Toxic algae, possible hidden defect for the house by the sea

It is irrelevant whether this phenomenon is natural or external to the property sold, observed the Court, because the law does not make such distinctions concerning latent defects.

It suffices, according to the law, that this defect renders the house unfit for the use for which its purchaser intended it or that it diminishes this use so much that he would not have acquired it or that he would only have given it away. a lesser price, if he had known it.

Justice had been seized by the purchaser of a house located one hundred meters from a beach on which sargassum was regularly washed up, emitting toxic gases as it decomposed. As the phenomenon was not permanent, the seller had been able to ignore it when selling the house.

Not only, argued the buyer, is this a hidden defect of which the seller was aware, but moreover it is fraud, deception, since the seller passed over this phenomenon in silence at the time that the buyer was worried about it, indicating that he had respiratory problems.

Each of these two legal foundations is likely to lead to the cancellation of this sale, confirmed the judges in favor of the purchaser.

(Cass. Civ 3, 15.6.2022, A 21-13.286).