Oh dear, that matches our experience, except that we were too stupid and went one step further.
I am really sorry for you. Building should be one of the most wonderful experiences in life and not the worst.
In our case, an ad on Immoscout—which today I am firmly convinced was not 100% correct—was used to spark interest in our area. It at least worked on us. However, the plot was suddenly sold very quickly, so we were supposed to be guided to a new plot by the fabulous plot service; after all, almost every town hall supposedly has someone you can contact (Well, of course we didn’t believe that right away, but that’s how they approach you).
Unfortunately, that is a common scheme. Take a look at the many Al*ka*f listings on ImmoScout; they do the same. The provider scours the internet for plot listings and then posts their own ad including a house. At that time, they do not own the plot, but will mediate it to you if you bite. In most cases, the plot is already gone, and you are then promised another plot through their plot service. But for that, you need a preliminary contract and then they’ve got you. The ads always say at the bottom that if the plot is already assigned, they will surely find another one.
I find the claim about contacts in the town hall borderline. What do they want to do? Municipal plots cannot be easily handed out under the table anymore. There are point systems and application procedures that the provider cannot influence. The only possibility would be to know a plot owner who wants to sell their land—but how often does that happen?
We have an acquaintance who works in real estate and spoke to him at the time to see if he could help us with plots. He told us that the situation is currently very difficult in the Greater Stuttgart area and that he could not give us any advantage either.
The financing service, which boasted of decades of experience and promised us conditions that were so great, turned out to be a pure nightmare. No concrete answers to direct questions, always a lot of back and forth, something came out that was absolutely unacceptable; it was suggested several times that an internal financing proposal existed, but the final processing would only take place a month later due to the interest-free provision period—and yet we could definitely already go to the notary and also waive the revocation clauses so that we could plan the custom house with the architect...
I would never go to a notary appointment without a financing confirmation. Surely someone will finance the plot for you, since it is usually the smaller amount, but what if not? For example, if you have a poor credit rating (just as an example) and no one wants to finance you? Then you have a plot and obligations and cannot pay. Also, interest rates change daily; if he only comes with financing in a month, who knows what it will look like then? And whether he might not present you with a bad offer from which he receives high commissions.
In principle, I believe Schwabenhaus itself is not a bad company and builds good houses; we were impressed by the show house in Fellbach. I am actually convinced that the sales department is the problem here. “Our” sales contact from Heilbronn is a separate company that exclusively brokers for Schwabenhaus; accordingly, the business premises are clearly marked with Schwabenhaus colors and logos, but the door clearly shows a company name with the surname of the sales person on site.
Our contact person was not from Heilbronn. So it seems more or less systematic.
Fun fact: I presented the floor plan and the Schwabenhaus to my house bank, and they said they wouldn’t finance it; the internally determined value at the bank was below what the sales department had listed as the price.
I don’t know the prices for your house, but I also have to blame the banks a bit. They valued our plot at half the purchase price. I asked him where in the Stuttgart area you could get such a plot for that price, then he should tell me and I would buy it immediately. The answer was only the local land value guideline, etc., but you can unfortunately forget that nowadays, and the banks are still somewhat behind on this.
As of now, the lawyer is handling the matter; for Schwabenhaus headquarters, it looks as if we are arbitrarily canceling everything and that everything is correct; they are not interested in the problem with the sales department as it is not their employee, and they are now demanding damages from us... Yep, we’re somewhat to blame ourselves here, we allowed ourselves to be blinded and deceived. But we avoid them like the plague and are currently vehemently advising anyone in our circle who wants to build and also intended to go to Schwabenhaus against it.
That’s why your experience interested me; our lawyer had already asked whether there were similar experiences online or elsewhere. At least the introductory part matches.
Back then, I read several negative reports about this approach online. Unfortunately, I don’t remember where, but with some googling you might find them and get in contact with the people.
I definitely wish you good luck going forward and hope you get out of that mess. Do you already have a new provider for your house?
PS: There will be another update on Hauser, U-Haus, and AWS at the end of the week.