ᐅ Connecting utilities to a plot after purchase – when is the invoice issued?

Hello,

while searching for clarification, I found my way here. It’s about site development:

Here is the situation:

I wanted to build a house in a rural area on an undeveloped plot. Before submitting the building application, I spoke with the local authority: “Site development wouldn’t be a problem.” Costs: “We can manage that. There is a chart with the development charges on the municipality’s website”… okay.

The building permit was issued on 15.08.19.
Site development started at the beginning of December and was completed by mid-December 2019. The house has been occupied by us since July 2020.

However, the actual building plot itself was not connected to utilities; instead a neighboring third-party plot was developed. The municipality’s reasoning: the last 25 meters (about 82 feet) was too much work for them... We ended up completing the remaining site connection ourselves.

To this day, no invoice for the site development has been issued. How long has this process taken for you?

Also, I wonder which cost factor they are calculating: the actually developed (third-party) plot, which is only about 200 square meters (around 2,150 square feet), or ours at 1,200 square meters (about 12,900 square feet)?

I no longer want to ask directly, as I’m afraid of “awakening sleeping dogs.”

The municipality should have a development contribution statute, which is mandatory according to §§ 127 - 135 of the Building Code (especially § 132).

I understand your post to mean that you are connecting your "self-constructed" road to the public infrastructure? In that case, this would fall under § 129 para. 1 sentence 2 of the Building Code.

The claim expires if no notice has been issued to you within 4 years after the factual obligation to contribute has arisen. (Of course, there are exceptions to this...)

Octrineddy schrieb:

The municipality should have a development contribution statute, which is mandatory according to §§ 127 - 135 of the Building Code (especially § 132).
I understand your post to mean that you are connecting your “self-built” road to the public facility? That would then be a case of § 129 paragraph 1 sentence 2 of the Building Code.

The claim expires if no official notice has been issued to you within 4 years after the material contribution obligation arises. (Of course, there are exceptions…)

Thank you very much for your reply. Although I don’t fully understand this legal jargon, at least I now have something to refer to if they try to pass all the costs onto us.

There is a table on the website about the development contributions, based on which I calculated the worst-case scenario. For the 1220 sqm (13,130 sq ft) version, I came to about 6000 Euro (around 6000 EUR) in development costs. The 200 sqm (2,150 sq ft) plot would then be correspondingly less.

However, a friend of mine from another federal state told me that he had over 80,000 Euro (around 80,000 EUR) in development contributions. This was known in advance and was also contractually agreed upon by notarized deed during the property sale. And now I’m worried that, for unknown reasons, the costs could become five figures.

6000€ (about $6,500) for the development contribution would be quite low; the figure from your acquaintance seems more realistic. Of course, it always depends on the type of plots being connected to the infrastructure (size, usability, possibly frontage, etc.). In the last newly developed area I calculated, for a 1200m² (about 13,000 sq ft) plot, the development contribution was just over 100,000€ (about $108,000).

No one at the local authorities could give me clear information. The fact is, two years ago, the village underwent a renewal program, and if we had known back then that we wanted to build here, we would have basically gotten it “for free.” The funds available at that time were not fully used (of course, that process is closed now, and the remaining money has basically been allocated elsewhere).

In our case, the price per square meter for a fully serviced plot in the village is about 29 euros per m² (3.79 USD per ft²). So paying 100,000 euros (approximately 106,000 USD) now just for the infrastructure would be a huge amount… You know what I mean? Especially since my plot hasn’t even been connected to utilities.

They only dug up their own gravel road, extended the utility lines by about 50 meters (165 feet), and intended to leave the ends there. But somehow the construction company didn’t properly understand the property boundaries and ended up placing the line terminus 6 meters (20 feet) into someone else’s land. We themselves had to run the remaining 25 meters (82 feet) through the neighboring property to reach our house.

Such a dilemma—the entire construction is finished, and this unresolved issue is really worrying me.

Grillhendl schrieb:


To this day, no invoice for the utility connections has arrived. How long did it take for you?

In my case, the final invoice for the utility connections came after about two years. (Sewer) Everything else arrived shortly after completion, within 2 to 4 weeks.