Construction start delayed, financing at risk - What to do?

Your problem is that the start of construction was promised subject to the construction approval by the end of January. Now the general contractor (GU) can of course always say: well, if we had received the construction approval by the end of January, we would have started in March, because I had all the subcontractors reserved for it. When that did not happen, other orders were prioritized. And since there are currently enough people who want to build, that is probably what happened. It is currently no problem to deploy craftsmen and construction companies to other projects. They are taken with a kiss. Meaning: the GU currently has no slot reserved for you because he is probably fully booked until the end of the year and your slot was, since the construction approval was not available until the end of January, given to a customer who already had a construction approval at that time. This is common practice and the construction company cannot be blamed for it.

Now you can try it with goodwill and with the urgent indication that your financing will fall through if the start of construction is not guaranteed by 1.8. The GU will not want that out of self-interest. In my opinion, that is the only leverage you have. And: as toxicmolotow said: what is the start of construction? Maybe you can at least get the GU to start so far that the foundation slab is prepared. Otherwise, unfortunately, you will have to prepare yourself for being a gap filler for the time being. So you get the unplanned gaps that come up at the GU. If you are lucky, another builder is in the same situation as you: the building permit was not there in time. Then you can have his slot. Otherwise, hope that the GU can squeeze you in again and again.

[QUOTE="zizzi, post: 261980, member: The contractor does not give us a concrete schedule, the start of construction was not even set in writing. The boss only told us on the phone: the schedule depends on subcontractors, they have to be able to start, they are not reachable, the weather was not good this year, this year was not good for us … don’t worry, by then (01.08.2018) we can start.

[/QUOTE]

But you communicated this to the general contractor, that with the deadline from the bank?! That’s how it reads, and it seems the boss now also wants to plan the start of construction in your interest. Since you have to expect to be put on hold as the client and the current construction site until the approval arrives, you can do very little. You have to allow 2-3 months for the general contractor to finalize their logistics for your house construction. Of course, it can also go faster.

I would communicate again in writing and politely by letter to the general contractor about August 1st and the pressure from the bank etc. (contract termination). Then probably call every two weeks and ask politely, not annoyingly or demanding, when the expected start of construction is. Demanding tones can cause the wrong effect. You are all pulling together and not against each other. In other words, the general contractor also strives to meet the date.

Why do you think the contract expires just because one of the involved banks no longer wants to? There are after all other banks.

Why do you even believe that a right of withdrawal (still) exists?

I read the copied text differently.

- Right of withdrawal in case of financing rejection or failed land purchase.
- Construction planning only takes place once the client has confirmed in writing that the requirements (i.e., the absence of withdrawal reasons) are met.

To me, this reads as if this point has long since been passed.

Thank you very much for the previous answers. Of course, we have sent a copy of the deadline from NBank to BU. The boss could not believe until then that NBank had set deadlines. This loan counts as equity capital for us, which Allianz also anticipated. After several phone calls with BU, I finally received this letter from the site manager this afternoon: "After consultation with the builder, we can assure you that the construction project will start by 01.08.2018. We cannot yet say the exact date for the start at this time. We will contact you in due time so that a construction meeting can be held beforehand." I think this is okay so far. The construction start notification is still missing. I think they have many half-finished houses that need to be completed, which is why new orders are likely to be delayed. On the other hand, we also want the construction to be as good and fast as we saw at the public house viewings by the company beko Wohnungsbau. Regards

But if the NBank really backs out because of this clause that I do not know like this, you will have costs too, right? You won’t get out of it without any costs at all.