ᐅ Changing the floor plan shortly before submitting the building permit application makes house construction more expensive
Created on: 4 Aug 2017 15:20
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ChrisEFHello everyone,
I hope you can give me some advice on my situation.
We bought a plot of land at the end of last year and want to build a single-family house with a home construction company.
A friend of ours (a professional architect) had already designed our dream home with us "just for fun" beforehand. We took the floor plans to the construction company and told them that we would like to have the house built like that. The company’s architect adopted the floor plans and made some adjustments.
In the meantime, an offer was prepared, the financing was approved, and the mortgage was registered. Everything was going according to plan.
Next, it was time to apply for the building permit / planning permission. Suddenly, our construction company realized that the house does not comply with the development plan, and instead of building a 1.5-story house, we must now build a 2-story house. After accepting this, we sat down with the company’s architect and redesigned the entire house.
It was necessary to convert the upper floor into a full story, so the knee wall height was increased from 1.25m (4 feet) to 2.75m (9 feet). We already suspected that additional costs would arise, but to avoid having to readjust the financing and mortgage, we removed the finished balcony, roof windows, chimney, and basement entrance door (total value about 15,000 euros) and reduced the house size by a total of 5m² (54 square feet).
Despite this, the house now costs almost 7,000 euros more than before.
We are currently wondering whether this price increase (almost 22,000 euros) is justified or if they are trying to make extra money after the contract has already been signed.
On the other hand, we wonder whether the construction company should bear the additional costs themselves to make the house comply with the development plan, since planning according to the development plan was their responsibility, not ours...
We have also considered withdrawing from the contract, but for now, we want to try to resolve this in a peaceful way.
I would appreciate any helpful answers.
I hope you can give me some advice on my situation.
We bought a plot of land at the end of last year and want to build a single-family house with a home construction company.
A friend of ours (a professional architect) had already designed our dream home with us "just for fun" beforehand. We took the floor plans to the construction company and told them that we would like to have the house built like that. The company’s architect adopted the floor plans and made some adjustments.
In the meantime, an offer was prepared, the financing was approved, and the mortgage was registered. Everything was going according to plan.
Next, it was time to apply for the building permit / planning permission. Suddenly, our construction company realized that the house does not comply with the development plan, and instead of building a 1.5-story house, we must now build a 2-story house. After accepting this, we sat down with the company’s architect and redesigned the entire house.
It was necessary to convert the upper floor into a full story, so the knee wall height was increased from 1.25m (4 feet) to 2.75m (9 feet). We already suspected that additional costs would arise, but to avoid having to readjust the financing and mortgage, we removed the finished balcony, roof windows, chimney, and basement entrance door (total value about 15,000 euros) and reduced the house size by a total of 5m² (54 square feet).
Despite this, the house now costs almost 7,000 euros more than before.
We are currently wondering whether this price increase (almost 22,000 euros) is justified or if they are trying to make extra money after the contract has already been signed.
On the other hand, we wonder whether the construction company should bear the additional costs themselves to make the house comply with the development plan, since planning according to the development plan was their responsibility, not ours...
We have also considered withdrawing from the contract, but for now, we want to try to resolve this in a peaceful way.
I would appreciate any helpful answers.
The price might be correct. I always wanted to build a two full-story house, and in every comparison, the difference to a 1.5-story house was always noticeable.
It's really careless on the part of everyone involved. Unfortunately, also on your side, since you don’t know the zoning plan inside and out.
The only solution is to communicate. Ask the builder if they can reduce the price by 7,000€ (about $7,700). If necessary, first try to have everything calculated against each other.
It's really careless on the part of everyone involved. Unfortunately, also on your side, since you don’t know the zoning plan inside and out.
The only solution is to communicate. Ask the builder if they can reduce the price by 7,000€ (about $7,700). If necessary, first try to have everything calculated against each other.
Hello Zaba12,
thank you very much for your reply.
I have to add that we asked the builder several times whether our 1.5-story house is permitted according to the development plan, and the answer was always yes...
As you wrote, we will recalculate everything over the weekend and hope that the builder agrees to keep the original quoted price.
thank you very much for your reply.
I have to add that we asked the builder several times whether our 1.5-story house is permitted according to the development plan, and the answer was always yes...
As you wrote, we will recalculate everything over the weekend and hope that the builder agrees to keep the original quoted price.
ChrisEF schrieb:
I have to add that we asked the building authority several times whether our 1.5-story house is allowed according to the development plan, and the answer was always yes... Do you have that in writing to apply pressure?
T
toxicmolotof4 Aug 2017 16:19I still don't understand why the knee wall needs to be raised. You can achieve a two-story building in other ways, for example with one or two large dormers.
Zaba12 schrieb:
Do you have that in writing to apply pressure?Of course not... :-(
toxicmolotow schrieb:
I still don’t understand why the knee wall has to be raised so much. You can build a two-story house differently, for example with one or two large dormers.According to the development plan, the knee wall in the attic may be a maximum of 80cm (31 inches) high... We have a 1.5-story house, so the upper floor is the attic, which would require a higher knee wall to achieve the appearance of two stories.
However, we visited the building authority and we could build a 1.5-story house if the knee wall in the attic is at least 1.8m (71 inches) high... That way we would probably maintain the character of the residential area.
It is a very strange development plan, but we simply have to live with it.
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