Interior designer insurance in France: RC pro, ten-year décennale — what your engagements really require

Why is the question thornier than for a registered architect?

For an architect registered with the French Order of Architects, the matter is settled by default: the profession is regulated and insurance is compulsory from registration. The interior designer, in France, practises an unregulated profession: no professional order, no state diploma required, no insurance imposed by the status. Many conclude, wrongly, that they have no obligation of any kind.

French law does not reason by status, but by activity. The Act of 4 January 1978, known as the Spinetta Act, subjects everyone who takes part in construction as a "builder" to ten-year structural liability, and to the compulsory insurance that goes with it: companies, but also project managers and designers bound to the project owner by a works contract. An interior designer who designs a refit and supervises its execution falls within that definition, whatever name they give their profession. Conversely, a strictly decorative service (palette, furniture, styling, with no works) falls outside it.

The profession's reference contracts say the same: the model contracts issued by the CFAI (the French council of interior designers) include a section on insurance obligations, and a well-advised project owner will ask for your certificates before any commitment. On the structure of those contracts, see our guide to the interior designer's contract.

Professional liability insurance (RC pro): the baseline, whatever the scope

Professional liability insurance covers the damage your activity causes to third parties outside the ten-year field: the period chest of drawers scratched during a shoot, the specification error (a floor covering unsuited to a wet room), the wrong measurement that puts 30 m² of extra parquet on the order, the late delivery of a file that pushes back a site. So many claims that threaten neither the solidity nor the intended purpose of the work, but that quickly run to thousands of euros.

Three points to watch when taking out the policy:

• The declared activity. It is what delimits the cover. "Decoration and consulting" does not cover a project management engagement; "interior design with works supervision" must be written in black and white if that is your practice. When a claim comes in, the insurer rereads the declaration before the contract.
• Consequential, non-material damage. Check that it is covered. That is where advice errors and delays live, the core risk of a specification-driven profession.
• Ceilings and deductibles. A per-claim ceiling consistent with the size of your projects: a studio steering €200,000 renovations does not insure itself like a home staging activity.

Ten-year cover (décennale): compulsory as soon as the engagement makes you a builder

The reading grid comes down to one question: does your engagement involve designing works or directing their execution? If so, you are a builder within the meaning of Article 1792 of the French Civil Code, and ten-year structural liability insurance (assurance décennale) is a legal obligation, not a comfort option.

• Pure decoration (colours, furniture, accessories, no works): outside the ten-year field. RC pro is enough.
• Design only (plans, specifications, tender file, no site supervision): the ten-year risk already exists. A defect can originate in a design fault, a badly placed partition, a ventilation forgotten in a shower room.
• Design + works supervision (the heart of the profession: plans, tendering the companies, site monitoring, assistance at handover): fully within the ten-year field. That is the typical engagement described in our guide to project management in interior design.

Two misconceptions to clear away. The first: "no structure, no décennale". Wrong. Ten-year liability also covers defects that make the work unfit for its intended purpose: a shower room made unusable by a waterproofing failure engages ten-year liability without a single load-bearing wall having moved. The second: "the company is responsible for the execution". True, each company carries its own décennale for its works; that is what you check in its paperwork, as detailed in our checklist for vetting a contractor. But that does not clear the designer's liability: when a defect appears, project manager and companies are pursued together, and each answers for its share.

The trigger for the cover, meanwhile, is always the same: the handover of the works, whose mechanics we detail in our guide to the works acceptance report. Ten years of liability run from that date. That is long, and that is exactly why the insurance is compulsory.

Price ranges observed in 2026

The public grids of specialist French brokers, verified in August 2026, give the following orders of magnitude, for a newly created or small studio, according to the 2026 guide by EDAI and the 2026 pricing benchmarks from CLA Courtage:

These amounts are reference points for budgeting, not insurance quotes: the real premium is built on your file. Above all, they are a reminder of one thing: décennale cover is a structural operating cost of the profession, to be built into the calculation of your fees from the start, not a line you discover the year a project goes wrong.

Project-owner damage insurance (dommages-ouvrage): your client's insurance, not yours

Facing the builders' ten-year cover, French law created its mirror on the project owner's side: project-owner damage insurance (dommages-ouvrage), which the client must take out before the site opens. Its role: to pre-finance the repair of ten-year-type defects without waiting for liability to be apportioned. The DO insurer pays, then claims back from those liable and their insurers.

In private renovation it is massively ignored: rarely sanctioned criminally for a private individual, it comes back to haunt them at a resale within the ten years (the notary asks for it) or in a serious claim, where its absence turns compensation into years of proceedings. Your role as an interior designer is not to sell it, but to inform your client in writing of their obligation, and to keep a record of that information. One line in the contract, one paragraph in a site report: the day the question arises, that record is worth gold.

Certificates: the ones you provide, the ones you demand

Insurance does not live in the contract, it lives in the certificates. Outgoing: your RC pro certificate (and décennale where applicable) for the current year, listing the covered activities, attached to your engagement proposals; informed project owners ask for it, and providing it unprompted is a mark of seriousness that sets you apart. Incoming: the décennale certificate of every company, valid at the date the site opens, with declared activities that match the works entrusted. A tiler insured for "laying coverings" is not covered to build a walk-in shower. The document-by-document check is detailed in our 7-document checklist.

So, what about Nodal?

Nodal is not a broker and replaces neither your RC pro nor your décennale. It secures the ground where disputes are born: traceability. The pipeline moves forward on evidence, with every validated step leaving a dated record. The tender freezes who priced what on which template, additional works are approved as they arise through a time-stamped client approval, line by line, and the project history reconstructs the full chronology the day an insurer or an expert asks for it.

When a claim is made against you, the difference between "I believe the client agreed" and "here is the time-stamped approval" is not a nuance: it is often the entire defence.

Article published on August 24, 2026. This professional overview presents the general French framework for the profession's insurance, current as at that date, with price ranges observed on the public grids of specialist brokers and verified August 2026; it is not legal or insurance advice. The exact qualification of your engagements and the calibration of your cover are matters for a broker or a lawyer, based on your actual activity.

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