Building in existing structures - Subsequent additional costs despite a fixed price

  • Erstellt am 2023-02-26 20:56:22

hanghaus2023

2023-03-02 10:43:45
  • #1
4 minutes???

What does your construction manager actually say about that?
 

Reggert

2023-03-02 12:13:27
  • #2
If he has already paid 50k for consulting and planning services, the entrepreneur has already "earned" well here... probably just looking for a reason to get even more out of it
 

hanghaus2023

2023-03-02 14:28:07
  • #3
This is called change order management. That's how the good margins get even better. ;)
 

kati1337

2023-03-02 15:16:44
  • #4
The ultimatum already leaves a strong bad taste for me.

The contractor apparently is firmly convinced that you owe him the additional costs. Whether this is covered by your contract or whether he is "ripping you off" cannot probably be answered here with legal certainty for you. But the fact is – the situation as it stands is very bad. What are your options?

Sign the addendum, pay the costs as "lesson money," and hope (?) that the contractor is otherwise sincere and does not want to exploit you. Alternatively, you have the legal route via a lawyer/legal advice. In that case, I would probably tend, as others have already advised before, to mutually terminate the contract, if you still have other companies at hand with whom you can see the project through?

What I strongly advise against is the nerve-wracking battle to try to push the contractual relationship through via lawyer communication until completion while the trust relationship with the contractor is massively damaged. If everything is already going through lawyers anyway, then you won’t be their favorite clients. In the end, that will cost you an indefinite amount of money and nerves. :/

How do you currently view the contractor? Do you consider this an unfortunate misunderstanding but are otherwise still optimistic? Or is the trust relationship already damaged from your point of view?
Personally, three things would make me skeptical: the dispute over the foundation itself, the ultimatum issued – although I can partly understand that since the contractor may just be trying to keep to his schedule and avoid delays – and the 50k already charged/paid for the services rendered so far. That seems expensive/overpaid to me – but that is my subjective opinion, as I do not know the details.
 

xMisterDx

2023-03-02 19:46:45
  • #5
Sometimes you really shake your head at the naivety and world-weariness of some people. It is absolutely common to put the customer on the spot and say, "Please order or we have to put you in somewhere when there is a slot again. But that could take a while..."

At the moment it is somewhat "better," but there were times when my colleagues and I had a lead time of 3-4 months.

For me personally, the posts of a user who just the day before yesterday was totally depressed canceling a house construction contract and now advises another user to start a multi-year legal dispute over a 20,000 EUR surcharge have a particularly unpleasant taste here. Marriages, families, yes, livelihoods have already been destroyed over things like this; compared to that, the grief over the "wrong" house is nothing at all.

If you want a house, then sign, you have no other choice. The clauses in the contract should have been checked before signing, now it's too late. And if the builder threatens you with price increases after just 2 months of delivery delay, then he will hardly let you out of the contract for free. Unfortunately, that's how it is.
 

Berlinho2

2023-03-02 22:20:18
  • #6
This is not about a legal dispute or being out of touch with reality. If necessary, the contractor should also have checked the contract and the historical execution documents more thoroughly, or this professional assessment is still pending. Pacta sunt servanda - and yet winning a case and being right are of course two completely different things. I share the opinion that it is not worth risking significantly more valuable things for something like this. However, the nonchalance with which you present your assessment gives the impression that you have no moral problem with such an approach, but that it is part of your professional daily routine to exploit power and dependency relationships unilaterally. Anything else would be naive. Regrettable
 

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