Week of 10-17 August 2026
I. Legislation and Regulation
Urban Planning
Decree no. 2026-790 of 13 August 2026, published in the Official Journal of 15 August 2026, adopts the harmonisation of the territorial coherence plan (SCOT) for the Flanders-Dunkirk region and the intermunicipal local urban plan for housing and transport of the Dunkirk urban community, made necessary by Électricité de France’s project to build a pair of EPR2-type nuclear reactors at the Gravelines site. This text confirms the now-customary use of the local urban planning document harmonisation procedure to enable projects of national interest, following the model already applied to the electrical grid connection of the region’s offshore wind farm.
Energy Performance Diagnosis (DPE)
The order of 11 June 2026 on various provisions adapting French law to EU law regarding energy performance diagnosis, published in the Official Journal of 13 August 2026, transposes the requirements of Directive (EU) 2024/1275 of 24 April 2024 on the energy performance of buildings. The text amends the order of 31 March 2021 on the energy performance diagnosis (DPE) of residential buildings in mainland France and adds information on on-site renewable energy production — total quantity, breakdown by source, and share of final energy consumption. It enters into force on 1 January 2027, giving software publishers and diagnosticians time to adapt.
Housing Finance and Energy Renovation
Decree no. 2026-774 of 12 August 2026, published in the Official Journal of 14 August 2026, amends decree no. 2014-812 of 16 July 2014 on the tax credit for energy transition and the zero-interest eco-loan (articles 200 quater and 244 quater U of the French General Tax Code). Issued to implement article 26 of law no. 2025-594 of 30 June 2025 against fraud affecting public subsidies, it specifies the conditions under which the main contractor invoicing energy renovation work carried out by subcontractors must itself hold a quality certification, effective 1 January 2027, and sets the framework for agreements between the State and qualification bodies.
II. Case Law
Construction Insurance — Ten-Year Warranty (Décennale)
Cass. 3e civ., 2 July 2026, no. 24-12.598 — The Third Civil Chamber ruled that a clause in a ten-year (décennale) liability insurance contract capping cover at the total cost of the construction project — rather than only the amount of the contract awarded to the insured — lawfully delimits the insured risk, provided the structure is not subject to the compulsory insurance requirement or the cover is optional. Exceeding this cap, absent an expressly obtained extension of cover, deprives the insured of any cover, without the proportional-capital rule of article L. 121-5 of the Insurance Code applying, since that rule presupposes that the risk remains within the contractual scope.
Practical implications: before starting any project whose cost may exceed the stipulated cap, the builder must verify the exact scope of its policy and, where necessary, seek an express extension of cover; failing that, it cannot invoke any proportional reduction and will bear sole responsibility for uncovered damage.
Co-ownership — Activity Compliant with the By-laws and Administrative Police Powers
Conseil d’État, 5th and 6th chambers combined, 15 July 2026, no. 513080 — Ruling on a cassation appeal concerning a suspension application against an administrative closure order issued by the Paris police prefect against a Parisian establishment hosting events of a sexual nature, the Conseil d’État held that respect for human dignity is a component of public order authorising the police authority to act even absent particular local circumstances. The decision, widely commented on by the real estate press as soon as it was released on 15 August 2026, underlines that this administrative police power remains independent of any action based on the co-ownership by-laws: in this case, the union of co-owners had brought no proceedings, the disputed activity being consistent with the commercial purpose of the premises as defined by the by-laws.
Practical implications: an activity’s compliance with the co-ownership by-laws does not deprive co-owners of all protection: absent an enforceable morality clause, an action for abnormal neighbourhood disturbance before the civil courts and a report to the administrative police authority remain two independent avenues, the second of which may lead to closure without waiting for the outcome of civil proceedings.
Public Works Contracts — Jurisdiction
Cass. 3e civ., 25 June 2026, nos. 24-14.360 and 24-14.470, FS-B — In two rulings issued in section formation, the Third Civil Chamber clarified the scope of the restriction introduced in 2021 by the Tribunal des Conflits to the principle of administrative jurisdiction for disputes arising from the performance of public works contracts. It held that a contractual liability claim brought by a member of a consortium of companies against the joint representative, concerning the allocation of late-payment penalties, falls within the jurisdiction of the civil courts where it does not involve the public project owner or the final nature of the allocation it made, and concerns the performance of the private-law contract binding the co-contractors.
Practical implications: members of business consortia now have a clear criterion for determining the competent court in disputes with their representative; drafting the consortium agreement, whose independence from the public contract determines civil court jurisdiction, deserves increased attention.
III. Other Points to Watch
The entry into force, on 1 September 2026, of the VAT recodification transfers the provisions applicable to real estate transactions from the General Tax Code to the new Code on Taxation of Goods and Services, pursuant to order no. 2025-1247 of 17 December 2025. Real estate tax practitioners should update their references to VAT regimes on the delivery of new buildings, self-supply, and construction work, whose numbering changes without the substance of the rules being modified at this stage.
Economic data published by the data and statistical studies department of the Ministry for Ecological Transition confirm, for the first half of 2026, a marked recovery in new construction: more than 157,000 housing units were started, an increase of nearly 30% year-on-year, while building permits remain volatile from month to month. New home sales, however, continue to decline, falling below the symbolic threshold of 20,000 units in the first quarter, maintaining pressure on developers’ stock of marketed projects.
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