the annulment of the sale on the basis of an action for nullity in case of defect of habitability of the property, without considering that this action would exclusively relate to the guarantee of latent defects resulting fromarticles 1641 and following of the Civil Code. It appears from the examination of the facts that according to a notarized act dated April Mr. [...]

[...] The error on the substance is not very far from the error on the essential qualities. It can be noted, however, that the Court of Cassation, by the formulation retained, makes here an anticipatory application of the provisions of thearticle 1132 of the Civil Code. B - The characterization of the source error leading to the nullity of the real estate contract Applied in the context of real estate sales, the error can relate to the essential quality and the destination of the property, which does not depend solely on its objective characteristics but also on the subjective qualities for which the parties contracted. [...]

[...] sold to SCI Immo Eclair 59 an apartment with a surface area of 13.40 m2, then rented to a third party. Subsequently, the Community Sanitation and Health Service informed SCI Following his visit to the premises, it had been found that the main room was of an area less than 9 m2, which was contrary to the prevailing regulation and ordered him to cease any occupation of this location without delay. This injunction was followed by a formal notice received by a prefectoral order to cease occupation of the premises as a dwelling. [...]

[...] However, in the case of real estate sales, this action sometimes encounters a concurrence of actions, some of which have sometimes an exclusive field of application. I - Annulment of the sale contract for error A - Characterization of the error as a source of nullity of the agreement under common law Aside from what is called 'error-obstacle' which is that of such gravity that the consent of the parties has never been concretized due to the fact that the contracting parties have never agreed on the object itself or the nature of the contract, error is not a cause of nullity of the contract except in the case of error on the essential qualities of the due performance, or those of the co-contractor(C. [...]

[...] It was thus judged that the uninhabitability constituted a hidden defect of the thing sold2. It is worth noting, however, that the first civil chamber of the Court of Cassation adopted a more nuanced position by making a distinction between the intrinsic defect of the thing sold and the extrinsic defect of this thing3.Thus, regarding the unbuildability of a plot of land sold, the Court of Cassation considers that it is an extrinsic defect that would allow invoking an error on a substantial quality which: "when it is not analysed as an intrinsic defect compromising the use of the thing or its proper functioning" is not a hidden defect. [...]