Kniestock lowered afterwards

We were told that there are no requirements at all. Everything would be allowed. I never received a plan. Sure, maybe it’s partly our fault. No question. But I relied on that statement... We bought the property directly from the company.

So do you think it makes sense to ask about increasing the living space?

We have already received the disappointing answer that we would just have had to build a more expensive city villa and that is now just bad luck.... But that is exactly what we didn’t want because we don’t like city villas....

We are somehow getting a worse quality than what was offered to us... I’m really angry...

Oh, so it's a developer? Then there might possibly be a right of withdrawal? But others would have to assess that, and you should consider it yourselves. If I were you, I would think about what would be a good compromise for you instead and discuss this with the developer. Alternatively, check the right of withdrawal if nothing suits you at all. But that is also a lot of effort, so I would only do it if you absolutely could not live with it.

Do I understand correctly that a knee wall over 1m is not allowed, but urban villas are permitted? I would be very surprised, but maybe that would be an approach to raise the knee wall a bit and have a two-story building on paper?

Exactly, that's a developer. He also said, then we'll just make it two stories, but that will cost us quite a bit. Financially it would be feasible, since we planned much smaller than we could afford, so to speak... But I just don't like two-story buildings. And I also don't see why we should pay more now, even though they messed up...

Two-story does not necessarily mean a city villa. They also exist with a gable roof, or you can achieve this with an additional gable or something similar.

Turn back the clock. What would you have done if you had known about the 1m beforehand? How would you have decided then?

- lower knee wall, but bigger
- lower knee wall and therefore cheaper
- two-story with gable or hipped roof
- not build at all