Am I being threatened with a 30,000 EUR contractual penalty...?

Hello forum,

a brief introduction about me, I ended up here through the search engine and wanted to ask you for advice.

Brief backstory:

Purchased a property in the north, 2 semi-detached houses are being built for me and my mother.

Mother lives locally and can move in immediately next year after construction. So far so good.

I have a permanent employment contract in the south, live about 600 km away and thought I would rent out my half for the time being. Since we are still undecided whether to leave the south and move to the north as soon as the house is finished.

The easiest solution for me and my wife would be to find a job locally and move into the new house. So far so good.

However, we are skeptical because we are both currently permanently employed and earn good money in the south.

Now to the problem,

we commit ourselves to the city in the north where we are building, under a real contract, to use and occupy the house ourselves for the first 5 years after the house is completed, meaning that in case of renting out there is a contractual penalty of 30,000 euros.

Since I spoke to my builder on site about this, he said this clause is in every contract and that I shouldn’t worry too much about it because no one would come to check locally. And since my mother lives on the same property, only in her half, it would be half as bad.

Now it is time that we are about to go to the notary and of course have to sign!

Maybe someone has already been in the same situation.
I would really appreciate any information.

Best regards
Goubilas

Aha, the contractor, a true philanthropist, is sure that not a single soul will care? Aha, so he knows exactly that no neighbor will ever call the municipality because they don’t like the tenants? Aha, the municipality doesn’t even notice, since there’s no registry office.....man, people, are you serious? Karsten

I don’t want to accuse you of anything. Everything sounds plausible except for one or two sentences. But honestly: whether you move from the South to the North is not something you decide alone at the regulars’ table. You discuss it, weigh it up, sleep on it for several weeks, and then agree on the consequences. Then you look for a house or come up with the idea of building a semi-detached house with mom. So far, so good as background. And now, during the house construction, you suddenly have the idea not to move?!? Do I understand correctly that the semi-detached houses are already standing and you now only want to buy the almost finished house? Leaving the municipality aside: banks also want to know how the house will be used. Accordingly, the loan offer will be affected. Edit: ok, I understand the timing, signing today and moving in next year

Admittedly, the information was quite rough on my part; I will probably have to write a lot more details about it.

In April 2017, we decided that we want to build the semi-detached houses with the mother. At that time, there was already information that we are supposed to use the house ourselves for the first 5 years, as there is a penalty threat.

In the meantime, we are only at the stage where we have gotten the building permit approved, meaning the construction itself will start in spring 2018 and is supposed to be finished by the end of 2018.

To come back to the question, since February there has basically only been the problem occupying us of how we will manage with your move-in. Of course, this is not something that just occurred to us now. So we have about 1 year to either prepare for the move or take the risk.

Certainly, all the thoughts that Karsten openly and directly expressed in the first post come to us daily.

We even talked about, if we really stay in the south, not renting out the house at all, but rather financing it in such a way that we play it safe and avoid having to pay a penalty.

But in the end, it does not matter whether we rent out or not, even if we do not move in immediately, alone by that we would be violating the contract according to the agreement.

We grew up in the north, have many friends and acquaintances there, plus we are planning to have a child next year. The only thing keeping us here in the south is the job. But unfortunately, I cannot say 100% whether we will not simply move back to the north, then this issue would be settled.

This topic was opened because I simply have to assume the worst. Nothing has been decided yet.

Therefore my question is, in order to avoid the penalty, is it possible for me to register a secondary residence in the North and would the city understand if I could not move in immediately after the construction due to professional reasons?

I just think the less the authorities know about it, the better...

What you want to do is intentional breach of contract and then somehow wriggle out of the consequences. Why should anyone help you with that? The right and legal way is not to sign the contract.