Overvoltage damage - effort

First of all, my condolences for the tricky situation. Definitely consult an expert or even better an appraiser – I say that without any malice. Who knows what else might have been damaged. They will also tell you if the house connection is still alright overall.

Anything you can prove (with invoices or appraisals) you can submit as damage. Whether the insurance will really accept everything is another story. Private time, I don't think so, or at best a flat rate. Trips probably only with a logbook?

What annoys me the most is the TV... New value 6 years ago 600€ - effectively it might still be worth 100€, but it would certainly have lasted me another 3 years. Of course, I’m not going to buy a cheap TV now for 300€, but rather something I was going to get anyway in 2-3 years (retail price around 1,000€). You always end up stuck with these extra costs in the end, and the question is: How much will the insurance reimburse me? :(

Pretty stupid in a new building. Because of the TV, there is only the current value. In case of doubt, I would just buy a used one accordingly first, for example via eb** classifieds.

And regarding the electrician, if an expert from their insurance comes, that wouldn’t be enough for me: the easiest would be another electrician who does an "E-Check" and measures all the wiring. It costs around 400 euros and then you have everything documented again from a neutral side.

Not mean-spirited, but how do you come to assume that the construction went smoothly? How can you be sure that almost everything doesn't have some defect? Your two points really shouldn't occur. On the one hand, the electrician would have created a proper test protocol if the fault had been noticed. The same goes for the seal; the installer had leftover parts with the attitude of "I don't care." I would now have much bigger concerns that much more is wrong here.

Since I am no longer a builder but have already moved in, my regular property legal protection insurance also applies.

Yes and no, you are no longer a builder. But the builder's legal protection insurance has a term of 5 years. Precisely until the end of the 5-year warranty period. That would wonderfully cover things like what just happened to you. That's why I asked.

Yes and no, you are no longer a builder. But the builder’s legal protection insurance has a term of 5 years. Exactly until the end of the 5-year warranty period. Things like what just happened to you would be perfectly covered by that. That’s why I asked.

Yes, although this is not my fault. The craftsman’s insurer is ultimately liable for the damage.

At most, I claim my legal protection insurance that I have taken out for the real estate sector – so I can use legal advice here if it becomes necessary, depending on what happens in the near future.

We will now sit down again with our general contractor and go through everything from start to finish, as he is our contact person, or rather our contracting party.

If there are any problems here, I will consult a lawyer.

Not meant to be nasty, but how do you come to the assumption that the construction went smoothly? How can you be sure that almost everything doesn’t have some kind of defect? Your two points really shouldn’t occur. On the one hand, the electrician would have created a proper test report if the error had been noticed. The same with the sealing; the installer had leftover parts with the attitude of “I don’t care.” I would now be much more concerned that much more is actually wrong here.

Certainly no single builder knows this for sure. We definitely had very good daily supervision on our part with relatively decent applied technical knowledge. Of course, it is certainly more difficult in the electrical area and you cannot monitor every step. The question is: who can? Our neighbors have a construction supervisor and felt like they had a new problem almost every week, which, however, could only be discovered afterward—that is, nothing was noticed during the actual work...

Without proper execution of the respective trades, damages cannot be avoided either—which means: you also have to “trust” every trade or at least hope that everything is done properly—especially works that are not that easy to inspect.

A loose wire (neutral conductor) surely wouldn’t have been noticed by anyone, or rather the electrician MUST necessarily check that. Apparently, someone was unwilling or took it for granted. These cases happen maybe 1 in 100,000 times—but unfortunately it happened to us.

The same story with the water damage. The line to the garage was kind of “kinked,” so they just took the last multi-branch line that was actually meant for gas; the sealing didn’t fit, and then the craftsman probably thought: “Oh well, it’s all sealed anyway, I’ll just leave it out,” instead of reporting: “Hey boss, bring proper sealing, I can’t connect it like this.”

Of course, there can still be problems everywhere that go "undiscovered"... But let’s be honest, can you really go crazy about it now? We were just unlucky in these two cases. Nothing helps... I don’t feel safe with this “electricity issue” right now and absolutely want an opinion from an independent expert—I will insist on this through my general contractor. At least then this issue is settled, or I’ll know what exactly needs to be done.