Was thinking about whether to wait with an update. But I’m afraid that soon there will be so much to tell that my posts will become endless ;) So I wanted to take you along a bit over the past month...
Basic facts:
On 01.04. the official insolvency proceedings were opened. (So it’s no longer preliminary). We had roughly heard that this was planned after inquiries, but there was no official information. By the way, not even after it was opened. No circular from the insolvency administrator, no circular from Tecklenburg. We basically read it on insolvenzbekanntmachungen dot de and in the press.
Well, anyway. At the end of March, in exchange with another project (apartments in Düsseldorf), we learned that they were moving forward. We also found out from the press that solutions had apparently been found for a few other projects as well. That gave a little hope that it is probably only a matter of time for us too... When we ask, we only get the same information we’ve gotten since January: talks are ongoing with investors, but they can’t tell us anything yet. Our contacts at Tecklenburg were basically all terminated or they left themselves around the time of the insolvency, but we do have a new old contact person (who was actually listed with us for a long time as a second contact in the project, but we hadn’t really had contact with him yet). We wish our old contacts all the best and continue to wait.
Last week we wanted to talk to the lawyer again about whether we should now request a decision from the insolvency administrator regarding contract continuation or not and what an appropriate deadline would be. It was almost a bit of a dispute, which was also because sometimes we talked past each other (oops :D). We actually agreed: for us it is probably better if Tecklenburg continues building. The lawyer’s opinion was (in my words) that we should give the insolvency administrator more time and rushing anything won’t help anyway. We also talked a bit about contract deadlines and whether we should do anything if they expire, but the general opinion was that it doesn’t make sense right now. We remain a bit frustrated that we can do so little, but okay. But almost simultaneously with the conversation, we also got the information on the side (via neighbors) that there would be an update from the insolvency administrator this week. (Yes, the nice flow of information...) Nobody really knows anything, but I think everyone had a quiet hope that the investor and/or bank talks were successful and building would continue. That was quite the assessment, because our row house block is already so far along. Tecklenburg also wanted to get in touch this week.
Today we got a call from Tecklenburg: the insolvency administrator is not taking over the contract. They wanted to inform us personally before we received the letter from the insolvency administrator. So much for “we’re already so far along, they will surely finish it!”. We had also asked whether a solution was attempted just for our construction phases or only for the entire project. The answer was that the focus was probably on the two already started construction phases from the beginning (both are quite advanced, especially ours). Well. The land and house will probably be transferred to us in their current state and Tecklenburg will probably provide us with all the information around it as best as possible (building plans, also a list of the companies originally planned for the trades, etc.). Everything else will probably have to be clarified in the next few weeks somehow. Our heads are spinning today with all sorts of questions that no one could answer so far ;)
But well, ultimately we always said that if it comes down to “no, Tecklenburg will not continue building,” we’d rather have that clarified as early as possible. Now we know and we’ll have to sort ourselves out a bit in the next few days.
What’s going through our minds right now? Questions like how the formal process will actually proceed now. Also a lot of sorting out what still needs to happen in the house before we can move in and how to organize that. (I think we will first contact the companies that were planned anyway according to Tecklenburg, but it will still be exciting). So it will somehow become a big list of trades, getting offers and then also reconsidering if we want to change some things or try to do them ourselves. We also still have to inform the bank, even though they said it will continue in a similar way if we continue building ourselves (submitting invoices etc.). We also have big question marks about what exactly the current state of infrastructure is, because that was never really the main focus of our considerations so far. (What happens in our own house is just more interesting.) So we have seen here and there that pipes were laid or something like that. Our private street also got a bitumen surface shortly before insolvency. But what was supposed to become the public dead-end street and access to the private street is definitely not finished yet. We only have the info that the city apparently has a guarantee for the infrastructure that it can fall back on (but the city is not known for flexibility and speed...). There is a tiny hope that all utilities at least reach the house, but we don’t actually know for sure right now. Somewhere far in the background – low priority – there is of course also the question of what will happen with the surroundings. So the construction phases not yet started etc. (There’s supposed to be a playground too...) Presumably they will try to “utilize” the plots, so sell them. That’s not a high priority for us, we can’t do anything about it anyway, but it’s kind of in the back of our minds. Oh, I just remembered that we’ll probably also need builder’s insurances then? That will definitely be interesting. As I said, these are the thoughts swirling around...
TLDR: It will not be continued with Tecklenburg. Everything else? We’ll see.