Lesion (lésion)

As a rule, a freely agreed price cannot be challenged. The French Civil Code makes an exception for the sale of real property: where the seller has suffered lésion (lesion, a gross undervalue) of more than seven twelfths, that is, where the seller has received less than five twelfths of the value of the property, the seller may apply for rescission of the sale. Only the seller has this remedy; a buyer who paid too much does not. The rule protects a seller in a position of weakness: hurried, poorly informed or taken advantage of.

The whole dispute rests on a valuation: what was the market value of the property at the time of the sale? The law surrounds this proof with particular solemnity, by requiring a report from three experts.

Where the rule comes from

Article 1674 of the French Civil Code opens rescission to a seller who has suffered lesion of more than seven twelfths in the price of a property. Article 1675 specifies that lesion is assessed according to the condition and value of the property at the time of the sale. Article 1676 requires proceedings to be brought within two years of the day of the sale. Article 1677 requires that the facts alleged be sufficiently plausible and serious to raise a presumption of lesion before any expert report is ordered. Article 1678 entrusts the proof to a report by three experts, who must draw up a single joint record and give a single opinion by majority. Article 1681 leaves the buyer the choice between returning the property and keeping it by paying the balance of the fair price, less one tenth of the total price.

In a valuation report

Whether I am one of the three appointed experts or advising a party at the plausibility stage, I reconstruct the market value of the property on the day of the sale, in the condition it was then in, using the references of that time and not those of today. I set aside any gains realised afterwards by the buyer and any later movements in the market. The report compares the value found with the price, expresses the ratio in twelfths and, if the threshold is crossed, calculates the balance of the fair price for the case where the buyer chooses to keep the property.

Example

An elderly person sold a village house with a large building plot in March 2024 for €95,000. The three experts, working from sales in the commune in 2023 and 2024, adopt a market value of €260,000 at the date of the sale. The price represents 36.5 % of the value, which is less than five twelfths (41.7 %): lesion is established. The buyer may return the house against repayment of the price, or keep it by paying the balance of the fair price: €260,000 less €95,000 less one tenth of €260,000, that is €139,000.

Not to be confused with

A hidden defect (vice caché), which concerns a defect in the property itself and benefits the buyer; fraud (dol), which presupposes deceit; and a disguised gift, the characterisation adopted by the French tax authorities when a derisory price conceals a gift.