ᐅ Our New Construction Plan – What Are the Next Steps?

Hello everyone,

We’re starting to feel quite desperate and don’t know how to move forward. Here is the initial situation:

My husband and I want to build a new house on my parents’ property, where their house already stands. At the beginning of the year, we met with a local construction company. They referred us to an architect they work with. After he took two months to submit a preliminary building inquiry to the building authority (he simply forgot us twice!), we no longer want to work with him. The preliminary inquiry was just to get approval to extend the building envelope, so we could even build a second house on the property. We told the construction company that we didn’t want to continue with that architect, but they don’t seem very interested in working with us anymore, as they haven’t offered any next steps or suggested another architect. I suspect the construction company will only get involved if we come to them with a finished plan plus a building permit / planning permission.

Since we weren’t making progress, we turned to a large German builder specializing in solid construction, and we have already had several discussions with them. In the meantime, we received positive feedback on the preliminary inquiry, allowing us to build a one-and-a-half-story house with a pitched roof. So far, so good. The builder now wants to submit the building permit / planning application, but nothing is really finalized yet. We have a quote for a standard house from their catalog for €240,000. The sales advisor said we should first submit some basic details (external dimensions, position on the property, roof pitch, etc.), and the interior layout can be changed later. But if I realize the room layout doesn’t work inside, I’d have to change the external dimensions again, and that’s not so easy if it has already been approved differently, right? He also wants us to sign the construction contract before submitting the building permit application because the authorities need all details finalized. But I don’t want to sign a contract when the basic floor plan isn’t even clear, and the contract even lists individual electrical outlets!

I understand that they have already invested time and want to get paid eventually, but we feel a bit uneasy here. The advisor said they will include clauses in the contract so that if the permit is rejected or costs “explode” (which is subjective), we would not be bound by the contract.

I wanted to know if this is the “normal” procedure? Somehow I have the feeling we are on the completely wrong track... We already have a floor plan we like, which just needs to be refined, thus determining the external dimensions and so forth. But I get the impression the builder doesn’t want to deal with that because it’s too much work without knowing if they will actually get the contract. Or would it be better to look for an architect on our own, develop a concrete plan, and then approach building companies with that? We’re overwhelmed and already very frustrated because we’re not getting anywhere :-( We hoped to have a building permit by the end of the year with regard to the homebuyer subsidy, but somehow it looks like that’s slipping away...

Many thanks to everyone who read this, and maybe you have a tip on how we can move forward quickly and sensibly?