Is it mandatory to carry out a soil study before selling a building land?

Seloger field August 18, 2021 Share on

You own a building land that you want to sell.Since January 1, 2020, before the sale of land, the Elan law has required the seller to provide a prior geotechnical study.

The Elan law protects buyers from building land

To the question "Is it compulsory to carry out a soil study before selling land?"", The answer is:" It all depends on the type of ground on the ground "...Because, although it is advisable to always carry out a soil study, certain geographic areas of our country see the council transform into obligation.These are areas where the soil is claye.We can also find these areas on the Georisques site.gouv.Fr.

Indeed, today, with the Elan law (evolution of housing, development and digital) of January 1, 2020 and its entry into force since October 1, 2020, buyers of building land are better protected.This law now requires owners to carry out a soil study before the sale of building land in risk clay areas.The goal?Reduce the risk of claims which, to date, amount to more than 20,000 per year (construction guarantees and the natural disasters included), for average damage between 30,000 and 40,000 € and this can go much further, until the destruction of the construction.

A compulsory geotechnical mission

Prerequisite for a construction project, the soil study is compulsory in areas defined as moderately or strongly exposed to the phenomenon of remoncing clays (RGA), phenomenon linked to periods of drought or intense rains.Indeed, as a result of these climatic events, the clay soil can change, causing in the event of a dryness of the soil or swelling of it in the event of intense rains.Result: the constructions are impacted in their structure.

To combat the consequences of these movements, a soil study must be carried out by field sellers and insured in decennial.This is the G1 soil study, according to standard NF P 94-500 of November 2013 which consists of two phases: the G1 ES missions (Site study) and G1 PGC (General Construction Principles).The latter makes it possible to define the general construction principles according to the information collected during the previous mission (G1 ES).Goal: to formulate the first construction hypotheses in the field and to identify major geotechnical risks.Note that the companies responsible for these soil studies are duly ensured thanks to a ten -year guarantee.

How is a G1 PGC study?

The General Principles of Construction (PGC) of the G1 study has 3 stages:

1. Une enquête documentaire.
2. Une synthèse des archives.
3. Une visite de site et des investigations géotechniques réalisées par une société spécialisée dans l’étude de sol.

This last step makes it possible to determine the nature of the soils, to assess their sensitivity to the risk of remoncency of clays, as well as to the other geotechnical risks.Such investigations require in situ polls, appropriate samples as well as laboratory tests.

At the end of this research, a study report is established.This report makes it possible to characterize the nature of the risks and to control their consequences.It contains the general principles of constructions as well as the conclusions in accordance with the NF P 94-500 standard, namely:

Who is the obligation to carry out a G1-PGC soil study?

It is the seller of the land who financially supports the G1 PGC soil study (count an average cost of € 1,000) and who provides it with the buyer during the sale.The buyer must then do a G2 soil study before the construction of his work.To carry out all these soil studies, there are specialized companies that engage their ten -year responsibility for all of these studies.The seller must therefore get closer to one of these companies, ask for a quote and then have the study he will annex to the contract for the sale of his land.