Construction company halts work despite overpayment

We are currently FACED with this decision. However, with smaller amounts. Waiving 20K€ or trying to enforce one’s right with a risk of costs around 10K€ – or attempting to enforce it, because even with basically clear initial conditions, in court one is like on....

Do you have any other options besides legal dispute, e.g. withholding payment, reducing the final invoice, calling on the contract bond?

No, it is purely about the architect's planning services. Plans are torn up, but the invoices had already been paid. An actually extremely good settlement proposal of 50/50 was not responded to. However, I do not want to distract from the OP here. That is why we know the situation regarding legal protection quite well; it would not have helped us either.

My god, these construction companies piss me off.
It seems like they all invest the customers' money upfront into the legal advice rather than into training the employees and accordingly into the construction.

The legal situation in DE in this context is just bitter.

The insurance companies know why they usually don't insure house constructions... That alone is actually proof enough that in the end, you always get the short end of the stick.

He doesn't have any employees at all, he only uses SUBs. And they don't even have the authorization (Maurer- und Betonarbeiten) to carry out these tasks. He uses the cheapest SUBs he can get, and the quality is therefore accordingly. What surprises me is that these subs are not working for him for the first time (allegedly 20 houses per year) and I couldn't find anything negative on the internet.

What surprises me is that these subs are not working for him for the first time (allegedly 20 houses per year) and I couldn't find anything negative on the internet.

One could almost see that as an indication of a professional insolvent person - they have lawyers who quickly scrub the internet :-(

And how can one deal with such people, with our great legal system?