Bad news. In the event of bad work which has affected his building, a co-owner cannot always complain to the courts.
The Court of Cassation has cart requests from co-owners who had bought lots in a building to be built and who complained of poor performance.
If they can complain about losing rent because of the delay caused by these disorders, which prevented them from taking possession of their lot and renting it out as planned, they cannot, said the judges in rendering their decision on June 8, act in place of their syndicate of co-owners to complain about defects in collective equipment such as the swimming pool or the roof.
The co-owners maintained that they had all engaged, with a common interest, in a global construction operation of a residence and that construction errors, preventing rental exploitation, caused by repercussion a personal damage to each one, different from that of the community.
But they didn’t succeed. A co-owner can intervene to put an end to an attack on the common parts which would cause him his own prejudice, explained the judges, but he cannot take legal action to obtain compensation for this breach. The law only gives this competence to the syndicate of co-owners.
In a second judgment, the court clarified that damage is collective for the co-owners, including if the inconvenience caused to each is of different magnitude depending on the lot. It thus rejects the argument of an insurer who maintained that the malfunction of the new collective heating was not a collective prejudice since some did not feel it.
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