Building without work plans

Regardless of the fact that I did not accept the basement, I received a corresponding invoice today from NSK GmbH, still in the percentage amount of the originally agreed services, which have since been reduced by about 85,000 euros, as I will be awarding part of the work on my own. The guarantee demanded by the lawyer, which should have been submitted by July 11, is also still missing.

Under the aspect that negative posts are only activated after presenting the affidavit (ESE), I am quite surprised. Here, things are publicly and sometimes by name denounced, which we cannot leave as they are.

As an example, I will take the entry from 29.06.2016. There is a construction contract with a payment schedule. In addition, there is an amendment regarding the elimination of agreed services and also a new payment plan, which is not legally binding because it was not signed by the client, although the client had already approved it to us in an email.

A guarantee is not required. The construction contract regulates securities as follows:
"The contractor shall provide the client with a security before the first installment payment for the timely completion without significant defects in the amount of 5% of the remuneration agreed under § 3(1). The security can be provided by a guarantee, warranty, or an equivalent payment promise from a credit or insurance institution authorized in the EU. Until the client receives this security from the contractor, the client is entitled to withhold 5% from the net amount of the respective installment payments. If the security is provided after the client has already made withholdings from the installment payments/security retentions, this amount shall be paid to the contractor immediately."
So the question arises as to where there is a claim for a guarantee.

Regarding the topic of light wells, just so much:
By the way, the light wells in the basement were executed exactly as requested by the client according to the construction site protocol.

We will deal with the other postings in the next few days.
There was, by the way, also an offer for a consensual contract termination. Since apparently no other construction company wanted to take over the house construction, we unfortunately had to acknowledge that a contract termination did not occur. I write this for informational purposes regarding the often expressed tenor here "We would have preferred to have built with another company."

Let's start from the end: Your "offer" consisted of initially wanting €16,515.20 for the contract cancellation, then €10,000, and finally you would have been willing to cancel the contract for €6,515.20 (today I say I should have accepted that and paid the learning fee). Your service up to that point consisted of commissioning the architect who prepared the building application. Originally, I wanted to have that done by a planning office in our town, and for that, I would have received a significantly lower credit. Your business partner wrote: "it's not much what he does there but never mind, our credit is €1,250 net (gross €1,487.50)." He would have done much more than that. Your architect was at our place once for 2 1/2 hours and then he did not show up anymore.

Regarding light wells: I have to agree with you! Although during the kick-off meeting with the project manager of the basement company, when asked about the height of the basement windows, I responded that I couldn’t answer that off the top of my head, which caused your site manager to recite his standard phrase: "You have to know what you want!" this was noted in the minutes, I overlooked it, and I signed it. So, you could say I fell into a trap. My fault. A site manager whose goal is to act in the client’s best interest might have pointed this out. Let’s not beat around the bush: You’re right and I’m unlucky!

I did not approve the last payment schedule. There was only my consent to the changed own contributions. Since I want you off the construction site as soon as possible, I took over many trades myself. That is also a good thing. Normally, I get along very well with the craftsmen. There was once an approval from me for the payment schedule, even though the amount for the earthworks of around €10,000 did not seem appropriate to me, as these usually amount to around €5,000. However, I assumed that a work planning by your architect would precede the work. What I received and (except for the facade views) everyone can see is not much more than the plans already prepared for the building application. According to the assessment of experts, this is not work planning.

Now to your payment plan and the guarantee. There are clauses in the construction contract, according to the information from my lawyer and similar can be found on the internet, that are invalid if they violate applicable law. In this case, § 632a of the Construction Code applies. I do not need to quote it because everyone can look it up. Then he may form a judgment about what you write here. The guarantee is very much required. It could be that you suddenly have to declare insolvency.