Construction delay - What rights do you have?

Hello,

I have a question, but first a brief overview of our situation. We are building a Ytong kit house, doing a lot ourselves and also having to find and coordinate many companies ourselves, although most of it is covered by the developer.

Now my problem: we have finished masonry for our ground floor and received the installation appointment for our ceiling and stairs on August 8th. To keep costs low, we only had the scaffolding set up on August 6th. Now August 8th was canceled because supports for the carport and the corner window were missing; we then received a new date of August 19th. Unfortunately, this date also fell through because the steel support for the corner window did not arrive on time. Now everything is there, and we have received August 29th as the new date, and nothing should stand in the way...

My problem is that the scaffolding has now been standing unused for 21 days; we pay €55 per day, which is over €1000 in extra costs. What are my rights now? Am I allowed to claim recourse and withhold part of the final payment if the construction company is not reasonable, or is it just my bad luck if there are delays?

Thanks in advance

What are my rights now, am I allowed to claim recourse and withhold part of the final payment if the construction company is not reasonable, or is it just my bad luck if there are delays?

a) You are building the kit house yourselves? Then it was your fault that the supports were missing? b) Whose responsibility was it to provide the scaffolding? Where is this documented? c) What does the contract say? I don’t understand your setup. You have a general contractor, build the walls yourselves, and also take care of other companies? When I think this over, you want to build as cheaply as possible, do an enormous amount yourselves, and now want money from someone else because of your own mistakes. But who is supposed to be the other party? You built the walls and didn’t finish everything. You ordered the scaffolding. So why don’t you just pay for it? Consider it a learning expense (there will probably be much more), resulting from your very unusual construction project.

The scaffolding has now been standing unused for 21 days, we pay €55 per day, which amounts to over €1000 in extra costs.

When I think about how long my scaffolding stood, especially since you don't only need the scaffolding for masonry, then your price really isn't a bargain. Who is responsible for the scaffolding / who commissioned the scaffolding? If you now tell me that you commissioned the trade... then you might be stuck with the costs. You can only inquire with the scaffolding provider about recourse. But something like that would have to be in the contract.

Huh, how can someone write so much nonsense at once, inform yourself first. I even wrote with whom we are building, there is plenty of information material and it has nothing to do with unusual construction projects.

You buy a kit, it’s like when you buy a cabinet at Ikea and at the end a screw is missing and you can’t continue building. Are you then also to blame because you bought at Ikea and not at Höffner and had it assembled right away?

So we get everything delivered and the developer takes care of the material and all the things you can’t do yourself. We only had to find someone for the earthworks, a scaffolding company and someone for the interior plastering. We ourselves poured the foundation slab, built the walls, covered the roof and laid the pipes for the underfloor heating. The rest is done by companies or the construction manager of our house building company.

The fact is we are responsible for ensuring that scaffolding is in place on time for the ceiling installation, and we have complied! The developer is responsible for ordering all the material and delivering it on time to the construction site!

Who is responsible for the scaffolding/ who commissioned the scaffolding? If you now tell me that you commissioned the trade.

I know myself how long the scaffolding has been standing and there is a budget for it. We commissioned the scaffolding ourselves, the scaffolder does not care what and whether anything is done with it. For him, only the fact counts that he rents it out and it is not available for others, why should I claim recourse from him, he hasn't done anything wrong.

The fact remains that our construction contractor ordered and delivered parts too late and thus the delay occurred....

If you already know everything so well, that's fine. Just invoice your developer and wait to see if he pays. He probably won't.