House contract: Amount of the final installment for the general contractor

Hello everyone,

one of my favored GUs has a final installment of only 2.5% in his main contract. I thought since the new Consumer Construction Law 2018 it was clearly regulated that the final installment must be at least 10% for partial payments (§ 650m para. 1 Building Code). For three other GUs I currently have in the selection, this was correctly taken into account in the respective contracts. Does the one GU with the 2.5% thus violate applicable law? What is to be made of this?

By the way, I also dislike the high partial payment directly after the input planning (10%). Furthermore, there is no mention in the contract about the 5% security deposit. Should the alarm bells ring now, even if the GU otherwise has a good reputation?

Best regards
Veldrin

That is probably just a suggestion for now. If you don’t like something, have it changed. If the GU doesn’t cooperate, he’s out. It was no different with us, but the GU was willing to negotiate, so no problem. Otherwise, you can point him to §650m Baugesetzbuch.

A 10% final payment should already be in your interest alone. With a final payment of €10,000 (2.5% of 400,000), you won't be able to exert much pressure if push comes to shove. That is why it is now required by law to protect the consumer. I would address both points. Especially with the final payment, the problem can easily be solved by combining it with the previous installment (e.g., exterior plaster).

From personal experience: Do not agree to lower final installments. I was so stupid because it is a well-known company and not much can go wrong. No way :(