Duration of a shell construction

Hello, we are having a semi-detached house built by a construction service provider. We have a floor area of approximately 56m2 per side. One side has a basement, the other does not. The groundbreaking was on October 17, 2012. To this day, the shell construction is still not finished. When we speak to the builder about it, they only say that the winter was very long and currently it’s just raining, so work cannot be done. Can someone tell me if this is normal, have you had similar experiences? I would appreciate a few answers.

Hello,

The groundbreaking was on 17.10.2012. To this day, the shell construction is still not finished.
When we ask the shell builder about it, they just say the winter was very long and currently it's only raining, so you can't work. Can any of you tell me if this is normal, have you had similar experiences? I would appreciate some answers.

I hope you have a construction period guarantee? If not, things already look bad for you.

Even if the months from November 12 to including March 13 had been extremely bad weather-wise, since mid-April your contractor could have been building... the shell construction should have been finished by June.

In my opinion, there is something else going on that is keeping the shell builder from working – ranging from "he has to catch up on old orders (some months really were bad for the construction trade)" to "he isn't getting paid" – anything is possible.

In any case, you can only apply pressure or issue a notice of defects if you have a construction period guarantee agreed upon in writing. Otherwise, you have little to no leverage to speed up the construction project.

Best regards from the Rhineland

In the contract with the construction service provider, it states in the construction and service description under general: The maximum construction time is 6 months without a basement, 7 months with a basement.
Is that a guarantee that can be held against him?
We also believe that something is wrong with the shell builder. He did not come again last week, allegedly sick.
It cannot be due to money from our side. We have paid every invoice, our construction manager even said we had overpaid. When we said at the last invoice that the work was not yet at the stage and we did not want to pay this invoice for now, he immediately said he would not come anymore. He also did not agree to the suggestion of a security account. So we paid...

Hello,

I am not allowed to provide legal advice, this is exclusively reserved for consulting professions in Germany!

The contract with the construction service provider states in the construction and performance description under general: The maximum construction time is 6 months without a basement, 7 months with a basement.
Is that a guarantee that you can hold him to?

In every contract for work, there is a ranking of precedence, i.e. as a rule the contract for work - based on the BB - takes priority. If additions are made, they must generally be observed over the contract for work - unless there are other formulations.

So you have to check whether your contract for work contains a different formulation regarding construction time. If the contract for work and BB correspond to each other and there are no other changes in the form of an additional agreement regarding construction time, the construction time stated in the BB applies.

When we said for the last invoice that the work is not yet as far as we want it, so we first don’t want to pay this invoice, he immediately said he won’t come anymore. He also did not agree to the proposal of a security account. So we paid...

Sorry, but very stupid... you should never give in to blackmail! Besides, the shell builder is not allowed to do that either, he must adhere to his contract just as you must adhere to the agreed payment steps in your contract for work.

Rhenish greetings

Unfortunately, you are right, it was very stupid to pay the bill. He didn’t come again... I think we will now really have to involve the lawyer so that we can finally finish our house in this life.

Well, the structural builder ran off on 29.05. with the paid amount of 90% and has not been found since. We now have an expert inspecting the shell, the shell is full of defects, we still don't know if we have to demolish it. Our dream of a house has turned into a nightmare. The shell is still standing without a roof. If we can still save the construction, we are looking for a structural builder who will fix the defects and finish the construction. As soon as I know more, I will write the status here again.