Subsection 4: Rules governing the operations of sociétés de crédit foncier (building societies)

When all or part of the remuneration due under a partnership contract or a contract referred to in the first paragraph of Article L. 6148-5 of the Public Health Code in respect of investment costs, which include in particular study and design costs, construction costs and related costs, interim financial costs and financing costs, is assigned pursuant to Article L. 513-13 of this Code, the contract may provide for this assignment to be subject to acceptance by the public entity under the following conditions and within the limits set out in Article L. 313-29-2.

The acceptance governed by this article is evidenced, on pain of nullity, by a written document entitled: "deed of acceptance of assignment of receivables to a société de crédit foncier" and is subject to the contracting public entity establishing that the investments have been made in accordance with the terms of the contract. Once this has been established, and unless the société de crédit foncier, in acquiring the debt, has knowingly acted to the detriment of the public debtor, the public entity is obliged to pay the assigned debt directly to the société de crédit foncier and no set-off or exception based on the debtor's personal relationship with the holder of the partnership contract or the contract referred to in the first paragraph of Article L. 6148-5 of the Public Health Code, such as the cancellation, rescission or termination of the contract, may not be invoked against the société de crédit foncier, with the exception of the four-year statute of limitations covered by Law no. 68-1250 of 31 December 1968 relating to the statute of limitations on claims against the State, departments, municipalities and public establishments.

The holder of the contract is obliged to pay the contracting public entity any debts which it may owe to the latter as a result of breaches of its contractual obligations and, in particular, as a result of penalties which may have been imposed on it; opposition to the statement of enforceability issued by the public entity has no suspensive effect within the limit of the amount which was the subject of the acceptance in favour of the société de crédit foncier.

The société de crédit foncier may, at any time, prohibit the public debtor of the assigned debt from paying into the hands of the signatory of the statement of execution. From the date of such notification, the form of which shall be determined by decree of the Conseil d'Etat, the public debtor shall only be validly discharged by the société de crédit foncier.