Should a building expert be involved before the warranty expires?

It is also interesting that someone wants to "sweeten" for us to have the entire house (2 residential units each with 110 sqm) thoroughly checked for 750 € net each, including moisture measurements, in order to potentially report damages before the warranty expires (with us in 2019).

Finally, someone is thinking ahead! Since you need an expert anyway, in my view it is a good idea to carry out the defect inspection together with the aforementioned check before the warranty period expires. The price is absolutely fine.

Our building surveyor approached the matter very neutrally back then, although he knew many of the parties involved very well. The package also included an inspection before the warranty period expired. The cost was, I believe, not quite as much as yours... but it was part of the package. For us, it will be time next year.

the question always remains what the package with the defects brings you before the end of the warranty. what do you want to claim from it, what will actually be repaired, what won't? how strongly does the BU resist your claims, is a legal dispute worth it for a €500 defect? one thing is basically clear: you don’t get an expert for a broken tile in the farthest corner of the storage room. for 2 small mold spots in the attic, everyone will just laugh at you. for the large mold infestation in the attic, the expert is then not enough for the construction company to set a new roof without resistance. in the end, the question remains which defects will actually be repaired. overall, the expert is more there to give you certainty that the house is probably in good condition at the present time. for little money, you can do that once.

Pfff, last month we sent a construction defect (larger cracks in walls) to the BU. The deadline expired for us as well... unfortunately, it was already five past twelve... we miscalculated by a week. We were able to detect the defect ourselves. Obviously without a flashlight, X-ray vision, or cheating. A site manager came, inspected it, and forwarded it to a craftsman from back then... An expert doesn’t have X-ray vision either, but will certainly give you a nice list. Whether the BU then recognizes these “defects” as actual defects is another matter. He also can’t see hidden defects. So what else should the expert find fault with now? A house settles, a house gets older. Joints are not maintenance-free and door locks have only a 2-year warranty. What do you think he can find in your case? ... today our bricklayer came to us to fix the mentioned defects. We had thought it would be the plasterer’s work, but he contacted us. So today he puttyed our cracks and several more. With the next crack, we can do it ourselves within 10 minutes. As a result, we can now repaint 3 walls because the crack filler is white, our walls are tinted or colored [emoji16]

Yvonne, completely daccord.

I'm with you there