Invoice for earthworks more expensive after the fact - experiences

Hello everyone,

we have the following "problem". Our earthworks took place in October. In November, we then diligently paid our invoice. I was very pleased that we almost hit the mark exactly (had planned €20k and it was €20,770). Now I asked the earthworks contractor for the delivery notes so that we can also show the authorities that we only used the approved quantities of RCL material.

Today we received a call that the invoice will increase by a flat €4k because the notes have now been recounted. I am now baffled, did they send us the invoice without even checking what exactly was installed? Well, apparently it was to our advantage.

Now I am quite pissed off. I suspect they are allowed to claim the missing money if it was really installed (I will take a close look at the notes as soon as they are sent)? Or do we have any leverage because they initially created the invoice based on rough estimation?

Hello, Evolith,

the core question is what the billing basis is. If you have a fixed price, you pay €20,000 fixed and that’s it. However, it is probably billed according to actual material consumption, so you only have a cost estimate based on a calculation. It should also state there how much each service costs, i.e. per cubic meter.

If that is the case, the slips must be checked, and if they are all okay, then the additional €4,000 claim is probably valid.

Best regards
Dirk Grafe

If the first invoice was a final invoice, in my opinion you do not have to make any additional payments.

We received a cost estimate with an estimated amount. Clearly not worth the paper it’s printed on.

Then after the earthworks were completed, we got the invoice (see attached excerpt).
And now the "additional claim".

It could be that the nice word "abschlägig" forces us to pay?

It says: Deposit, this is not a final invoice. So just pay, unfortunately, there’s no way around it ;). I would just compare the final invoice item by item with the offer, especially the unit prices of the items.

"Abschlägig" means it is only an interim payment and not the final invoice yet. The addendum is probably consistent....