Construction Law

VvE tip: this is how to take a legally valid decision on topping up The Netherlands faces an immense housing challenge, and ‘optop constructions’ - adding residential layers to existing complexes - are hailed as an efficient solution. They save building land and often provide opportunities for sustainability and renovation of the existing building. In 2024, therefore, a ‘National Approach...

Court of Appeal finds expiry period in AGM2013 unfair Late in 2024, the Amsterdam Court of Appeal (ECLI:NL:GHAMS:2024:3490) made an interesting ruling the use of expiry periods in general terms and conditions in building contracts. In this case, a consumer and a contractor had concluded a building contract for the construction of a house. On this, the so-called General Conditions for Contracting Work 2013...

Apartment gets too hot, contractor liable? The buyers of an apartment are complaining to the Construction Arbitration Council (COA) that their recently completed apartment gets far too hot in the summer. At the COA, the client and the contractor are arguing about which standard applied to the construction. On several...

Construction contract on a cost-plus basis, or not? When a contractor and a client agree that the building contract is “on a cost-plus basis,” it means that the contractor may charge the actual costs incurred. With a cost-plus contract on a cost-plus basis, only hourly rates and unit prices of materials are agreed upon. The client in that case has...

Part of the work or extra work? It is a common problem in construction: the contractor claims that there is additional work and invoices that additional work. However, the client believes that the work was part of the agreed work and leaves the invoices unpaid. A dispute then arises between the parties; is there any...

The North Holland District Court issued an interesting ruling in January of this year (ECLI:NL:RBNHO:2023:408). Namely, the court assumed that a contractor had done a poor job. Yet the contractor does not have to pay damages to his client. That seems like the opposite world. Construction law attorney Robert van Ewijk explains how this works. Contractor...