ᐅ Are building plans reliable? When is the right time to terminate your rental lease?

Hausbautraum20 schrieb:

For us, it was 5 months after the screed was laid.
One month was lost because the utility connections weren’t available.
But even so, it still took 4 months.
The drying time alone feels like forever.
And then you have electrical work, plumbing, kitchen, tiling, painting, and flooring.
They all need to fit into that timeframe as well.
For example, our kitchen was only measured after the screed had dried, and then there was also the delivery time.

The kitchen would be measured for us before the screed. The only important factor was the interior plaster. The manufacturing time for that is one month. We supplied the appliances ourselves. After the furniture is installed, the stonemason comes to measure the countertop.

bauenmk2020 schrieb:

PS: The tiler was the last tradesperson for us. Maybe use that trade as a reference?

For us, it will be the interior doors. After the tiling comes the kitchen installer, then the painter including vinyl flooring, and finally the interior doors.

We’ve also been thinking about this question. We were lucky and could stay with my in-laws for the last 3 months before moving into the house, while they took a 6 to 8-week trip around Europe.

However, we were probably too “cautious” about it. After we gave notice, our landlord allowed us to stay longer or move out earlier. So, I would recommend talking to your landlord to see if there might be a chance to be released from the lease early after giving notice—whether or not there is a replacement tenant.

@Pinkiponk if you’re planning to just “forfeit” your deposit anyway, the landlord should be open to such mutually agreeable solutions. After 18 months, you almost never need to do cosmetic repairs, which means you probably wouldn’t even have to paint according to your description. You could safely treat the deposit as a rent buffer, because you really shouldn’t offer it to your landlord as compensation for painting.

And if you have the option to live on the property (in a camper, container, or tent), then do it! Especially in summer, it can be a great experience.

Regarding furniture storage: We were able to isolate and secure a single room in the basement where nothing was happening during the final phase, and we stored our household items there. Of course, that only works to a limited extent, but we moved from a 2.5-room apartment without children, and the landlord gave us quite a bit of credit.

Pinkiponk schrieb:

If it were up to me and the neighbors weren’t disturbed, I would love to camp on the property already. 🙂

We have already slept there a few times and will continue to do so until the underfloor heating is installed.

The plan is to move in as soon as possible anyway, so I’m not worried about missing doors. I also don’t want any stress. We’re not living together yet and currently pay for a small shared flat room and an affordable apartment. I’d rather pay rent a bit longer than look for a short-term rental (in Berlin, where there’s hardly anything available).

According to the construction schedule, the contractual handover is on May 11th, and we sold our house for June 30th.

We already had a preliminary inspection on April 25th, and currently, a few finishing touches are still pending.

But if we had a kitchen, we could move in.

In my opinion, it depends on how reliable the information from your general contractor was/is during the construction phase.

In an emergency, the kitchen can also be managed with a portable camping stove and an active cooler if necessary.

WilderSueden schrieb:

If needed, you can also manage the kitchen temporarily with a camping stove and a powered cooler if things get tight.

Or you can have lunch at work. On weekends, you can treat yourself to a restaurant 😎