Old building renovation with obstacles. How to proceed?

Hello,

my answer will not please you ....

I had bad luck with an old building renovation, and misfortune came along.

Without meaning to offend you, your entire post reads as if you always chose the path of least resistance and used your professional stress as a justification. Now that the situation is critical, suddenly you have time to post here? I don’t have to understand that, especially since the planned renovation – even if the original property was certainly very inexpensive to acquire – was definitely anything but easy to handle; it would have required competent expertise and not just focusing on the offer price at the bottom right or the hum of the nice words of the so-called site manager in your ears :confused:

Core renovation planned, partly age-appropriate conversion planned

With an architect?

The heating boiler burst even before purchase, which was actually quite good, big discount, now there is a gas condensing boiler. However, the craftsman botched the installation: meanwhile, the stainless steel combustion chamber is corroded from the outside due to sulfur-containing condensate water that ran along the outside.

Supports my suspicion regarding the pretty babble ....

The same craftsman (company) also acted as energy consultant and construction supervision.

Honestly now – what possessed you to hire a plumber (probably with an evening course to become an "energy consultant") as site manager? Or is it worse and he is a friend/relative/acquaintance?

He also started – unfortunately stopped and has not been reachable for months (for me and the other craftsmen, e.g. drywall), but is still rampaging on other construction sites. Does not respond to SMS, phone, letter, registered mail. Now a postal delivery certificate is on the way.

Move on!

This makes it difficult now to find other craftsmen
Declinations due to: unclear liability
Allegedly totally overloaded
Missing detailed bill of quantities – well, that is true, but currently difficult.

No, not really, once the evidence preservation procedure is completed. Until then, you have to wait.

So, got an expert for evidence preservation
Expert takes forever
Expert report completely useless
Expert refuses to revise
Supposedly could not write more due to missing documents – but did not request any and did not point it out either.

In the response letter to the complaint (only on the third attempt and threat of legal action was there any response at all) suddenly many more details appeared (/without further inspection or questions) and suddenly there is talk of explosion hazard, which is not mentioned in the report itself.

You really don’t have a knack for service providers :rolleyes:

Architect from KfW energy efficiency consultant list commissioned with further construction supervision
Lots of new offers obtained, almost all completely overpriced
Architect calculated high rectification costs for the above-mentioned damages

I want to believe that the prices of the individual trades are finally correct; of course, adjusted by a factor "correcting lousy previous work."

Several thousand euros of KfW funding (individual measures) lost due to no timely application
Funding for some further measures still possible
Subsidized loan for age-appropriate conversion still possible

You have to take that shoe yourself. YOU ARE responsible for the applications and therefore also that they are submitted on time!

During the construction stop, concealed damages discovered [...]

Hidden defects only exist in popular speech. Either they were fraudulently concealed or simply defects that would have been uncovered with proper construction management.

Actually, now a decision has to be made whether

[*]Legal dispute with the aim of reversal
[*]Legal dispute with the aim of reduction
[*]"Forget it" – get rid of the damage – sell as a demolition house/diy project (land value)
[*]Rent second apartment after all – but then legal disadvantages because 2 apartments rented
[*]Only partial renovation, leave the rest as a construction site, possibly find someone who renovates by their own efforts (provide material, but no rent, but work)

Clear, I have to decide that myself, but any help (practical or good advice) is welcome. Maybe someone can contribute something practical to a partial area.

You have to internalize the following: in a legal dispute, only one wins and that is the lawyer; even twice, since usually a settlement is made because the next instance causes significant additional costs.

I would first wait for the evidence preservation procedure to be completed if it is not already done. Based on that, decide whether a further and this time correct renovation is financially feasible; you already have some offer figures. At the same time, invest money in a lawyer (profound knowledge of contract and construction law MUST be present) and discuss the case with him and get his professional opinion on how to proceed ... with all pros & cons.

Only with knowledge of all advantages and disadvantages can you decide whether it makes sense to throw good money after bad or whether it is even cheaper to swallow the toad (uselessly spent money) – write it off as life experience – and sell the shell as it is for the best possible price. Either way, it will not come without further financial input to a decision bearable for you!

Rhenish regards

Good idea, tell that to my employer ...

I almost expected such an answer....
You should perhaps make the following consideration:

Either
ask your employer if he will release you for 6 - 9 months or if you only work, for example, 15 hours a week there and as a result you have 10 - 20 thousand EUR less net income. But only this way do you have time for the path suggested by Bauexperte.
or
whether you let the construction site be unsupervised and the damage becomes and remains six-figure.

I do not envy you your situation!