Exterior walls built with a 4cm tilt

Lawyers are not people who ruin others. The point is precisely not to cause costs by allowing other contractors to continue working under the mistaken belief that the trades before them were a solid foundation. Pulling the emergency brake too late can be expensive.

Involving a lawyer doesn’t escalate anything, not even atmospherically – they don’t even have to make an appearance, just advise when drafting the formal complaint. That’s a formality so the builder can say: I gave notice in time that, in my opinion, a defect exists. C´ est tout – no one is harmed

P.S.: looks like our writing times just crossed ...



Does that mean you more or less allowed your house to "fall" 4 cm onto the neighbor's property (or vice versa)?

Vice versa, so towards me.
For now, we feel a bit more comfortable with the situation again.

Lawyers are not people who mess things up. The point is precisely not to cause costs by letting other contractors continue under the mistaken belief that the trades before them provided a solid foundation. Pulling the emergency brake too late can be expensive.

You really don’t need to involve a lawyer before you’ve properly talked to the construction company at least once. If you find a mistake and talk to the site manager, he will pretty much try to downplay everything at first. That is not a reasonable conversation; both sides need time to prepare for it. That has now happened here as well and the wall will be redone—completely without a lawyer or any threat.

You absolutely do not have to involve a lawyer [...] completely without a lawyer or any threat.

Even though some people like to "threaten" with their lawyer: a lawyer in itself is not a threat, but simply a legally knowledgeable advisor. The law also applies to laypeople, and exercising rights may require compliance with formalities (with the consequence that a layperson can also pursue their legal position ineffectively if they "save" themselves advice). Therefore, legal advice can also make sense in seemingly small cases. There can be no question of "involving" a lawyer where he only advises the client and does not appear at all to the contractor. A good lawyer knows that some people can react irritably to lawyers and then advises the client on his own initiative to send the discussed words in his own name.

Therefore, legal advice can also be useful in seemingly small cases.

I can also CC Mr. Schäuble my tax return. The question is whether that is necessary. Payday is just trying to show that you can first talk "normally" with each other before involving a lawyer. Whether he appears or not, the bill comes, so what's the point if you can agree without that.

Payday is just trying to show that you can also first talk "normally" with each other before bringing in a lawyer.

I think everyone here agrees with that. But if someone shows up in the forum and says, the site manager says "everything is fine," then the advice must(!) be to formally report the defect. You can make formal mistakes doing that, I even say: the layman will(!) make formal mistakes (and in the end, when push comes to shove, get the short end of the stick). Therefore: get advice and do it properly! BTW, the "other side" is always superior and usually has already taken legal advice several times, e.g., when drafting the terms and conditions etc.

what's the point, if you can agree like this.

The starting point of this thread was disagreement. If everyone agrees, then you still have to hope that this agreement does not disadvantage the client unfairly. If everything is fine, of course you don't need a lawyer, nor independent construction supervision .

What kind of formal errors are actually being talked about here? Can someone explain that? The lawyer charges 200 euros for the initial consultation. If you always go to the lawyer immediately before the dialogue has taken place, a lot of money is wasted. If the OP had listened to you and run to the lawyer in full panic right away, he would have thrown the money out the window. Is there really only black and white for you?