The obligation to respect the delivery time

If you are a service provider, Cabinet Cécile ZAKINE invites you to respect your obligations regarding delivery times:

The company must have indicated before signing the contract the deadline by which it undertakes to deliver the work (Article L 111-1 of the Consumer Code).

The contract is formed when the quotation is signed because this signature constitutes the manifestation of consent.

Therefore, the date should be included at the time of signing the quotation.

You should know that in the absence of any mention in an accepted estimate of a time limit for execution or a date for the start of the work, the contractor must execute the work, or at least start it, within a reasonable period of time, which starts from the date of the estimate (Cass., civ., 3e, 29

Sept. 2016, No. 15-18.238).

If the deadline is exceeded, a letter of formal notice should be sent to avoid too much delay or a abandonment of site.

The reasonable period for performing the promised service is assessed from the date of the estimate and not from the date of sending a formal notice to the company.

However, this period is determined by the size of the work, the environment of the site and the technical difficulties of the construction methods.

If the delay is too great, the contract should be terminated unless, of course, the company is negotiated amicably.

It will be necessary, during the course of a project that has been too late, to have a bailiff's report drawn up in order to claim damages (if the delay has caused a prejudice) or penalties for delay (although these must be expressly provided for in the estimate or in a contract) or because the delay has turned into an abandonment of the project.