Contract Supplement to the Construction Contract by the Developer

Hello everyone,

just a brief introduction about me (us), we are a young family with one child and are currently in the process of having a semi-detached house built in Nuremberg. The whole thing is anchored as a fixed price with a developer in a construction contract. In the scope of services, a semi-detached house without a basement (i.e. from the slab) was agreed upon. That’s the contract conclusion so far. During the planning phase, the other semi-detached house was then sold to another client. However, they want to build with a basement. After a slow start to the planning by the architect, etc., the construction documents have been completed and are being processed by the responsible authorities. We hope to receive our permit in the next few weeks and then it could start.

Now to our problem:

This week we received an addendum to the contract drawn up by the developer, which we are being asked to sign (and thereby accept). This addendum includes additional costs (approx. 10,000 euros) for supporting our slab. Since during the construction of the basement of the other semi-detached house, excavation is taking place on our land and therefore the statics of our semi-detached house can no longer be guaranteed. No doubt about the necessity of this measure. But no one can impose these costs on us. Nothing like this is anchored in the construction contract. Neither for us nor for the other client. From our point of view this is clearly a planning error, which the developer must now bear himself. Are we right? When we concluded the contract, originally both semi-detached houses were planned without a basement.

Best regards, Toni

Hello Toni,
we are also currently building a semi-detached house (attached to an existing DH with a basement) in the city "north" of you!
This topic also came up for us and it was quite clear that this would have been our business. In other words, either you both build at the same time! with or without a basement, or the one who builds later must ensure that the existing building is not damaged.

Which builder are you building with? We can gladly exchange messages via PN, I would be interested to know who "sets up" something like this in this region.
We found it quite difficult anyway to find a good BU here.

Regards
Hilaria

One more question: why is there excavation work being carried out on your property?

one more question: why is there earth excavation on your property?

The earth excavation takes place on our property because the planned basement of the other semi-detached house is placed in a tub and also needs to be insulated. As mentioned, we see it the same way. Our contract was concluded first, so the other contract should have referred to this in its design. But it did not! Of course, we want to enable the other builder to have their basement. But we cannot and will not cover the costs for any stepped offsets. Here, the developer (or rather their agent) made a serious mistake. As already stated, no construction contract contains any clause allowing such a contract supplement.

Toni

Hello,

Now to our problem:

This week we are receiving a contract addendum set up by the developer, which we are supposed to sign (and thereby accept). This addendum includes additional costs (about 10,000 euros) for underpinning our foundation slab. Because during the construction of the basement of the other semi-detached house, excavation is taking place on our property and thus the statics of our semi-detached house can no longer be guaranteed. No doubt about the necessity of this measure. But no one can impose these costs on us. Nothing of the sort is anchored in the construction contract. Neither for us nor for the other builder. From our point of view, this is clearly a planning error which the developer now has to bear himself. We originally planned both semi-detached houses without basements when we signed the contract.

No, it is not a planning error and no, the developer does not have to cover the costs; although I assume you are building with a general contractor (developer is a different matter)

You have chosen a lot that was planned with a complete semi-detached house. As a rule, either both halves are planned on a foundation slab or with a basement to avoid the additional foundation costs you described (there’s that dreaded magic word again). Now it unfortunately happens that one of the semi-detached partners deviates – this is certainly not the fault of your provider – and wants to build contrary to the planned design. If you want to stick to the lot/construction project, you must also bear the related additional costs in the form of a stepped underpinning. These additional costs do not arise solely from the fact that the new neighbor is storing parts of his excavation on your property, but – simply put – from the plain fact that the neighbor is "digging away" parts of your property and thus you can no longer build on “undisturbed ground.”

Kind regards

@Bauexperte why does he have to bear the additional costs now? Isn't that the responsibility of the other house builder? We were also responsible for everything when we "dug up" the other house ... does he have to tolerate that the neighbor digs up parts of his property? That really doesn't make sense to me.