Real Estate Construction Code
In addition to legal provisions applicable to this sector, advertising for real estate/construction projects, no matter the form, must comply with these ethical rules :
1. Contract
If the advertisement makes any references to a legal contract, it must indicate if it is a contract for buildings to be built, for or a sale or a stock transfer.
2. Price
2.1 Variable prices
All price indications must specify if the price is variable or note the date at which the price has been fixed.
2.2 Fixed prices
The expression “fixed and definitive price” can apply only to a fixed price invariable on the date of signature of the contract.
2.3 Type of housing
If a price is indicated, the advertisement must specify the type of housing concerned by the price.
2.4 Membership shares or stocks
It is mandatory to indicate if membership shares or stocks are concerned.
3. Descriptive Elements
3.1 Surface area
If the advertisement indicates a surface area, it must be a living area, and nothing else. The surface of outbuildings must be indicated separately.
3.2 Collective equipment and access
3.2.1 In advertising documents distributed individually, any reference to collective equipments – social or cultural equipment, shops, green spaces, or sporting equipment- or to their access must be completed, at least with the following indications, under the real estate developer’s/builder’s responsibility:
- Time planned for the construction,
- Geographic situation,
- Principal features,
- Legal regime for the future use.
3.2.2 Any reference to collective equipment or to their access that will be carried out within the project or not by another public or private contracting authority, must specify the same known indications, as well as the name of the organism or contracting authority responsible.
3.3 Date of the construction and delivery schedule
Contractual documents must indicate the delivery schedule that the real estate developer/builder must respect, within legal exceptions.
Therefore, advertising documents, distributed individually, must indicate, the estimated date for the first delivery or the date of the first and last delivery. Dates should be read as provided on “indicative basis” and “for information only”, and should be provided for the whole project or part of it. For individual houses, this information can be replaced by the indication of the average expected delay in delivery for each house.
3.4 Current state, future state
Graphic/visual presentations of the construction used in the advertisement, no matter the form, must indicate whether the presented state if the current state or the future state of the construction.
3.5 Quality
The word “quality” can only be used in order to make reference to official construction norms and labels.
If the advertisement makes reference to the indicator Qualitel, the indication must be completed with this information:
- In catalogues and brochures, the whole structure on an indicator must be published .
- In other advertisements, the note « Ask for the indicator Qualitel” should be added.
3.6 Isolation
Isolation can be mentioned in an advertisement only if it answers to the label and norm requirements superior to the legal mandatory norm requirements.
3.7 Cut stone
When the advertisement mentions that the building is made of « cut stone », it must specify whether the whole construction is made of a cut stone or only the façade.
3.8 Distances
The distance between the project emplacement and any other urban, cultural, commercial, social or sporting equipment must be expressed in simple and clear terms:
- Whether by an indication of a linear ground distance referring to existing passages,
- Alternatively, by an indication of an average time needed to travel by different meant of transportation
3.9 Emplacement, geographic localization
The name, the description or the graphic presentation of the project, must not, in any way, mislead on the advantages, features or geographic emplacement that are highlighted in the advertisement.
The indication of the emplacement must be specified clearly, for example, by an existing administrative circumscription (e.g. by district, borough, city, etc.) or a train station.
The expression « next to » is considered to be vague and therefore must be avoided.
4. Leisure real estate
4.1 Right of use, right of ownership
No advertisement must lead to think that a temporary right of use is a right of ownership of the building.
4.2 Spatial and temporal ownership, time sharing
These different terms are defined as a real estate properties setting an annual right to use of a furnished apartment for a determined time period for each subscriber.
If the words “acquisition” “property”, “ownership”, are used, they must immediately be complemented by the notion of determined time period.
4.3 Management charges
There must be no ambiguity on the existence and the nature of management charges of the building.
4.4 Exchange, resale
Any advertisement making reference to exchanges must use the notion « possibility of exchanges » with an indication of a time period or the places concerned.
Any indication of the possibility of a resale or an exchange must be completed by information delivered at sale points or in the brochures and catalogues.