Building at another location: Where are the lawyer and the construction expert?

Hello,

we are building our house about 300 km away from our current place of residence and will only move when the house is completed.

Since we will most likely build with a prefab house provider, my question is: At which location should I best look for a lawyer and building surveyor? The following options:

(1) Lawyer:
(a) Current place of residence, because especially at the beginning needed to review contracts etc. Hopefully no longer necessary after signing the contract.
(b) Future place of residence, because... ?
Info: Are members of [Bauherren-Schutzbund].

(2) Building surveyor/ independent construction supervisor:
(a) Future place of residence, because quickly on site. No travel fees etc.
(b) Location about 50 km from the new place of residence. That is the closest distance for the building surveyor proposed by [Bauherren-Schutzbund] (travel eats up discounts?!)

What do you think? I am leaning towards (1a) and (2a).

Expert definitely close to the construction site. No one wants endless messing around. You as the (presumably) client should be on site at least once a week anyway, expert or not. That would be my recommendation. That can surely be coordinated with appointment dates with the expert.

For inspections, tests, etc., the expert must be able to respond quickly above all. Nothing pleases craftsmen more than calling and saying "oh by the way I'll be there in an hour, then I can quickly do it again" or "The concrete is coming this afternoon, so we'll just finish everything right away."

If your expert can only be on site two days later, that would be counterproductive.

If your expert can only be on site two days later, that would be counterproductive.

Okay, thanks. It's a pity that the Bauherren-Schutzbund only "offers" experts in metropolitan areas. So the expert from the Bauherren-Schutzbund is not an option, since looking at the mileage allowance, I can hardly imagine that the price advantage as a member makes up for it.

And a lawyer? It doesn't really matter (almost) where they are located, right? Maybe a meet-and-greet and the rest by email and phone. Or do they also need to have a regional connection?

Actually, there should be civil engineers in every larger municipality, some of whom certainly also work as experts. But don’t expect too much from an expert; he is only your eye on the construction site, not your representative, you alone have the hat on.

With a prefabricated house, there is certainly less botched work compared to the solid house; the prefabricated house comes pretty much finished from the factory ;)

: It doesn't really matter where the lawyer is located; the expert witness is more important. Ours is also 55 km away from the construction site. Doesn't matter at all, the few euros for travel expenses are negligible compared to potentially undiscovered defects. An advantage if you have both the lawyer and the expert witness from the Bauherren-Schutzbund: They usually know each other and may have already worked together for homeowners. Good cooperation is important there. Btw: I have not yet met either the lawyer or the expert witness in person; everything has worked perfectly so far via phone and email. So with the two of them, not with the construction company...

The legal bases vary from state to state (Landesbauordnung etc.). I would therefore tend to choose a lawyer who resides in the state of the construction project, as he is likely to be more familiar with its legal regulations. Expert definitely nearby, unless you want to increase his fee solely because of the travel.