No groundbreaking yet, but already trouble with the construction company

Hello dear forum community,

I just need to vent my frustration for a moment. As mentioned in the headline, we haven’t even made the first groundbreaking yet, but I’m already annoyed with the construction company. We are building with Town & Country and actually didn’t want to build with them at all, but due to the plot of land, we were tied to the company. Maybe this is all normal, but I somehow just feel like I’m being taken for a ride….
That building is expensive, I think we are all aware of that here. We also know that Town & Country doesn’t really represent the luxury segment of housebuilding (by the way, they are not cheap either). Well, but why am I annoyed right now? First, we have absolutely no cost transparency. We want to have a decentralized ventilation system instead of a central one. During the sales talk, they said that for our house type a decentralized one cannot be offered or that they had bad experiences with one, etc. Since this was very important to us, the salesperson said he would call the heating engineer again and ask if there was another possibility. Well, then we received an email saying we would have to pay an extra 3,000€ and would get a decentralized ventilation system. After the planning meeting with the managing director, this statement was invalid again and he said he would send us an offer. Well, the 3,000€ then became 10,000€. We complained, then suddenly it was 6,000€ plus 2,000€ for the basement. What am I even supposed to believe anymore? Then it went on with the additional window order. In the sales talk, I wanted to include all the windows we wanted additionally right away. But then they said, make that arrangement later with the architect, window surcharges are charged only at material cost with us... now we are supposed to pay 950€ for an upgrade from normal to floor-to-ceiling and 1,750€ for an additional floor-to-ceiling window. The prices seem extremely expensive to me and I am simply not willing to be taken for a ride like that. In the construction contract, we have already included 4 additional windows, which were not settled at all.... I am just so frustrated and it hasn’t even really started yet.

What do you think about the window costs? Are these normal prices? Maybe I am not yet in the right building frenzy and haven’t gotten used to the additional costs yet, but it just seems expensive to me.

Thanks for listening

So no one has to understand the ventilation here, if central inclusion is already there, why then take a step back, the additional cost is probably due to KfW or an energy saving regulation calculation, maybe even structural changes, etc.

Regarding the windows, this is a completely normal process and 980 euros extra for how many windows? Very cheap for 10 pieces, expensive for 1.

If you have 4 additional windows in your contract, why do you have to pay then? If you can't manage it on your own, get help. Especially since you are already at a point where you are overwhelmed.
And it hasn't even started yet! Has your sampling already taken place?

Hello,

normally a decentralized ventilation system is cheaper than a centralized ventilation system. We will pay an additional cost of nearly 8000 euros for switching from Lunos decentralized to Zehnder centralized. We have already planned the windows and the entire floor plan precisely before signing the contract, so that no additional costs will arise now. At another construction company, where we had a consultation a few months ago, it was said that the window planning is only done after the contract is signed and that an additional cost of about 500 euros per square meter of window area is to be expected. That was all too vague for us; we wanted to know the exact costs beforehand. If no exact prices are contractually fixed in advance, the construction company can later demand any prices, which you either pay or forgo everything.

Best regards
Sabine

So nobody has to understand the ventilation issue, if central is already included, why then take a step back, here the additional cost will probably be due to kfw or an energy saving regulation calculation, maybe even structural changes etc.

Regarding the windows, this is a completely normal process and 980 euros extra price for how many windows? For 10 pieces very cheap, for 1 expensive.

If you have 4 additional windows in your contract, why do you have to pay? If you can’t enforce that by yourself, get help. Especially since you are already at a point where you are overwhelmed. And it hasn't even started yet! Has your selection process already taken place?

We talked to some friends who have recently built themselves and informed ourselves about various ventilation systems and had discussions. We want a decentralized one because it offers us more advantages.

Regarding the window prices, I may not have expressed myself correctly: 950€ per window... (upgrade floor-to-ceiling)

No, I don’t feel overwhelmed, I’m just frustrated. We haven’t gone through the selection process yet. But we have already planned a huge buffer for it. This is not our first time. We have already had a new build condominium... so I know the upgrades...

Oh crap, I'm really out of sorts :-) We want central and not decentralized :-)))

So nobody has to understand the ventilation thing, if central including is already there why then take a step back, here the extra cost is probably due to kfw or an energy saving regulation calculation maybe even structural changes etc.

You are right, of course we want to switch from decentralized to central... and of course not the other way around!