Select builder, send construction service description to expert

Hello everyone,

We have been reading along in the forum for some time now and have now reserved a plot of land and gathered some offers. One offer looks quite good so far, but you hear about many bad apples and acquaintances of ours have had bad luck with their general contractors.

Now we are considering how to best protect ourselves, especially regarding costs and quality. Simply put, it’s about points like the windows, for example. We mentioned in the initial meeting that the windows were to be colored on the outside and not to arrive later and be told that this now costs extra. Of course, we can probably read such details from the offer, but when it gets more specific, e.g. with the roof, we might not be able to estimate this in advance. We do not want the costs to rise later because the offer was conscientiously calculated with goodwill.

The provider is a construction planning office with individual contracting. We are now considering giving the offer with the construction service description to a building expert so that he can take a look at it. We want to accompany the construction additionally anyway. Does this make sense, or is there another/better option to protect ourselves?

Thanks in advance.
CK

Planning office with individual awarding ... do you really have an offer with a fixed price for the scope of services described therein, or rather a cost estimate?

It is a fixed price.

You appear more like architects and the fee is somewhere between a developer and architects with individual awarding. I was a bit surprised at first, but the following explanation was given:

They used to act more like developers, but clients often doubt the prices and assume that they are lining their own pockets. This way they have more transparency and it also happens from time to time that clients want to have a trade done by an acquaintance, etc. They are more flexible there. They always work with 2-3 companies per trade. Usually they favor one, but depending on requirements and workload, they can fall back on the others. However, you can always include your own trades.

I have seen such construction planning offices a few times now. Usually it is an engineer who does the planning and supervision and then works with a few companies. They are somewhat more flexible than a developer. Some guarantee the price, others do a cost estimate. We decided on the fixed price because they also convinced us that way. They were very well prepared already at the first meeting, appeared professional and kept all appointments and promises. Yes, you can hardly believe it, but there were other companies that didn’t even meet the deadline for the offer.

Architects are unfortunately too expensive for us because their fees are over 50k. That results in a price per sqm of about €2,500 and so we are at €2,200. The architects calculate approximately €360-390k net for 200 sqm living space. Then 12% plus VAT on that.

OK, that was a bit much and somewhat off-topic.

I would prefer a fixed price. The calculation suggests that exceeding the budget is also allowed.

It is a fixed price. We are only looking for a way to ensure that the provider is good. Should we have the offer reviewed by a construction expert, or are there other options?