Hello everyone,
We planned our house with a developer. The knee wall was set at 1.50 m (5 feet) in the initial design, which was important to us so we could still place some cabinets or dressers there.
Now the financing is finalized, and the deposit paid, etc., and suddenly they say they overlooked something in the fine print of the building regulations, and the knee wall can only be up to 1 m (3 feet 3 inches) high. To compensate, they want to change the roof pitch from 38 to 45 degrees. This would increase the volume and give us a really big attic space.
That sounds great – but it doesn’t really add much usable living space. It actually reduces the living area quite a bit, or are we seeing this wrong?
Before I start complaining, I’d like to hear your thoughts on this. I feel like they should at least add some square meters as compensation, shouldn’t they?
Thanks in advance!
We planned our house with a developer. The knee wall was set at 1.50 m (5 feet) in the initial design, which was important to us so we could still place some cabinets or dressers there.
Now the financing is finalized, and the deposit paid, etc., and suddenly they say they overlooked something in the fine print of the building regulations, and the knee wall can only be up to 1 m (3 feet 3 inches) high. To compensate, they want to change the roof pitch from 38 to 45 degrees. This would increase the volume and give us a really big attic space.
That sounds great – but it doesn’t really add much usable living space. It actually reduces the living area quite a bit, or are we seeing this wrong?
Before I start complaining, I’d like to hear your thoughts on this. I feel like they should at least add some square meters as compensation, shouldn’t they?
Thanks in advance!
Hello @Climbee, what you’re saying is quite an exaggeration. Not every house with a gable roof and a dormer is a "country house." Around here, there are plenty of houses with a roof pitch of 38-45° (degrees), and none of them look like a country house.
Maybe it's some kind of early childhood association?
Maybe it's some kind of early childhood association?
RobsonMKK schrieb:
Maybe some early childhood association? Possible
But with a floor area of only about 90 m² (970 sq ft), we simply lose too much living space in the attic with such a low knee wall.
And we don’t really like gable roofs anyway—the steeper, the less we like them....
B
Bauexperte11 Oct 2016 09:41Hello,
In my opinion, you urgently need to have a direct conversation with your contracting partner; forum members cannot replace that. And as you can see above, the details are becoming increasingly unclear. You need to clarify whether you want to go with a 45° roof pitch, whether the building envelope allows for enlarging the house volume, whether you can accept a 1.00 m (3.3 ft) knee wall and 38° roof pitch as the current status, whether the creative mind – that is, your contracting partner’s architect – might have other suggestions, or what costs would be involved in terminating the contract.
Regarding your contracting partner’s mistake: he is certainly responsible for a major error, but you have also made a mistake. You wanted to believe that the existing floor plan was exactly what you wanted to realize. Even if you were not given a zoning plan or the written regulatory requirements, a phone call to the local building authority would have saved you a lot of trouble. So, I see the responsibility for the oversight as fairly shared.
You will recognize whether you have chosen the right building partner by how they handle the current situation. I do not think they will offer you compensation in the four-figure range; however, every reputable provider usually has some small goodwill gesture to offer.
Regards, Bauexperte
Jecca schrieb:This statement does not imply that a townhouse is actually allowed on your plot. I believe this statement is meant hypothetically.
We already got the disappointing answer that we should have built a more expensive townhouse, and now that’s just bad luck....
Jecca schrieb:Looking at it objectively, you are by no means receiving lower quality; rather, the new building will simply have a different character.
We are now somehow getting lower quality than what was originally offered to us... I am really upset...
In my opinion, you urgently need to have a direct conversation with your contracting partner; forum members cannot replace that. And as you can see above, the details are becoming increasingly unclear. You need to clarify whether you want to go with a 45° roof pitch, whether the building envelope allows for enlarging the house volume, whether you can accept a 1.00 m (3.3 ft) knee wall and 38° roof pitch as the current status, whether the creative mind – that is, your contracting partner’s architect – might have other suggestions, or what costs would be involved in terminating the contract.
Regarding your contracting partner’s mistake: he is certainly responsible for a major error, but you have also made a mistake. You wanted to believe that the existing floor plan was exactly what you wanted to realize. Even if you were not given a zoning plan or the written regulatory requirements, a phone call to the local building authority would have saved you a lot of trouble. So, I see the responsibility for the oversight as fairly shared.
You will recognize whether you have chosen the right building partner by how they handle the current situation. I do not think they will offer you compensation in the four-figure range; however, every reputable provider usually has some small goodwill gesture to offer.
Regards, Bauexperte
RobsonMKK schrieb:
Without a doubt, 85 cm (33 inches) is unacceptable; every modern bed has a headboard of 100 cm (39 inches). You could mention this to the building authority—maybe then they’ll understand why it doesn’t make sense. In our case, we have a knee wall of only 40 cm (16 inches), which is absolutely not workable. For our neighbors, 85 cm (33 inches) would already be considered a luxury. And all of this is due to the shortsightedness of a politician. He didn’t actually want this, but admitting the mistake is out of the question. Now, 90 plots are allowed to have such a ridiculous knee wall. Alternatively, you are allowed to build 2.5-story houses—for example, a town villa with a knee wall of 40 cm (16 inches), plus a full additional floor on top.
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