ᐅ Development costs / utility connection fees

Hello everyone,

We recently purchased a municipally owned building plot in Hesse. The total price includes, besides the purchase price, fees for surveying, sealing, water, and sewage connections.

I am currently working on planning the overall costs for our construction project (building a weekend house). At the moment, I am stuck on the development connection and house connection costs. The difference between these cost items is not entirely clear to me. So far, I have assumed that the fees paid as part of the purchase price are the development charges, which cover the cost of extending the connection up to the boundary of my property. I understood the house connection costs to be the expenses for laying the connection within my property.

Perhaps you could briefly explain these terms to a layperson and shed some light on the subject.

Thanks and best regards,

Robin

You understand correctly. Connection to utilities means up to the property boundary, including the street and surrounding areas. The house connection runs from the house entry point to the handover point on public land (that is, up to where the pipes or channels were installed during the utility connection process).

Great, thank you for the quick reply. So in my case, the only remaining costs are for the installation on the property. However, I have also read something about connection fees charged by the municipality. What exactly does that involve? Maybe someone can also give me a rough estimate of what I should budget for the water/sewage/electricity connections? Our wooden weekend house will be placed as close as possible to the property boundary (3 m (10 feet)?) and thus to the street connection.

Thanks and best regards,

Robin

@shrobloc
call the utility providers and ask,
then you will have the exact prices for your property,
either by phone or by request/quote via mail/email

For us, district heating, fiber optic internet, water, and electricity were a flat fee charged by the municipal utilities, regardless of the length of the connections.
It cost us nearly 12,000.
In addition, wastewater connection was 5,000, but that was done by a privately contracted company, and in that case, the length of the connections was a significant factor—and unfortunately, our connections were quite long.
Compared to others in the forum, everyone I’ve read about has paid less so far.

The house connection fee is generally charged by the utility providers for the pipes from the property boundary to the house, including through the exterior wall with the meter. For distances under 15 meters (50 feet), the fees are usually the same and can be directly requested from the utility providers.