Invoice for earthworks more expensive after the fact - experiences

Da ist der Nachtrag wohl stimmig....

You only know that once quantities and working hours have been checked.

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

That is already worth something. An estimate is, however, something different from a final or fixed price.

Then after the completed earthworks there was the invoice (see attachment for excerpt).
And now the "additional claim".

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

Exactly. One is an installment payment and the additional claim is the rest. You can only check the billed quantities against the delivery notes and compare them with the standard prices from the offer, whereby I suspect that it was calculated correctly.

As long as one does not suspect or ultimately prove that material was wrongly billed, this is absolutely correct.

What does your site management say about the quantities moved? Has this been checked?

Best regards
Dirk Grafe

Thanks in advance for the answers.

I also assume that the quantities are correct. The company did a great job, which is why I was so annoyed when they came with an additional charge, but made the first invoice sound like a final invoice over the phone.
Well, of course they should get their money for the work done/material.

Our construction management has nothing to do with it, since it was done on "own initiative". We chose our excavator ourselves. The site manager only wanted to start the earthworks now. But I wanted to get it done before the rain and frost season, since we have a fairly high groundwater level and had to go down about 1m anyway.

What we are still having checked is the height of the backfill, to make sure the excavator didn’t put on too much. This should have been done by Friday.

Well, then I’ll just accept the amount and am glad it didn’t become even more... always think positive... Ooooohhhmmmmm.