Insufficient slope of the sewage pipe

This is not an accusation, I just don’t understand how you handled this during the planning and construction phase?

I mean, you must have told the contractor that the pipes are coming from another company. And he never asked at what height the connection should be made? And when you commissioned the company for the shaft and the pipes, they never asked at what height the pipes should end? How did they determine the heights and the slope?

With the information available, I don’t see the contractor liable at first. His task was only to provide a connection at the base plate. I also consider the statement "he knows the reference point of the sewer connection" irrelevant because his task was not to plan the pipes and the connection to the sewer. I also don’t see that he should have given this any thought here. Although of course that would have been customer-friendly. The question here is rather whether there was a pipe planning or if you directly or indirectly confirmed/approved the height of the connection. If he deviated from the planned height, the situation looks different again.

How was the increase of about 10cm recorded by the contractor? Was that a verbal order? If in writing, what was noted there? Did it include a price or effort?

The shaft company is now missing the relevant information to be able to make a statement. Were there their own plans? Were heights determined? What was in the contract with the company?

I have something similar coming up. Fortunately, we are still in the planning phase. But in my consumer construction contract, only the execution through the base slab is included in the scope. We (that is my neighboring property owner behind me and I) actually plan to make a joint utility trench in EL after the shell construction phase. Through the 3m access strip, there needs to be 2x electricity, drinking water, wastewater, cable/telecom each. How is it best to plan this? Whom would you commission with the planning if you do not want to do it yourself? Can theoretically any civil engineer do it? Does he also do the planning if you dig yourself? An architect? Thank you and best regards Tolentino

It does not matter who does the work outside the house; the planner should have used his brain regarding the height of the floor slab and taken this height into account. If he did not know how high the connection is, he should have asked; that is what he is a professional for and is paid for.

Did you have a site meeting where the zero point or top edge of the finished floor was determined? Did you sign it?

Was there a surveyor? Is the height of the house as submitted in the building application correct?

I see it similarly to tomtom. Now it was still reasonably easy to fix, but just imagine if the GU had set the house half a meter lower and a lifting system would have had to be installed. I can't imagine that there is no planning or execution error on the part of the GU or during the surveying.

I am generally on your side and the statements are completely correct. But there are two perspectives here.

Who should have taken it into account? Quite clearly here, the planner and the construction company should have secured themselves again or, ideally, asked.

What about legally? And that is a different story depending on the situation. We do not know the contracts and plans, but if the height is on any plan, was confirmed by the client, and then built like that, the "should have taken into account" unfortunately doesn’t help much anymore. Then the planner says later that he implemented the client’s wish and the construction company says they built according to that.

I believe the key point to be able to assess the situation are the plans and what exactly was confirmed or signed by the client.

Yes, of course it must be checked what the client has signed and, if applicable, what has been listed as planning services in the scope of services.

My construction was already 7 years ago, but I am quite sure that in our case the pipeline planning was carried out by the general contractor’s architect up to the shaft (it was already on our property), even though, similar to the TE, the actual execution was not carried out by the general contractor but subcontracted. However, I cannot say at the moment whether the heights were specified there. In any case, I am sure that during the architect meeting we coordinated the height of the house with the architect of the general contractor.