a construction company demands payment from a municipality for unpaid work

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A new opinion from the Regional Chamber of Auditors concerning the commune of Guémené-sur-Scorff (Morbihan) was issued on Friday September 20, 2024.

This time, it is not the prefect who referred the matter to the magistrates for a budget voted in real imbalance, but a company, Maho Bâtiment, which is demanding payment of an invoice for unpaid work, reimbursement of the amount of a guarantee as well as compensation.

51,000 euros of work

On July 31, 2020, the municipality of Guémené-sur-Scorff and the company Maho Bâtiment signed a public contract entrusting the Baud company with demolition and structural work as part of the operation to create rental housing. social events in the former L’Odyssée bar.

The company Maho Bâtiment is demanding payment for unpaid work for a total amount of €51,001 including tax (invoices for January 25, February 24 and October 21, 2023), unreleased guarantee retentions for a total amount of €17,265 including tax and default interest and fixed compensation associated with these debts. Problem: since last July, it is no longer the municipality which has control over its finances, but the prefect of Morbihan.

Credits available

By letter dated June 5, 2024, the company Maho Bâtiment asked the chamber to verify whether the payment of invoices it had sent to the municipality of Guémené-sur-Scorff was correctly entered in the community’s budget and, failing that, to enter the corresponding expenses in the budget

The Regional Chamber of Accounts looked at the municipality’s initial 2024 budget, approved on July 31 by the prefect, to see the municipality’s financial capacity to pay.

“The budget includes open appropriations for a total amount of €956,290. As of the date of this notice, the credits available in this chapter are sufficient to cover the debt of the company Maho Bâtiment,” notes the CRC.

It’s up to the prefect to decide

Concerning the amount of guarantee claimed by Maho Bâtiment, the magistrates note that “the municipality of Guémené-sur-Scorff took nine guarantee deductions from the sums paid to the company Maho Bâtiment for a total amount of €17,265 including tax. The work carried out by the company Maho Bâtiment having not yet been received, the guarantee period for perfect completion has not expired and the company cannot in principle claim the release of guarantee deductions.

However, the company Maho Bâtiment had subscribed on December 21, 2020 a bank guarantee on first demand in the amount of €20,069.58 including tax, therefore higher than the total amount of guarantee deductions taken.

This bank guarantee automatically replaces itself, the municipality of Guémené-sur-Scorff is therefore required to release them.

Moreover, it should never have taken them since the company Maho Bâtiment had taken out the bank guarantee from the start of the project.

Maho Bâtiment also requested lump sum compensation, which the Regional Chamber of Auditors set at €200.

It is now up to the company to contact the prefect to recover its dues.

“However, given the very poor financial situation of the commune of Guémené-sur-Scorff, the effective payment of these expenses will be subject to its cash availability,” notes the Regional Chamber of Accounts.

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