The structural construction company cancels one day after the excavation work began!

But then it must also be a genuine offer. There are also things that call themselves offers, but are not legally offers.

There are also things called offers, but legally they are not.

Can you make that understandable with an example?

The simplest thing is to declare an offer as "non-binding." Or as in supermarket brochures with "while stocks last."

Hello,

would I now invest time and money to force something? Rather no

especially since you don’t know if the shell builder, for example, has payment difficulties.

I would have someone find a new one quickly and do it better. Possibly claim damages in parallel. But it will cost money

For this shell builder, it's even okay if we make a work contract, even though he doesn't actually do that very often. It seems that verbal agreements and written orders after submitting an offer are usually sufficient.

Well, contracts are not made for the good case when everything goes smoothly, but for legal certainty in the case when it does not. And unfortunately, you have had to experience that this does happen. Therefore, I find the last sentence, especially in light of your recent experience, truly remarkable.
Having the right and actually getting it are certainly two different things. But why someone would take away their own opportunity to much more easily provide proof of what was agreed upon in case of doubt, rather than for example through notes of conversations, oral witness statements, email exchanges, or he said/she said, is hard for me to understand. I would really be interested to know whether the "I do everything verbally" and "who needs written contracts anyway" faction has concluded a house construction work contract with the main contractor/general contractor for their house build and paid special attention to the construction performance description? If yes, why actually? ;-)

A contract always comes into existence through submission of an offer and its acceptance. Neither a signature nor a document is required.

This is not entirely correct in its generality. There are indeed contracts that require written form by law and otherwise are void, for example every loan agreement.

Can you make that understandable by example?

For example, every item in a supermarket is not an offer in the legal sense, but an invitation to make an offer. This means the customer takes the bag of milk, goes to the checkout, and makes a declaration of intent there to buy it at the stated price. The cashier is free to reject this offer. The same applies at McDonald's at the counter or the clothing store around the corner, as well as with brochures and catalogs... at least that's how I still remember it from the construction law lecture.

Rupp. You are certainly right. Only, it is not nice that it is like this. This transcription does something to us. In September 2016 we sat at our builder’s office. He, me, wife. We had the house finalized, we had the price, we clarified details. Then we went through the construction performance description step by step. Changed this and that. Then the three of us stood up. Looked at each other, gave each other a handshake over the middle of the table. A pact, an uplifting feeling. We had bought. A house. Our house. There was nothing in writing. That day, that pact was everything. And that moment was formative for the whole construction until now, where one or another small warranty comes up. This relationship never broke, at the topping-out ceremony we switched to first-name basis, there was never even a trace of trickery, not with us, not with him. It has something to do with honor, and that gets lost with this contract and legal stuff. Unfortunately, that is also true.Karsten