Garage - Building Application - Confusion

False statements must, however, be corrected. I can gladly quote from my building permit (for house and garage) in substance.

The building permit is granted [blabla] on the condition that the thermal insulation certificate and the structural safety certificate are submitted to the approving authority before the actual start of construction.

We do not need to discuss this, but you are welcome to come by and read it yourself.

OMG

so you do have a building permit with conditions!!

In my case, I would then submit the documents for the garage - here I have to have signed, otherwise I won’t get one - and then the person handling it would have told me you you you this doesn’t work like that.

Conclusion: I would have the problem a little later then.

An architect can do that.

And our garage manufacturer even has drawings online on the internet for all offered garage types including sections and foundation plans.

Oh, and because your garage manufacturer has that, of course everyone has it!

I didn’t know that.

And if the garage is a DIY project, of course the architect from the home construction company sits down and comes up with the statics for it.... signs off on it and is then liable for it.

I didn’t know that either.

My God. You don't want to understand and this is getting too stupid for me.

One last attempt on my part.

The plan in which the garage is entered must be created by someone. And someone also takes money for that. Either the garage manufacturer, the architect of the general contractor, your own architect, or whoever. In the end, it doesn't matter at all.

The dimensions of garages are usually standardized. And only you know what size you want your garage to be and what "type". Who draws it into the plan doesn't matter.

Again: The structural analysis itself is totally irrelevant until the start of construction. Just like, for example, the energy efficiency certificate for buildings. As long as safety is ensured during construction, that's fine. Or do you think that someone in the building authority actually checks (in the sense of recalculates) the structural analysis of a garage? If at the start of construction (and not a minute earlier) the proof "structural analysis is fine" is available, that is sufficient.

And we can gladly discuss this for hours now. But I'm out.

The devil is in the details here.

As can also be read in the initial post, depending on the applicable state building code, there are building types that can be constructed without a permit within defined boundary conditions. In BB, this also seems to apply to small garages, whereas in NRW, for example, these generally require a permit.

: There are always special commentaries on the respective state building code, which your lawyer should have or be able to find. These also explain in a way that is somewhat understandable even for laypeople what is meant in the law.

Basically, however, even buildings that do not require a permit must comply with the above-mentioned conditions. Whether this is actually the case with the garages you see in your neighborhood is another matter. It is possible that there are steel garages that were constructed correctly, for example with sufficient distance to the boundary or to the next building. It is also possible that steel garages were erected with an additional/special permit/building application because certain points of the permit exemption were _not_ met but could be rectified through a formal building application—and it is possible that there are steel garages erected without a building application but nevertheless violating the conditions of the permit exemption.

In the last case, this does not create a legal entitlement for you— and or any other lawyer will also explain this to you— to make the same mistake.

In my opinion, your contact person here is your architect, as he must be familiar with the construction of such garages in BB—but based on your description, I believe the caseworker is correct.

Best regards Dirk Grafe