The examples can be counted in spades. All over France, there are abandoned construction sites with houses desperately waiting to be put on a roof or fitted with doors and windows. Behind these concrete block wastelands lie the bankruptcies of individual house construction companies. They are falling one by one, weighed down by the deep crisis hitting the real estate market. We have thus seen, in recent months, several historic players display their difficulties or even disappear from the commercial registers, torpedoed by express judicial liquidations that their clients will not even have seen coming.
“It was a friend who sent me an SMS to tell me that my builder was in liquidation. I didn’t believe it. Two days before, I had people working on my house. I fell from a very high place.” While she hoped to move in at the beginning of 2025, Sindy knows that she will have to stay with her parents a little longer, while waiting for a buyer to agree to complete her project. This young woman living in Quimper (Finistère) is one of the victims of the judicial liquidation of Maisons Kervran. This Breton company, present for more than fifty years in the construction of individual houses, surprised all its customers by suddenly closing in July. But she is far from the only one.
“It was a life project and then everything collapsed”
We saw the French number 2, AST, display its glaring difficulties, when the leader Hexaom (formerly called Maisons France Confort) predicted terrible months. Beyond the employees of these companies, the first victims of this cataclysm are to be found among the customers. “It was a life project and then everything collapsed. The worst part is that I’m not even allowed to go into the house because it doesn’t belong to me. Every time I go there, I get a sinking feeling in my stomach.” Sindy’s house does have a roof, but it leaks. And it has no door or window. “Two weeks before the liquidation, I had paid 37,000 euros. At no time was I warned of difficulties or delays. And there they leave us in trouble.”
Other customers of this builder were a little luckier, seeing their homes delivered just before the fall. But at what cost? “We waited thirty-three months to get the keys. Can you imagine? We had hundreds of problems. Delays, craftsmen who didn’t come, then cracks, infiltrations. I spent sleepless nights because of that, we were sometimes in states of extreme anger,” says David *, who had a building built in northern Finistère. He ended up hiring a lawyer, who found with horror that the company was not paying its suppliers or subcontractors. “But they continued to sell houses and sign contracts.”
And this is undoubtedly the fault of many boxes. After successive confinements, many French people dreamed of a pavilion with a garden. Assailed, house builders then signed sales in spades, without realizing that shortages of materials would penalize them. Without imagining that the war in Ukraine and the rise in energy costs would disrupt everything. “All the manufacturers oversold. No one thought that we all worked with the same craftsmen and subcontractors. We didn’t have any labor, so we were falling behind and had to pay penalties,” explains Marion *, a works manager who worked for a builder.
“It was a disaster, there were defects everywhere”
The problem with the labor shortage is that it pushed builders to call on less competent and less scrupulous craftsmen, who sometimes scuttled construction sites. “Especially in masonry. It was a disaster, there were defects everywhere,” says Marion. As time passed, construction companies saw their margins squandered in late payment penalties and built at a loss, trying to sign other contracts to wipe the slate clean. Except that individuals were in no hurry, strangled by interest rates that were much too high. “We were slashing sales, we were barely making any margin. I think we are heading towards the death of the single-family home market and that many companies will collapse in the months to come,” continues the works manager.
According to the Altarès firm“the real estate crisis weighs on many players, particularly in construction”. This data specialist specifies that “the structural work and the finishing work alone account for one in five business failures” in the second quarter of 2024. Colossal. Faced with these often brutal cessations, individuals find themselves without explanation, without solution. The individual house construction contract (CCMI) however provides that in the event of failure, a guarantor will take over to complete the project. “People find themselves in total limbo. They have no one to talk to, they don’t know what to do. In a few days, they go from dream to nightmare,” testifies Me Hadrien Praly.
For several months, this specialist lawyer based in Valence (Drôme) has seen files piling up on his desk. His first advice? Contact the guarantor immediately. “If you want to get the keys to your house as quickly as possible, you must not delay and arrive with a certain grip. Sometimes, only the litigation process works. The guarantor is required to carry out the work and cannot increase the price or change the service. In general, the individual must still pay a deductible, which cannot exceed 5% of the sale price. “I’m already being asked for more than 10,000 euros. I don’t have them,” warns Sindy.
Towards the death of the individual house?
In the sector, fears are immense. Because beyond the cases mentioned in this article, thousands of customers are harmed. And as many guarantors who are weakened by resuming started projects. “I’m worried, clearly because I don’t see how things can start again,” continues the lawyer. Builders are having more and more difficulty finding insurance to find a guarantor. And we are starting to see guarantors filing for bankruptcy.” The situation is clearly not about to improve. Especially since politically, no one seems to be moved by it. Leaving some people to think that the public authorities want to bury the individual house.
* First names have been changed