Soil report prepared without my knowledge

Good day,

The following: I had planned to build a house with a general contractor. The plot of land is reserved, therefore not yet my property. For personal reasons, I unfortunately had to cancel this construction project. The construction contract exists but was not signed!

In this contract, it states that a soil survey can be commissioned through company XY. If desired, I am supposed to order it in writing. I did not do that. Neither in writing nor verbally.

Yesterday, quite unexpectedly, the soil survey arrived by mail, along with the invoice for 800 EUR.

I called my general contractor directly, who told me that he had commissioned it because he needs to know about the soil conditions before construction. I told him that the contract says that I have to commission such a soil survey in writing, and that I will not pay for it. He told me that I have to pay! I feel a bit cheated here. Do I have to pay this? The contract says otherwise, but I hadn’t even signed it yet.

Well, since you stopped the construction and therefore no contract was made with your GU, you can't give a damn if he is already making arrangements behind your back. So it's his problem....

Did you cancel the construction project entirely or only with the [GU]? Do you possibly want something from the [GU] later?

As you described it and if you don't need the [GU] in the future, I wouldn't pay that.

Yesterday, the soil survey unexpectedly arrived by mail, along with the invoice amounting to 800 EUR.

From whom? - from the surveyor directly to you? - then reject the invoice with the reason that no order was given.

So if you have neither signed a contract with a [GU], where the soil survey was part of it, nor commissioned the survey yourself, I wouldn’t pay anything at all. Especially since you wouldn’t even have the right to commission anyone to do anything on the property if you don’t own it... that would only be possible with the permission of the current owner anyway.

If necessary: whoever orders the music must also pay for it. However, oral agreements also apply: even if you have not yet signed the contract, an oral order may have been made. Only you know that. Even if you write above that nothing happened. If that is definitely not the case, my first sentence applies.