Kitchen stockpile, price fixing - price increase after expiration?

Previously no proactive information about increases or how things will proceed

Why should the planner be proactive? YOU want to buy something and haven’t gotten off your backside for 2 years. There are reasons for that. But the kitchen builder doesn’t have to care about that.

At that time I was pregnant and simply did not assert my position strongly enough and didn’t want to quarrel with the local kitchen builder because I wouldn’t sign the contract.

You don’t quarrel if you don’t sign a contract. If the kitchen builder pressured me a lot, he would already be suspicious to me anyway, especially if I don’t need the kitchen until later. And then a kitchen for almost 40k!!! Crazy to order it so early and even crazier to pay such a large amount that early...
I only buy my things when I can roughly estimate the timeline. At least roughly.

In the village, unfortunately people trust too quickly, but that was a lesson for me.

The trust was justified. He did not go bankrupt. He can still deliver the kitchen to you.
AND: This is merely a price increase of 8%. Roughly corresponds to the pure general inflation of the last 24 months. I find it more than fair that he does not want to increase his profit even more.

Bad for you personally. But bad that you (unfortunately) caused yourself with prior notice.

Hello everyone,

Hello Merle123

we had bought a kitchen with a 2-year price guarantee. Unfortunately, we were only able to finally order the kitchen 1 year later.

But the kitchen fitter is not to blame for that.

Now we are supposed to pay almost 3.5% more because the price guarantee has expired. In itself, no problem, but we had already made the down payment 3 years ago, and the lost interest represents a similar amount.

3.5% is in my opinion a fairly common rate for 1 year. The down payment was certainly contractually regulated. So you had no problem at the time of signing the contract. The postponement of the date has nothing to do with it. The increased costs arise only after the original contract has expired.

My idea now would be that we pay the difference between the lost interest and the price increase, because the kitchen fitter was also able to work with the money for 3 years.

Your idea is, in my opinion, neither covered by the contract nor usual.

It should be mentioned that NOTHING has been ordered in advance by the kitchen fitter yet.

He can only do so now. Then the additional costs really only arose after the final order.

The contract says nothing about what should happen after the price guarantee expires. At the moment I just feel doubly disadvantaged because I couldn’t invest my money for 3 years and now have to swallow the price increase alone. We are talking about almost 3,000 € in total.

That means the price guarantee has expired. The parties can negotiate a new price.

3.5% of 40k is 1400 euros. Why 3000?

How do you see the situation?

The claim for 3.5% is, in my opinion, justified, but not more. Negotiate again. Only commission the follow-up when you agree.

I am very annoyed that we signed the contract so early and also made the down payment, but I can no longer change that. My first impulse was that they may simply keep the kitchen, but I am afraid that then the down payment is lost and the loss would be more than 4 times as high.

I can understand you. But you have also handled your money quite carelessly.

Whether you can get out of the contract so easily is questionable. What does the contract say about cancellation conditions? Otherwise, the Construction Contract Act applies. The contractor is at least entitled to reimbursement of services already rendered and lost profit.

Hello Merle123,
Your kitchen dealer is behaving absolutely correctly and within the agreed terms. And the agreement is not "wrong" either. That it took so long for you is not his fault. That you possibly bought too early and made a deposit is also not his fault. Of course, the kitchen dealer does not invest the deposit anywhere to generate interest, and a deposit is not a loan business – so why should there be interest? On the other hand, the dealer took a risk with the fixed price and would have had to finance interim price increases from his margin. Why should he still do that now?

You are not alone with such an experience – we were even in such a situation that we bought the kitchen before we had the building permit. The often-cited "one" doesn’t do that.

House connection box—just call it "bad luck" and look forward to a great kitchen in the new house. Admitting your own mistakes doesn’t kill you. To what extent you allow a €3000 price increase to ruin your quality of life is up to you alone. As long as you try to shift the blame to your kitchen dealer with thoughts of extracontractual set-off, you won’t find peace. It’s not worth it.

I would pay it and write it off as a learning experience and save myself the trouble.

If you hadn’t signed in 2022 but only today, the price increase would have been more than 3.5%...

What somehow remains unclear to me: if 3.5% price increase = 3000 euros - did you then order a kitchen for round about 100k?
GD

The 3000 euros probably refer to interest loss and price increase

We are talking about almost 15,000 € down payment = 40% of the purchase price. That would mean over 3 years more than 1,300€ interest plus the almost 1,600 € additional price that we are now supposed to pay.

It should be mentioned here that NOTHING has been ordered in advance by the kitchen manufacturer.

I have to disagree here, you certainly had a few meetings, could look around the showroom, possibly try out appliances, etc. That also costs money. Of course not 40% of the order value, but you also bought a 2-year price guarantee. And especially since 2022, kitchen and appliance prices have risen quite a bit. With the now 1,600 euro additional price, you are more than well off.

What remains somehow unclear to me: if a 3.5% price increase corresponds to 3000 euros - did you order a kitchen for around 100k?

I had the same thought and roughly calculated in my head 85,000€. That’s about the entry level at Boffi. Then I saw the 15,000€ as a 40% down payment. According to that, the purchase price would be 37,500€. A price increase of 3.5% would then correspond to 1,312.50€. Anyone who gets 3,000€ out of 15,000€ through interest in 3 years has an average performance of just under 7%. That is satisfactory, but cannot be achieved with an investment classified as "low risk". The numbers are not entirely consistent, but that does not matter, it’s only theory anyway outside the contractually agreed terms.