Reservation fee yes / no? Or is the house then gone?

Hello everyone,

we have found a perfect plot for us. A semi-detached house would be built on it. The developer is Reihn-Ruhr Projektgesellschaft. Now we have received a cost overview, exposé, site plan, and building description. The advisor would like to collect a reservation fee of 3000 euros from us. And there is also a contract for that. He says it will be deducted from the price of the house later. But we want to avoid this fee because we don’t have it at the moment. We told him we would get back to him by tomorrow, then we might also already know what our financial manager has found out.

If we receive a positive response, we wouldn’t need this reservation fee anyway, right? Because then we can just commit to him. Now, as soon as things go positively, we want to have the documents inspected by an expert. The developer said there is a contract for the purchase of the plot and a work contract; however, the latter is only made after the purchase of the plot. That means we finance the whole amount, the money is then transferred to our account, and then we buy the plot from the developer and afterward make a work contract and pay according to the construction phase, did I understand that correctly?

Do you have any tips on which places we can turn to for good advice? We don’t really have anyone who knows about building a house and would be happy if we didn’t have to handle this alone.

Sorry for rather silly questions, we are just amateurs and still in the early phase.

Best regards

Quite cheeky....can you build or buy a developer project when there are already three thousand missing?

The developer is ....
(...)
The developer said there is a contract for the purchase of the land and a construction contract. However, the latter will only be made after the purchase of the land.

Is it really a developer?

The developer contract is a unified contract (so not two separate ones), which is also subject to the regulations of the Real Estate Agent and Developer Ordinance. Splitting the contracts is a circumvention transaction.

So clarify terminologies... clarify financing (everything will get really expensive)... break the bank...

Also, (specialist) lawyers and experts initially cost some money – but are necessary expenses, especially for laypersons.

Even if you don’t have around €3000 lying around (which you actually should, if you are seriously considering purchasing real estate. Even if you have equity tied up in tangible assets, you should still have the cash equivalent) – that little bit is completely easy to get from the bank on short notice and at negligible interest.

Somehow some terms clash with each other for you, or the developer is trying to create a disguised developer model at your risk.

Developer sells plot including house
General contractor builds a house planned with them on your plot
General contractor builds a house planned by you on your plot

Therefore, some questions:
From whom are you buying the plot, and with whom do you want to build?
If both are the same, and only the plot is notarized and subsequently a contract for work is concluded with the same seller, you pay both VAT on the house and land transfer tax on house and plot.
You should definitely avoid that.
Even if house and plot are acquired from different persons, but both are advertised together or any brokerage fees are paid, it is a hidden developer model, where land transfer tax on the total price may be due afterwards.

Quite cheeky.... can you build or buy a developer project when there are already three thousand missing?

That was not the question. If I explained everything, it would go beyond the scope.