Construction company halts work despite overpayment

not to forget, it is an affordable BU, it will hardly make compromises. And the OP should have been aware of that

After reading through the thread, I partly believe that you made the wrong conclusions and decisions in the new situation for you.

None of the neighbors has shown the GU the red card. Everyone initially bore the additional costs or had them put in writing and later agreed with the GU regarding the additional costs.

Everything else is speculation.

That’s how I see it too. It is the dilemma of ignorance. No buffer was kept; the ancillary construction costs, i.e., earthworks to be carried out by the client, were not planned high enough. For a house construction sum of 470,000, at least 40,000€ buffer should be planned. Ancillary construction costs for a house with a basement at least 40,000€. I speculate that these 80,000€ were not available, wrong decisions were made, so that the BU also reacted. But as I said: these are my speculations. Some things do not just happen like that. You have to realistically reflect on that.

not to forget, it is a affordable general contractor, he will hardly make compromises. And the OP should have been aware of that

That may be true. Nevertheless, it would be the fastest way! Here I also see the OP's responsibility to approach the general contractor again and seek a conversation without accusations / factually.

Because let's be honest, all the problems the OP has listed here could have easily been resolved with a buffer or defect remediation by the general contractor and an expert consulted beforehand.

I find the thread extremely instructive. That means, when I plan the house construction, always about 10% buffer, document errors (from GU or from me? Aren't there already discussions here?!), and then I am on the safe side or can it still get out of hand here? Then I would have the feeling of playing the lottery.

I looked at the first pages again and found the following statement:

Instead, I was supposed to pay another €10,000 for disputed matters as a "sign of my good will," which I did not do

What kind of invoices are disputed and outstanding? What are these €10,000 for, and what do the lawyer and expert say about it?

The company's weather excuse is nonsense, but if you don't pay things (€10,000 here, €7,500 defect retention, €5,000 for structural changes, €1,500 for the gable...) then the contractor could be completely justified in stopping the construction :(

Here, many side issues add up to a real problem:

--> List of defects:

- Too much excavation was hauled away instead of being stored... well, after the matter with BG Bau and the large excavation pit, the amount may be justified. But you yourself write: excavation according to the soil report is not allowed to be backfilled, but it was done anyway? So, more should have been hauled away? You should be glad. I am missing more explanations here. In total, 17,000€ additional cost for this first item is nothing that anyone here in the forum would be shocked about. Sure, many pay less, but unfortunately some pay more. This could have been known in advance overall.

- Basement 10 cm too high. Better than 10 cm too low. Are there any other consequences because of this?

- Improperly installed drainage. Your expert confirmed this, right? You can notice this on any construction site, the slope, angles, seals, distances... so much can be done wrong, truly 100% DIN-compliant will be the case in very few projects.

- Basement too large: how was this handled? Was the house then also built somewhat larger accordingly? An amendment to the building application or are the building boundaries then not observed? How was the problem solved? Possible additional costs: due to the larger house for you?

- Structural engineering is always an issue. I would also consider myself a victim here. According to structural engineering, our ceiling on the ground floor had to be 2 cm thicker than in the plans at contract signing, at our expense. Now one could argue about this, but the fact is: the extra work is there. You actually get additional value for the money. The structural calculation is always done only after signing (otherwise it would be much too expensive if the client then does not sign) and if the construction company does not plan its own budget buffer to be able to deliver the cheapest offer, then the client is left with the cost. I mean, where else should the money come from?

All this is annoying and expensive, no question. But against the background of rapid construction progress, a client currently has to swallow such things. Now everything is just much more expensive, nothing moves forward, extreme psychological stress, etc.

--> Winter construction site - construction interruption in December. What do you want to achieve with that? Nothing comes of it; the interruption was possibly ordered in advance due to impending cold weather to avoid having open construction phases. The court can commission expert reports to determine when, where, and how cold it was, and that with strong wind on wet surfaces even at +5°C there could be a risk of icing and therefore construction on sites x, y, and z were also interrupted, but at a, b, and c work continued. Months pass again only for the result: weather-related interruptions in December are to be tolerated as industry standard.

--> Malice of the contractor: look at it another way: he earns the most if a construction site runs smoothly and cleanly from A to Z and the house survives the warranty period with as few defects as possible. That is his goal. Everything else creates a lot of work and costs time, money, nerves. Exactly this will his lawyer convincingly present to the court and thus foil any argumentation on your part.

All this together has led to this deadlocked situation at the end of which there is only one laughing winner: the involved lawyers. They laugh quietly to themselves and go in the evening together with the judge to a fine dining restaurant and order red wine for 50€ a bottle and toast together to your legal dispute.

I keep my fingers crossed that you somehow get through it and maybe have also prompted other perspectives.