Site Meeting 1

Yesterday we had our site meeting with the cellar, ground worker, and water companies. Following a fairly strict protocol from Allkauf, the guy from the cellar company went over the details of what needs to be done and who will be responsible for what. They discussed everything from where the pipes should enter the cellar, to the depth of the hole and the location for the crane.

There were a couple of important points for us that we need to organise from our side that are not done by Allkauf:

1. Road closure & signage for the cellar build (min 1 day costs about €60)
2. Portaloo, site electricity and site water supply (will be about €200/month)
3. Arrange for someone to lay the foundations and floor of the garage (est. €5,000)

We were slightly annoyed about point 3 as we had assumed that when we were sold the garage the foundations and floor would be included but Allkauf haven't sent the cellar builders a contract to lay these so it looks like we will have to organise and pay for this. He estimated €5,000 extra costs but we can't contract him directly as he is already contracted by Allkauf. This means we will have to contract Allkauf to contract him, which will inevitably increase the cost. We'll call Allkauf on Monday to see if we really do have to pay for this ourselves or if it was a mistake their end and it should be included in the price. Fingers crossed.

While we were on site there was a lot of work going on opposite our plot where they are now digging the cellar for one of our neighbours houses (also from Allkauf). There was also work going on on some of the other plots so it won't be long until a few more houses are up.

At the end of the meeting we asked about timescales and found out that the official planning permission was approved on Thursday but there is now a 4 week "cooling off" period where we can't do anything. The cellar builders also won't start work until we have the final price of the house and the confirmation from the bank that they will cover this. This will add a couple of weeks delay as we can't get the final price until after our sampling appointment next Friday. He estimated we would be able to begin in 7 weeks but it would depend on his and the ground workers workforce and their holiday plans too. We are pretty sure now that we won't be moved in until early next year which is a shame but not entirely unexpected.