How does the water get into the basement?

and from the top of the mountain the rain flows down onto the property and during heavy rain the water collects up to above the edge of the granny flat.

Because every additional liter in the basement matters? When you plan the outdoor area, consider where the water comes from, divert it around the house towards the valley. Every puddle in front of your house pushes towards the basement.

Pictures of the house/cellar/property are also quite helpful. Just ask the 5 neighbors where the architect built it the same way if everything is OK with them. Why doesn’t the architect build what you want? The client is the one who decides. Now the architect is also responsible for the water in the house. He should report the damage to the insurance already.

The outdoor facilities are not finished yet, and rain flows down from the top of the hill onto the property, and during heavy rain, the water accumulates up to above the edge of the granny flat.
I need to check if I have a photo of it.

Do the architect and contractor have no idea where the water is coming from?

Perhaps at least the outdoor area above the house should be cleverly planned and executed.

But presumably, the backfilling and drainage were not done properly either. Are there any photos of that?

I don’t understand your question here?!
You have taken out the ÖRAG construction client legal protection for a lot of money? Great! We did too, so I can tell you exactly how it works:
1. You call ÖRAG and get a coverage commitment for an initial consultation with a specialist lawyer. This is exempt from the deductible!
2. After receiving this commitment, you arrange an appointment with a specialist lawyer that ÖRAG refers to you or you choose one yourself.
3. You talk to him, he asks you targeted questions to learn about the circumstances and then explains your position from a legal perspective and your options.
4. If it comes to a dispute, only the deductible applies. The legal costs are covered up to €100,000. An expert opinion will sooner or later be commissioned by the court and ÖRAG also covers these costs.

I had this conversation and I must say that the lawyer was anything but contentious but extremely solution-oriented, which is why it did not come to a dispute with us but to a renovation, warranty extension, insurance guarantee, and depreciation payment :-€

You have – if you actually commissioned the architect for planning, implementation, and supervision – the great fortune to have two legal entities liable. Namely the contractor and the architect. Because apparently someone dropped the ball. It seems strange to me that the architect shows so little enthusiasm in investigating the cause even though he should actually take your side.

Don’t let yourself be led around by the nose, but show some teeth, even if it’s only the teeth of your lawyer, expert, or your construction client legal protection insurance because alone you will probably meet deaf (blind) ears as far as I can tell.

What may also have helped us was that at all meetings with the general contractor after the damage became known, we stuck the service card of the legal protection insurance on the front cover of the Leitz folder and always had it visible on the table. A contractor cannot afford constant legal disputes. The contribution for his legal protection insurance would eventually rise to infinity. Knowing that you bear no litigation risk, he might think twice about playing the “ignorant” here. The same applies, of course, to your architect. Someone wants to “make a fool of you” after all, that’s the feeling I get.

By the way, that was exactly one of the reasons why we did not involve an architect in our project. One more hand was fed here and still it did not save from big trouble. I have absolutely no regard for the GU + architect constellation – if the former was used here?!