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Reaching 300 pages and addressing a multitude of various issues, the text was soon to be called a “river law” or even a “legislative cathedral”, to avoid the simple expression of “catch-all law”.
Complexity and Challenges of the Duflot Law
Obviously, such qualifiers are not usurped: complexity of the legislation applicable to the various residential rental contracts, in-depth reform of the framework governing the conditions of exercise of the real estate professions, reinforcement of the formalism necessary for the operations of sale of real estate, evolution substantial changes in town planning rules… All the actors concerned are encountering numerous difficulties, this spring 2014, in assessing the consequences that such changes will have on the daily exercise of their activity, and the concerns expressed seem to be justified, to say the least.
As a central player in real estate transactions and real estate management, the real estate agent will therefore once again have to demonstrate a great capacity for adaptation, insofar as the Duflot law profoundly modifies the organization and conditions of exercise of his profession, while increasing the numerous obligations incumbent on him during the execution of his mission.
Formalism and Obligations in the Sale of Condominium Lots
Wishing to inform potential buyers of co-ownership lots more effectively of the risks that this purchase may present, the legislator has “definitely shifted the center of gravity of the sale”, by multiplying the rules of form which must be respected both in the announcement of the sale of the property and in the sales agreement.
In particular, article 54 of the law creates a new article L721-1 in the Construction and Housing Code , providing that:
“Announcements relating to the sale of a lot or part of a lot of a building subject to the status of co-ownership must mention:
1° The fact that the property is subject to the status of co-ownership; 2° The number of lots; 3° The average annual amount of the share, payable by the seller, of the provisional budget corresponding to the current expenses defined in article 14-1 of law n° 65-557 of July 10, 1965 establishing the status of the co-ownership of built buildings.
The announcements must also specify whether the syndicate of co-owners is the subject of proceedings carried out on the basis of articles 29-1 A and 29-1 of the aforementioned law n ° 65-557 of July 10, 1965 and article L. 615-6 of this code. »
Does this mean that the market for the sale of condominium lots is about to suffer the harmful consequences of a formalism considered too rigid by some? The answer deserves considerable nuance, for two reasons.
On the one hand, the legislator has not provided any specific sanction for such obligations.
On the other hand, it seems very unlikely that the announcement of the sale of a property will be sufficiently precise and complete to be able to be accepted unconditionally, so that it can in practice only constitute an invitation to begin negotiations and not an offer, thus excluding any prospect of sanction in terms of contract law.
The resulting conclusion seems quite simple: real estate agents do not have, for the moment, the real obligation to include in their advertisements for the sale of co-ownership lots the information mentioned in article L721-1 of the Code. construction and housing.
The forthcoming adoption of a code of ethics, supervised by the recently created commission for the control of real estate transaction and management activities, could however make the threat of disciplinary sanctions plausible.
