Price increase despite flat fixed price

2021-05-26 10:00:46

Hello everyone,

We have agreed on a turnkey house contract with a fixed price for a single-family house with the general contractor. The contract was concluded in February 2021 and the basement is already in place. Now I received a letter stating that the prices for the roof construction and facade insulation are to be increased and the surcharge will be passed on to us 1:1.

I have studied the contract carefully and a labor/material price clause was definitely not agreed upon. (This was also marked accordingly in the contract).

Although I am just an amateur, in this case the contractor may not pass on a price increase to me, right? Of course, I can understand the contractor, but I did not agree on a fixed price for nothing in order to have planning security. In this case, I would say that is his problem?

Above all, the contract was only concluded in February 2021; the contractor could have negotiated a buffer or a clause due to the current sensitive situation.

On the other hand, of course I do not want to delay the progress of the construction.

How should I behave now?

Best regards

2021-05-26 10:43:09

Hi,

if you have not agreed on a price escalation clause, the contractor cannot pass the costs on to you. This is the so-called entrepreneurial risk. I also do not see the route of "force majeure," where the client theoretically still has to pay, as acceptable here since it was rightly pointed out that the contract was only recently concluded.

The contractor is not allowed to prevent the construction if you do not agree to the additional costs.

I am not a lawyer, but through my work in a construction company, I am currently dealing a lot with this issue in both directions (in my role as a contractor on one hand and as a client on the other). So I would reject it and already point out that construction delays are not accepted and then call up services in writing early so that you are on the safe side later. At the moment, I also have the feeling that services are not being provided with the reason of missing deliveries because the companies do not want to pay the high purchase prices.

I can also gladly take a closer look at your contract (you can somehow send it to me and redact the private stuff) then I can help you with that.

2021-05-26 11:10:03

Hi,

if you have not agreed on a price escalation clause, the contractor cannot pass the costs on to you.
This is the so-called entrepreneurial risk.
I also do not see an acceptable case here for "force majeure," where the client theoretically still has to pay, since it was correctly pointed out that the contract was only recently concluded.

The contractor is not allowed to prevent the construction if you do not agree to the additional costs.

I am not a lawyer, but due to my work in a construction company, I currently deal a lot with this issue in both directions (in my role as a contractor on one hand and client on the other).
So I would reject it and already point out that construction delays are not acceptable and then call up services in writing early so that you are on the safe side later.
At the moment, I also have the feeling that services are not being provided with the reason of missing deliveries because the companies do not want to pay the high purchase prices.

I can also gladly take a closer look at your contract (you can send it to me somehow and redact the private parts), then I can help you with it..

Thank you very much for your quick response, I can gladly send you the contract with redactions. Unfortunately, I cannot start a conversation here or send you a PM because I have created too few posts?

2021-05-26 11:24:07

I have saved my email address under my profile under "Informationen". Then I can delete it there later when you have sent it to me.

2021-05-26 11:33:15

How much does the general contractor want to pass on to you? Just asking out of interest, because we also signed a fixed price in February and it should start soon.

2021-05-26 11:50:16

How much does the general contractor want to pass on to you? Asking out of interest, because we also signed a fixed price contract in February and it is supposed to start soon.

No amounts have been named yet, it was only pointed out that the costs will be passed on to us. But if it turns out as mentioned above, I'm fine anyway. They will try it that way first, there are always "fools" who then pay.

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Price increase despite flat fixed price

Eierpiepe

Jann St

Eierpiepe

Jann St

Baranej

Eierpiepe