Subsequent enlistment without the general contractor

Hello forum,

when I look at the prices for additional orders from some GCs, it makes my ears ring.
1 network socket - 100€
Electric shutters - 300€ surcharge (!) per window
It is no secret that the GC also earns something on trades that he does not carry out himself but commissions on behalf of the builder. I don’t see this as fundamentally critical; after all, he takes the whole stress of awarding contracts, etc., off the builder’s shoulders.

But does every additional order in the house have to be made in consultation with the GC?
With the proud surcharges for such little things, which also require no further planning from the GC, I don’t see the point.
I had previously thought that this could be agreed upon during the appointment with the electrician on the construction site when you go through the shell with him anyway and decide where the individual sockets should go. Now a friend who is currently building himself said that additional orders actually always have to be agreed with the GC because the craftsmen certainly have some kind of framework agreement with the GC that forbids them from working for the builder during construction without the GC’s knowledge – the craftsman himself definitely does it cheaper (and by that I don’t mean under the table) when the GC is not involved.
Now the question is,
can it actually be that such contractual relationships exist between the craftsmen and the GC? How can I find this out without stepping on the GC’s toes? We have not received a list of craftsmen so far and I have the feeling that we will only get it once the contract is signed.

Of course agreed, he is doing the planning and also takes over the warranty. He also needs to know which external boxes there are and what you have paid him.

We scheduled the plumbing and electrical work directly with the craftsmen. This was already clear in advance. It was supposed to be similar with the tiler, but he then refused to work together with the general contractor, so we subsequently removed the trade. A retrofit of the snow guard and some drywall work then resulted in a direct order with the craftsmen. We had already removed the staircase from the order in advance, but ultimately ordered it from the general contractor's stair builder, so the coordination still went perfectly.

1 network socket - 100€

Really expensive

Electr. roller shutters - 300€ surcharge (!) per window

So? For that, you at least get a new line pulled, a switch/timer, and also a motor. Honestly, that's not so steep at all.

so that we took the trade out retrospectively

And with the credit note, did you manage with the new craftsman as well?
I read something like that somewhere here in the forum:
Removed shower - credit 2000€
later put the same shower back in - surcharge 3000€

At least you get a new line installed, a switch/a timer switch and also a motor

Then a second light switch (second line + switch itself) should cost about the same - minus the motor price. Often light switches are near a window anyway, lines/pipes are already there, so the effort to pull a cable all the way up is not that high.

It was absolutely no problem with my general contractor, it was communicated openly right away.

Asked the general contractor roofer about a roof window in the upstairs hallway, it wasn’t much cheaper than it would have been during the standard selection. Then I looked for my own roofer, directly in the next village, and it was quite a bit cheaper. The general contractor roofer also said right away that he had no problem with that.

I had the network and additional sockets installed by “my” electrician. The general contractor only installed the standard sockets, or added some where it would have been too “complicated” for my electrician. Basically, the motto was to add 1-2 additional sockets next to the standard socket.