ᐅ Building an End-Terrace House as a Self-Managed Project with a General Contractor
Created on: 27 May 2019 10:48
G
goalkeeper
Hello everyone,
some of you might have already followed one of my threads about us having to or being allowed to build our end-terrace house on our own responsibility – depending on how you look at it. This means that we are buying an end-terrace plot (215 sqm (2315 sq ft)) in a new development area in the Rhein-Neckar district and will be building on it ourselves – but in coordination with our two terrace neighbors.
The municipality, which sold the plots through a local resident model, ideally wanted applicants to apply as a complete housing group with several families and then build accordingly with a general contractor, construction manager, or architect. Of course, that didn’t really work out, so now there are only individual applicants and also homeowners.
After we were awarded the plot, the addresses of the other terrace neighbors were shared to discuss certain matters, such as roof style, whether or not to have a basement, etc. It was immediately clear that everyone preferred to do their own thing. However, we were still able to agree that the housing group will have a gable roof with a pitch of 35 to 40 degrees (within this 5-degree range).
As the end house, we will build without a basement, while the middle house and the other end house will have basements. This obviously presents a challenge as we would have to make a deep foundation or simply skip it, and the middle house would have to support us, as we will start construction first. The current agreement with the middle house is that we will build a deeper foundation at his expense, as supporting our house later on would be considerably more expensive for him.
We are currently close to signing with the construction manager, the notarization appointment for the plot is at the end of June, and we hope to start construction in the fall of this year. Meanwhile, several other freely planned housing groups are being built around us, which might get in the way with their cranes.
I will document the progress here from time to time – such a self-planned terraced house doesn’t come along very often.
some of you might have already followed one of my threads about us having to or being allowed to build our end-terrace house on our own responsibility – depending on how you look at it. This means that we are buying an end-terrace plot (215 sqm (2315 sq ft)) in a new development area in the Rhein-Neckar district and will be building on it ourselves – but in coordination with our two terrace neighbors.
The municipality, which sold the plots through a local resident model, ideally wanted applicants to apply as a complete housing group with several families and then build accordingly with a general contractor, construction manager, or architect. Of course, that didn’t really work out, so now there are only individual applicants and also homeowners.
After we were awarded the plot, the addresses of the other terrace neighbors were shared to discuss certain matters, such as roof style, whether or not to have a basement, etc. It was immediately clear that everyone preferred to do their own thing. However, we were still able to agree that the housing group will have a gable roof with a pitch of 35 to 40 degrees (within this 5-degree range).
As the end house, we will build without a basement, while the middle house and the other end house will have basements. This obviously presents a challenge as we would have to make a deep foundation or simply skip it, and the middle house would have to support us, as we will start construction first. The current agreement with the middle house is that we will build a deeper foundation at his expense, as supporting our house later on would be considerably more expensive for him.
We are currently close to signing with the construction manager, the notarization appointment for the plot is at the end of June, and we hope to start construction in the fall of this year. Meanwhile, several other freely planned housing groups are being built around us, which might get in the way with their cranes.
I will document the progress here from time to time – such a self-planned terraced house doesn’t come along very often.
W
Wintersonne11 Aug 2020 21:19Why is the neighbor resisting collaboration with you so much? It should be in his interest too, and he should realize that this is the fastest way for him to achieve his goal/complete his house?! Strange guy.
G
goalkeeper11 Aug 2020 21:27Wintersonne schrieb:
Why is the neighbor resisting cooperation with you so much? It’s in his interest as well, and he should realize this is the quickest way for him to reach his goal/complete his house, right? Strange guy.On the one hand, we believe that our neighbor should cover the costs for documenting our house and the expert appraisal because he is the cause of this necessity. However, the main reason is that they consider themselves to be in the right since the building authority did not see any reason to accept our objection to the building application back then. That was justified, because they only review building law – our issue was a private legal matter and therefore outside the building authority’s jurisdiction. But it seems they never understood that. Just last week, we had to hear again that the building office gave them a “green light” for their construction… a complete misunderstanding of the German legal system.
W
Wintersonne11 Aug 2020 21:41goalkeeper schrieb:
On one hand, we believe that our neighbor should cover the costs for documenting evidence of our house and for the expert appraiser, since they caused the need for this. However, the main issue is that they consider themselves to be in the right because, at the time, the building authority did not find any reason to approve our objection against the building application. This was actually correct, as they only review building law—our issue was a private legal matter and therefore not within the building authority’s jurisdiction. However, they apparently never understood this. Just last week, we had to hear again that the building office had given “green light” to their construction... a completely mistaken understanding of the German legal system. Sounds frustrating and unfortunately suggests that dealing with them will continue to be (even) more difficult.
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