Heating not available - Who bears the costs?

When I hear quick and dirty, I don't think of IT at all. ;)

I simply consider the statement that the craftsmen didn't earn any money to be wrong. When I see what is billed here per hour, even on the Wizard of OZ there are still amounts listed, you can't believe it.

Do you know the costs that are associated with that?

I receive 25% gross of what my employer internally (!) charges as an hourly rate for me. If I take what we invoice the customer when I show up for service, it's 20%.

I know the costs that are opposed to it. You can't compare yourself to the market. I just noticed that in another thread with my 20% regulation. My employer, for example, earns nothing from my work. On the contrary, I cost him tons of money.

My problem is similar. The start of construction is coming up on its anniversary in the next few days. The contract states 8 months. After 8 months and 1 day, we have not shown up at the general contractor's office or threatened with a lawsuit. When it was already widely reported everywhere that heat pumps are hardly available anymore and delivery dates are delayed by many months, my general contractor still had not ordered. We addressed this; it left him completely indifferent and he said he would order soon, and as long as he isn’t directly told that our specific heat pump will arrive late, he isn’t worried. That was in June. Of course. The manufacturers call every single customer and explain in detail when which heat pump will arrive. No. He eventually placed the order sometime in August – by then the 8 months of construction time were already up. Making at least an effort to meet deadlines looks different. Suddenly at the end of September it was said he can’t say at all when we will get the heat pump. Planned for mid-November, but it could just as well come in April 2023. The house can be heated to low temperatures without moving in using a hotboy, or to livable temperatures with moving in, until the heat pump arrives sometime. We have been trying for weeks now to reach him. Phone appointments are simply not kept without notice. Emails are not answered. We have no clue how things will proceed now. At the end of the day, we just want to move into our house. But we have already incurred significant additional costs for months that, in our opinion, could have been avoided. We do want to talk. But nothing comes of it. That is why my understanding is very limited. We will soon seek advice on what options exist to find a solution. Initially amicably, but if necessary, by force.

In the case where it can be proven beyond doubt that the general contractor acted sloppily and has also expressed this to you in writing, you would probably indeed have chances. But he will hardly have done that in writing, rather on the phone, without you having an independent witness? The spouse has rather little weight as a witness in court. Especially since you can no longer expect a heat pump ordered in August this year; if you are lucky, it will come sometime in 2023. They are now talking about 30 months or more.

Your contract certainly states that you receive compensation for each week of delay, capped at x% of the total amount.

Whether the considerable additional costs could have been avoided is pure speculation. Heat pumps have been in short supply since the beginning of the year; no one could have anticipated that the situation would escalate so severely. Sure, now hundreds of specialists will come along who already knew in August 2021 what would happen... but strangely, they always come later, never before.

PS:
I doubt that you will get a Hotboy for the entire winter. These things are as scarce as heat pumps and are now being "inherited" like family jewelry.

The hotboy is already running for us for the screed drying. If heat pumps have been scarce for such a long time, it is obvious that further delaying an order only pushes the delivery date further back. The plumber told me on the phone that the general contractor had already talked to him about our construction project last year, but then didn’t get back to him until suddenly in July the order for the heating trade came in. However, he certainly won’t say anything in the event of a legal dispute. A penalty clause was not agreed upon. We tried to include it, but that would have been a knockout criterion for the general contractor. Then he would not have accepted the order. Likewise, the security retention of the interim payments was replaced by a guarantee. But that doesn’t really help you at first...

If you haven't agreed on a contractual penalty, on what basis do you want to take legal action? Better ask the installer if you can keep the Hotboy until spring. I rather don't think so.

Obviously, there is nothing. Such a chip crisis improves eventually. So does a building materials crisis. Those who waited instead of ordering at astronomical prices at the beginning of 2022 are now saving a lot of money on steel, wood, etc. Unfortunately, that didn't work with heat pumps, but that's what contractual penalties are for. A construction time guarantee makes absolutely no sense if no penalty is agreed upon. What interest would the GU have then in adhering to the construction time guarantee?