France Decennial Insurance Refusal: The BCT Filing Procedure

Published August 12, 2026 · Updated August 12, 2026

This article describes a French legal and insurance mechanism. When a construction business in France is turned down for garantie décennale (France's mandatory ten-year structural liability cover for construction professionals, required under French law) and cannot find a willing insurer, it can refer the case to the Bureau central de tarification (BCT), a state-created body set up by loi n° 78-12 du 4 janvier 1978. The BCT's sole role is to set the premium at which a designated insurer must cover the risk (article L.243-4 du Code des assurances). The procedure follows strict deadlines and formal requirements: missing them makes the filing inadmissible and forces the business to start over with a new insurance request.

The essentials

• The BCT construction body was created by loi n° 78-12 du 4 janvier 1978 (known as the loi Spinetta) and covers both garantie décennale and dommages-ouvrage (France's mandatory owner-side insurance covering construction defects, taken out by the project owner before liability is established in court).
• Its sole role: to set the premium the designated insurer must charge, and where relevant the amount of a deductible (article L.243-4 du Code des assurances).
• A refusal can be explicit (a letter or email from the insurer) or implicit (the insurer's silence for 45 days after receiving a request sent by registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt).
• The BCT filing must be sent within 15 days of an explicit refusal, or within 15 days of the end of the 45-day silence period for an implicit refusal, or it is inadmissible.
• A filing sent to a broker or a local agency instead of the insurer's head office or regional branch is ruled inadmissible.

What is the Bureau central de tarification, and who can use it?

The Bureau central de tarification (BCT) construction is a body created by loi n° 78-12 du 4 janvier 1978, the loi Spinetta, which established France's mandatory construction insurance regime. Any individual or company subject to the obligation to hold garantie décennale or dommages-ouvrage cover can refer a case to the BCT once it has been refused cover by an insurance company whose bylaws do not exclude that type of risk by nature (article L.243-4 du Code des assurances).

The BCT does not assess whether the risk is a good one, nor does it assign an insurer to the business: the applicant chooses which insurer to file against. The BCT's only role is to set the premium at which that insurer must cover the proposed risk. It can also set the amount of a deductible that remains payable by the insured.

In practice, the BCT construction process covers building trades and general contractors, home-building companies, consulting engineers, component manufacturers, technical inspection bodies, and project owners seeking dommages-ouvrage cover. A separate filing questionnaire exists for each of these profiles.

How do you prove an insurance refusal before filing with the BCT?

To file validly with the BCT, a business must first document a genuine refusal. This means requesting cover from the chosen insurer by registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt, sent to the insurer's head office or regional branch, together with a copy of the relevant BCT filing questionnaire.

The insurer's refusal can take two forms. It can be explicit: a letter or email of refusal is sent to the business. Or it can be implicit: if the insurer does not respond within 45 days of receiving the request (counted from the date shown on the acknowledgment of receipt), its silence counts as a refusal.

Two situations make a filing inadmissible outright. First, if the request was sent to a broker or an insurance agency rather than to the insurer's head office or regional branch. Second, if the business itself previously cancelled its policy with that insurer: it cannot file against that same insurer for the same risk.

What are the deadlines and required documents for a valid BCT filing?

Once a refusal is established, the clock starts running. The file must be sent by registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt, within the following deadlines:

Situation	Deadline to file with the BCT	Deadline starts from
Explicit refusal by the insurer	15 days	Date of the refusal letter or email
Insurer's silence (implicit refusal)	15 days	End of the 45-day response period after the registered request

The file sent to the BCT must include the filing questionnaire, filled in black ink in two copies (one for the insurer, one for the BCT), submitted as loose sheets with no staples or binding. Depending on the case, it must be accompanied by the signed proof of delivery if the insurer never responded, or by a copy of the refusal letter (dated less than 15 days earlier) together with the corresponding signed proof of delivery if the refusal was explicit. The most recent renewal notice for the current insurance policy must also be attached.

If a representative, such as an insurance broker, handles the process, that representative must provide the BCT with proof of a specific power of attorney granted for this purpose. Any filing sent outside the applicable deadlines is ruled inadmissible, and the business must restart the process with a new insurance request.

What happens once the BCT has set the premium?

Once the BCT has set the premium, the insurer designated by the business is required to cover the proposed risk at that rate. The BCT can also set the amount of a deductible that remains payable by the insured, in addition to the set premium.

This procedure does not exempt the business from checking that the cover obtained actually matches its declared activity: the BCT sets a premium for the risk described in the filing questionnaire, not for a broader scope of activity than what was disclosed. An incomplete activity declaration at the time of filing can later become the source of a dispute over what the policy actually covers.

When does a French construction business end up filing with the BCT?

Referring a case to the BCT remains a last-resort procedure, used once the open insurance market has failed to produce a positive response. This typically involves young businesses without a claims history that would let an insurer assess the real risk, activities that insurers classify as higher risk (certain structural or waterproofing trades, for example), or businesses whose claims record has led one or more insurers to decline renewal.

In every case, filing with the BCT requires first obtaining a formal, documented refusal from an insurer whose business scope covers that type of risk. Simply receiving no quote in response to an inquiry, without a prior registered letter, does not count as a refusal for the purposes of this procedure.

What McLer does

McLer is an insurance brokerage specialized in the corporate risks of the French road transport and construction (BTP) sectors. Based in the Paris region, McLer works with French SMEs and mid-sized companies on structuring, negotiating, and managing their insurance programs. On decennial insurance refusal cases, McLer helps construction businesses structure their insurance request and gather the documents needed before a possible BCT filing.

Preparing a BCT filing, or looking to secure your garantie décennale cover before a refusal happens? Talk to the McLer team about your construction insurance program to review your file.

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See also on mcler.insure: the garantie décennale pillar page and checking a subcontractor's decennale certificate in French construction.