The guarantee against hidden defects can apply even if the damage is at the neighbor's

Home buyers can be compensated for hidden defects even if it is a neighboring building that has suffered damage, and not their property, the Court of Cassation has ruled.

The seller of two adjoining houses has taken the matter to the highest French court after being ordered to compensate the buyer of one of them.

The basement ceiling of one of the buildings, supported by beams "in a very advanced state of rust," collapsed. Following this incident, the owners of the neighboring house, which remained intact, nevertheless vacated it while their basement was preemptively shored up.

They turned to the seller of the two buildings in the name of the hidden defects guarantee.

A hidden defect, defined by Articles 1641 to 1649 of the Civil Code, must be non-apparent at the time of purchase, render the good unfit for the use for which it is intended - or significantly reduce its use - and be prior to the sale.

Here, the seller considered that the warranty did not apply. First of all, according to him, even if the buyers were "laymen in construction matters", they should have suspected that the beams in the neighboring cellar were badly damaged, since theirs was in the same condition at the time of purchase.

It was therefore not a "hidden" defect since the problem was visible.

Then, according to the seller, the damage affected the plaintiffs' neighbors, not their own house.

A reason rejected by the Court of Cassation, which recalled that the cellar ceiling "was likely to collapse partially or completely, due to lack of support."

(Court of Cassation, Third Civil Chamber, September 25, 2025, appeal no. B 23-23.070)