Financing request - How many documents are normal?

And planning to finish the children's rooms later or the garden later is also completely unacceptable.

Well, you don't necessarily have to rub that in the bank's face. What isn't finished by the move-in date simply isn't finished... We also had to include a small budget for a carport for the bank... but it won't be built until next year or the year after. When the money runs out, it runs out. And they themselves know that the garden will be finished only over time. You can still plan a budget for it, and that's what the bank wants to see. If unforeseen things come up and the garden has to wait a year because of that, then so be it.

But if you start off by saying, "Yes, money is tight, so we're doing certain rooms, the garden, the carport, the paths, etc. step by step and don't even plan a budget for them..." then understandably they get worried if it already sounds like the house itself won't be finished. If the financing is tight (which we don't know here), then they will take a closer look to see if those step-by-step projects can realistically be realized at all.

Somehow all of this reads to me a bit like "Wash me, but don't get me wet." You want the bank to support your project. Then you also have to comply with the bank's requirements, and if they want you to dance outside at night in the rain wearing swim trunks during a full moon and have it photographed for them, then you have the choice to do it, or there will simply be no support. (One can certainly act more or less cleverly in this regard, but that also influences the outcome.)

I still haven't understood why it is such a problem for you to get a list of items stamped by (any) architect, but as long as you resist, the bank will gratefully decline.

We are confused that they can't make anything of the GU/turnkey construction concept.

No, you are confused that they completely rightly do not lump together the two concepts of turnkey construction with a general contractor – once with and once without an architect – under the same category. A general contractor does employ someone he also calls a "site manager," who in many respects resembles such a person, but who has a different set of responsibilities than a construction-managing architect. Who drew the submission plans does not make a difference here, nor whether the general contractor was chosen by you or by an architect. But when, in addition to missing detailed planning and different site management, the cost calculation clearly comes from (first-time) laymen, the financier’s nervousness is not surprising.

And planning that the children's rooms will only be completed later or the garden is also completely unacceptable.

Well, that is rarely stupid. The garden budget can also be cleverly included in a non-necessity of refinancing for cost overruns of the current construction items, so that by the end of the budgeted money the house is miraculously already finished instead of needing more. And you don't explicitly say that the children's rooms will only be completed later. A proper nitpicker is supposed to notice that for himself when he compares the total kilometers of the, of course, properly summed baseboards with the lengths of the wall sections.

Well, that is also rarely stupid. The garden budget can also be elegantly absorbed by not requiring refinancing for cost increases of the current construction positions, then, at the end of the budgeted money, the house is miraculously already finished instead of needing more. And you don't explicitly tell the children's rooms that they will only be finished later. A proper nitpicker is supposed to notice that by comparing the total kilometers of the, of course, properly summed baseboards with the lengths of the wall sections

it couldn't be said better

No, you are confused that they mix up the two concepts of turnkey construction with a general contractor - once with and once without an architect - [...]

It is somewhat difficult to just present phone conversations here. The bankers don’t confuse two things NOT as one, rather they have no idea that there is more than one thing!

Well, you don’t necessarily have to tell the bank that to their face. What isn’t finished by move-in is just not finished... [...]

I never claimed that we sold it to the bank that way, but only that all statements from the bank exactly “imply an obligation” that unsettles us.

If the loan is fully drawn and there is no outdoor facility, it simply isn’t there... whether they care during the disbursement process what you submit — how high which invoice from whom is — or whether in the end they care if everything is as planned and said and finished including garden and co or not -> we don’t know... But they talk as if they will check every tile in the end, whether it is really as valuable as stated before in the appraisal “If you say the living room will be tiled, then in the end there must not be laminate.”

And that surprises you?