General contractor's offer vs. final invoice - a nightmare

Hi everyone,

I want to ask for your advice because my general contractor is driving me crazy and costing me every last cent :)

After the price lock period passed, the general contractor already submitted a supplementary offer with enormous, partly certainly understandable, price increases. OK, with a gun to our heads, we agreed to the 15% additional costs. Then, shortly before the start of the civil engineering work, we were informed that additional civil engineering work would be necessary according to the created soil survey report. OK, the wound on our chests was still fresh, so we agreed to the additional 14,000 €. And here we now have the problem: The offer is basically structured as follows:

Item 1) 100 m³ installation of foundation cushion with MG FS 0/45 as the basis for the construction of .....terrace Price per m³ 59.60 € = 5960 €
Item 2) 50 m³ installation of foundation cushion with MG FS 0/45 as the basis for the construction of .... driveway Price per m³ 59.60 € = 2980 €
etc.
each with the addition: Billing according to weighbridges 2t/m³

In the invoice, however, he charges

Item 1) 115 m³ x 59.60 €
Item 2) 60 m³ x 59.60 €
and refers to the fact that he now brought in more, which is also apparent in the weighbridge tickets.
So he ultimately dug deeper and wider and therefore used more and is billing me for it.

Since this kind of money printing rubs me the wrong way, I naturally disputed the invoice.
In my opinion, it is the general contractor’s obligation to make a proper measurement and then make an offer accordingly.
Or he makes me an offer for the installation of the frost protection based on "per ton."
Sure, the addition is included, but for my feeling there are too many variables in this offer.
Basically, he can now calculate everything in any way he likes, no matter how much he installs.

What is your opinion on this case?
Am I mistaken here? Do I have to accept this?

Thanks in advance for your feedback
Regards
x

To me, all of this sounds completely correct: 1) he has adhered exactly to his unit price 2) he is not responsible for the increase due to the expert recommendation 3) the weighing slip is a clean billing basis, for the volume loss due to settlement and compaction he is also not responsible.

I see this somewhat differently than . Because usually it is the contractor who has considerably more experience in his business – and thus also a high duty of care.

[*]The addition "billing based on weighing slips" is not an obvious announcement of possible additional costs for a layperson. It could also mean that the contractor proves with the weighing slips that he has delivered the quantity offered and ordered.
[*]Which "volume loss" is supposed to have occurred here is not clear to me. The original poster writes that digging was done too deep (or did I misunderstand that?)
[*]Regardless of the causes, an experienced contractor should present his offer so clearly that no customer is subsequently surprised by the costs. For example, by clearly stating that the costs may increase by xy % due to "volume loss" or whatever. The customer usually experiences this for the first time, the contractor for the umpteenth.

I have no idea whether anything can be done legally about this. But I would not recommend such a contractor.

Hello, earthworks always cause discussions. What does your [GU] say?

I would be interested to know why the price lock period (12 months?) is over? The price lock applies after the first groundbreaking. That means when the earthworks begin. Did you have such a long planning phase? Because that is probably where the big chunk of money is buried.

Hello

Here is the following information:

Price binding: In our construction contract, the price binding was fixed for 12 months on the condition that the building permit is obtained within these 12 months. Unfortunately, we could not implement this.
We had also accepted that.

According to the soil report, additional foundation work was then required.
Of course, he is not to blame for that, so we accepted it.
The general contractor created a corresponding offer as described above and we placed the order.
To my understanding, however, he is responsible exactly for the quantities determined in the offer based on the report.
If in the end more is simply used because they are still digging deeper and wider, then I do not understand why I should pay for that.

It is not a cost estimate, but an offer?!

Regards
x