The client of the real estate agent protected against his own faults

For the Court of Cassation, this initiative that the real estate agent must take comes within his obligation to advise and inform his principal, even if this principal was perfectly aware of his own deception.

Knowing that a project to create a ring road was going to devalue his house, an owner had hastened to sell it to people who had no idea.

However, the latter had subsequently obtained the cancellation of the sale, their consent having been vitiated by this fraudulent maneuver.

Forced to repay and repossess his house, the owner was only able to sell it for much less afterwards. But citing his own fault, he sued the real estate agent for compensation. He criticized him for not having revealed the bypass project to the first buyer when they originally agreed to hide it.

Justice, after hesitation, proved him right. Even though this disingenuous owner knew what he was doing by covering up what was going to devalue his property, the real estate agent, charged with selling, had to warn him.

His duty to provide professional advice to his lay client required him to ensure that nothing was hidden from the buyer and forbade him to respect the seller's concealment.

By not doing so, he let his client take a risk by committing dishonesty. He did not lead him to change his project, therefore did not fulfill his advisory obligations and committed a fault, the judges ruled.

This fault can be considered as the origin of the cancellation procedure, which is ultimately costly for its selling client.

(Cass. Civ 1, 9.1.2019/18/10.245, G XNUMX-XNUMX).