House Handover Date

Hello,
we are slowly doubting that our house will be completed by the agreed date.
Our contract states that the handover of the house must take place a maximum of 8 months after the foundation slab is laid.
This would be March 20th.

Since a lot of time was taken at the beginning (the shell builder had a 3-week summer break, the plumbing company did not show up for 7 weeks), the heating system, interior plaster, and screed were not installed as planned in November but only in January of this year.

The heating system has not been commissioned, the screed was poured on January 23rd ... of course, it is "drying" at a very slow pace given this weather ....

Our site manager has been sick for more than a month, and we are currently having difficulty reaching the company.
We have just written a letter requesting that the handover date be confirmed or that any delay with its duration be communicated immediately.

Nevertheless, we have terminated our apartment (after the site manager promised in January that our house would be ready on time) for April 30th.
So we have about 5 weeks of leeway until the original date.

How can we now get the company to respond as quickly as possible, and how realistic is it that we will at least be able to move into our house by the end of April?

Regards, Hilaria

You probably don’t want to hear this, but go to a lawyer. And even that doesn’t really impress the companies. It is astonishing what can be done at the end of a house construction, but with a lawyer you are on the safe side. Your site manager doesn’t have to look for places to blame if things don’t work out. They are (I’m just generalizing here) toughened up.

Hello,

Our contract states that the handover of the house must take place no later than 8 months after the slab has been laid.
This would be March 20th.

There are certainly some exceptions included – bad weather, company holidays, public holidays, etc. ...

The heating system has not been commissioned, the screed was poured on January 23rd ... of course it “dries” more than slowly in this weather ....

Still, it dries better than in midsummer.

Our site manager has been sick for more than a month, and we are currently having difficulty reaching the company.
We have just drafted a letter asking that the handover date be confirmed or that any delay and its duration be communicated immediately.

Nevertheless, we have terminated our apartment (based on the site manager’s promise in January that our house will be finished on time) effective April 30th.
So we have about 5 weeks of leeway from the original date.

How can we now get the company to respond as quickly as possible, and how realistic is it that we can at least move into our house by the end of April?

Wait for the answer first – did you write with a deadline for reply? – from your provider. Only once it is received can you react. However, you should be prepared that the exceptions I mentioned at the beginning will be included in the response.

Best regards

thank you very much for the answers, @Bauexperte, no, there are no exclusions included, since we were already told at the conclusion that this was calculated very generously. Compared to our acquaintances, it is indeed the case. In total, the BU has had 9 months since the start of construction work. The delay has nothing to do with bad weather, etc., because the original schedule planned to do heating and screed in November, when the weather was perfectly suitable. The sole reason for the delay was that the heating installer simply "disappeared."