Zoff am Bau drives building owners to despair. There are ways to get out of trouble without legal help. It is better to prevent. That works if you know the causes.
Münster (dpa / tmn) – Dispute is part of building like walls and roofs. The conflicts not only strain the nerves of those involved, but also the client’s wallet. In the worst case, its construction site will stand still for days or weeks.
The new Schlichtungsordnung Bau (SOBau) wantsalso prevent that. She brings companies and home builders to one table and accompanies them through the project so that no lawyers or courts have to be involved. Chambers of crafts also have arbitration boards.
Nevertheless, the question arises why it crashes so often on construction sites. It is less due to defects than to misunderstandings between building owners and executing companies or developers, according to experts. The sticking points are the completeness of services, the handover to the client’s own work and the quality of the work carried out.
Private builders are often unsure
The complex construction site processes drive even professionals to despair. Laypeople are even more at a loss when it comes to planning and implementing their dream property. They simply lack knowledge.
The attorney Andreas Renz, a member of the construction law consortium in the German Lawyers’ Association, makes it vivid: “Before buying, the coffee machine is checked forwards and backwards using test reports. That doesn’t work when building a house. “
Builders could neither communicate on an equal footing with the construction company or the property developer nor assess their work. This leads to a feeling of insecurity, which in turn can lead to additional friction on the construction site.
Dealing with excavated construction is prone to disputes. Most of the time, the soil cannot be stored on the property, but has to be transported away. This is often just as difficult to understand from the building description as the additional expenses for transport. An inexperienced client is not aware of these consequences. That leads to intensive discussions, ”says Andreas May from the Bauherren-Schutzbund (BSB).
Klaus Kellhammer from the Association of Private Builders (VPB) in Tübingen, like May, supports and controls consumers who want to realize their dream of their own house. Typical stumbling blocks for Kellhammer are already laid in the planning phase.
He therefore advises carefully examining the implementation plans. Are the windows in the position discussed, is the floor structure correct? All questions about technology and material influence the work plan and must be decided before the client approves the plan. “Otherwise, supports will appear in the middle of the room on the construction site where they don’t belong. Then there is howling and chattering of teeth. “
And the trouble starts. To be on the safe side, all decisions should be recorded in writing. The contact person is usually the site manager. He coordinates the trades.
Changes mean additional costs
Kellhammer also knows the tendency of building owners to throw what has been agreed upon in favor of change requests – with the consequence that costs rise and the schedule gets mixed up. He warns against getting involved on the construction site and giving advice to craftsmen. “The construction company is then out of liability,” says the consultant.
Errors should not be reported on the spot, but in writing to the executing company. Preferably with photos. Then it can be clarified whether something actually went wrong. A crack on the underside of the semi-finished concrete ceiling is a minor matter, a crack in a load-bearing wall is a disaster. But laypeople are hardly able to tell the difference, says Kellhammer.
He, May and Renz basically recommend two things. Firstly, builders should get the expertise of construction supervisors at their side in order to prevent conflicts, and secondly, they should not rely on the mentioned move-in date. “Plan at least two weeks after the acceptance until the final handover of the keys in order to give companies time to rectify defects.” That relaxes.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210129-99-223827 / 3
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