Our house, a massive city villa, was planned in depth

Hello dear forum,

the dear house construction is keeping me awake again, which is why I ended up here.

We are currently building a solid city villa without a basement with a property developer. The plot on which we are building was already in our possession before construction began. It is about 20m wide and 40m long. The plot rises about 1m from the street to the back and we are building very far back. From 62m to 63m. The street level is at 62m. The planner suggested the middle terrain reference point of 62.3 for the height classification of the house, so that OFFEG lies at 62.6m. She justified her suggestion by saying that only a small part of the terrain behind the house would have to be removed and thus no additional foundation costs would arise for us. We confirmed this height classification. Additionally, it should be noted that we have very clayey soil, which is hardly permeable to water and also not load-bearing, so we have a foundation with micropiles. The current situation is that the house stands in a pit; there is a terrain drop of about 0.7m to the rear neighbor, about 0.6m to the right neighbor and about 0.2m to the left neighbor. Hardly any water seeps away on the property, although the building application assumes infiltration on the property. We are now trying to defuse the situation through suitable specialist firms and keep hearing that a lot must have gone wrong in the planning - that the many layers of water could have been kept away from the house much more cost-effectively and effectively if the house had been planned higher. The house building company of course denies all responsibility - we confirmed the height point.

Do we have any chance of getting compensation or something similar? So do you think it is worth investing further time and effort here? If yes, how would you proceed?

Many thanks in advance!

oh no!

at what stage are you? Is the foundation slab already in place?

Yes, the shell is already completely finished. I have already exchanged several emails back and forth for weeks without success. And now I just have the energy again to deal with it.

Would recommend making a borehole. Penetrate the silt and insert a generous infiltration pipe into the deeper soil. Charge the costs to the faulty planner. Problem with this: approval could be difficult – ask the building authority. But a relatively cost-effective solution with a very good effect.

Thank you, that sounds like a good idea. I just don't know how to argue with the construction company anymore, or I believe that I won't achieve anything without help. But I'm afraid that my prospects are unrealistic.

Seriously: Find yourself a good lawyer in the field. You won't achieve anything on your own based on the previous descriptions, meaning the pressure needs to be increased a bit. The more time you waste without doing so, the more difficult it will become!