Comprehension questions about the Bauherren-Schutzbund

Dear forum,
I have a few questions about the Bauherren-Schutzbund that I unfortunately cannot answer from the information material – maybe it’s because I’m just starting to get familiar with the subject...

Starting situation:
We want to begin building our single-family house in March 2015. This is currently being planned by our architect, and it is also intended that he will supervise the construction.

I have come across the Schutzbund more and more often – also here in the forum – and have read a lot on their website. If I join the association, I have the opportunity to make use of many of their services (consultation). I am particularly interested in the construction supervision. This option is certainly on top of our architect, and it then works in a way that I, as a member, arrange appointments with the association, during which they look at the construction. So, the construction plan/schedule is coordinated with their consultants, and they come to the appointments and inspect. The cost for this supervision is then the hourly rates listed on their homepage, right?

One can probably be overly cautious, but at first this supervision in combination with the architect makes sense, right? Or is this like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut and the architect will be enough? I’m a bit interested in your experiences.

Best regards from Hamburg

Hi,

I consider construction supervision to be sensible.
To what extent this should be done through the Bauherren-Schutzbund must be decided by each individual.

We used the Bauherren-Schutzbund for contract review / review of the construction service description. There were a number of points that were justified. There were also some comments that were "far-fetched." In addition, the Bauherren-Schutzbund accompanied me to a meeting with the house building company to discuss potential changes. The cost for this advisory service in addition to the membership fee was about 1,300 euros. Well - maybe at the beginning I didn’t pay close enough attention to the time, so the hours ran by.

During this meeting, I found out that my house building company and the gentleman from the Bauherren-Schutzbund knew each other and that there was apparently a strong antipathy between the two. Later I learned that the gentleman from the Bauherren-Schutzbund had apparently shut down a construction site of my company. Only when a TÜV surveyor disproved his arguments could construction continue.
In short - I did not choose the construction supervision of the Bauherren-Schutzbund because I feared that the antipathy would also affect our project. I now have a TÜV inspector who visits the construction site 5 times and checks quite thoroughly (as far as I can judge).

One point also made me doubt the Bauherren-Schutzbund:
The gentleman from the Bauherren-Schutzbund is also a self-employed architect. Maybe I am wrong, but I am of the opinion that a good architect should normally also earn well. Why then must he still spend time for the Bauherren-Schutzbund, where he presumably earns significantly less.

...because not everyone does everything just for the money

There are also idealistic reasons.

Aside from that, the title “Architekt“ does not automatically lead to a lot of money.

Thank you very much for your help,

I will probably join. The fee is absolutely okay and the advantages seem to outweigh. However, I will reconsider the construction supervision for myself.

Best regards