Responsibility of the architect in case of KfW interest and further matters

You as clients are principals, the executing companies are contractors.

The architect has nothing to do with this contractual relationship. He is only paid by you for consulting services, for the results of which he may also be liable under certain circumstances.

And of course the contractor is entitled to his wage, but he must also, among other things, create a comprehensible invoice. What all belongs to that and how it is to be assessed in the specific individual case, however, you must ask a specialist lawyer for construction law.

Edit: Regarding your case, the invoice should include at least a certificate from the landfill with the billed quantities, from which date and quantity/weight are shown, among other things.

There you could also, for example, inquire what they charge in order to draw conclusions about the appropriateness of the unit price based on this information.

I just inquired about the price from the container service. This exact 6 cubic meter container costs 350 euros plus VAT. The shell builder charged us 900 euros plus VAT.

I just checked the price at the container service. This exact 6 cubic meter container costs 350 euros plus VAT. The shell builder charged us 900 euros plus VAT.

That's called value creation. But it's not unusual. In the sanitary sector, the multipliers are usually even higher.

No, seriously, grab your things and go to a specialist lawyer. Everything else is nonsense. Maybe this is a screw you can turn; however, not necessarily before completion of the shell construction...

Sure, the working hours are included there as well. And I am also aware of that from the sanitary sector. However, I do find it quite shocking that the profit margin on each individual container is so large. That means he must also be interested in having as many containers transported as possible.

I think the point is that no recalculation was done when the increase in excavation became apparent. A decision should have been made then.

I will first call our legal expenses insurance. If this service is not covered, they can certainly recommend a specialist lawyer.

I cannot comprehend why you have work carried out without knowing the offer and prices. At least you won't make that mistake anymore. No execution without screening the positions and prices.

I find it incomprehensible why you let the work be carried out without knowing the offer and prices. At least you won’t make that mistake again. No execution without screening the items and prices.

Looking back, I feel the same way. Legally completely untenable, but perhaps personally understandable: The old architect is a distant acquaintance of my husband’s family. In December, after an 8-month wait, we finally received a building permit and wanted to get started. The architect then presented the offer (not the completed schedule of services!) for just over 70k euros and said that would be fine. We explicitly asked if the price was okay. He confirmed. At that time, we didn’t even know there was a schedule of services. Yes, our fault, of course! But after asking suspiciously several times, I simply did not expect to be taken for such fools.

And yet, besides the agreed extortionate price, I see the problem that we were not informed when the work changed so drastically.