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.
goalkeeper schrieb:
What I wonder here, though, is why the municipality isn’t required to inform a buyer about the clearly higher road before the sale? There was never any mention of such differences. …
Can’t the municipality be held responsible for this?What do the officials at the local authority say about this themselves? Perhaps there is some relaxation in the building regulations regarding elevation?
Otherwise, if I understand correctly, you could plan with a basement level. So the entrance would then be on the second level. Starting from scratch.
G
goalkeeper24 Jul 2019 14:58kaho674 schrieb:
What do the officials themselves say about this?
Is there possibly a relaxation of the building regulations regarding height?
Otherwise, you could plan with a basement level, if I understand correctly. So the entrance would then be on the second level. Starting over from scratch. The officials still don’t want to acknowledge the problem – after three emails, the issue has finally been noted.
Since we also met our mayor at the notary appointment, we will contact him if necessary.
There will be no relaxation of the height restrictions because, according to the development plan, the reference point is clearly the street level.
goalkeeper schrieb:
Since we also met our mayor during the notary appointment, we will contact him if necessary.I am curious about that. But what are you hoping for? A discount on the purchase price to help cover the cost of the basement? How likely is that?
goalkeeper schrieb:
There will be no relaxation of height restrictions, as the reference point according to the development plan is clearly the street level.Is it possible for you to build only one and a half stories with a basement? What about a split-level design?G
goalkeeper24 Jul 2019 15:17kaho674 schrieb:
I’m curious to see how this will turn out.
But what are you hoping for? A reduction in the purchase price so you can cover the basement costs? How likely is that? From a legal standpoint, we don’t even know yet if the municipality is obligated to disclose this information before the sale. However, the municipality had included many small details in the purchase contract, such as explicitly stating that there will be no gas connections in the development area and that there will be additional advance charges of 1,000 € (about $1,100) per plot each for water, sewage, and stormwater, etc. But withholding such important information before signing the contract? That seems strange and almost like a serious oversight.
Honestly, I’m not expecting much from this—I first need to find out whether we are in the right. If we had known such information earlier, our construction and financial planning would have been different. From this point forward, it will cost unnecessary money that wasn’t accounted for. Of course, we have a contingency buffer—but it would be very frustrating if a large part of that is already used up because of this.
Similar topics