Drafting General Terms and Conditions for Construction Companies

General Terms and Conditions for Construction are the standard terms and conditions used by a contractor, construction company, handyman business, installer, or self-employed professional in the construction industry for quotations, order confirmations, and construction projects. They regulate the basic agreements that recur across multiple assignments, such as payment, additional work, scheduling, completion, warranty, liability, and complaints.

General terms and conditions for construction are not the same as a construction contract. The construction contract or order confirmation describes the specific work, the price, the schedule, and project agreements. The general terms and conditions regulate the standard rules that apply to those assignments.

MKB Juristen drafts general terms and conditions for construction that align with your quotation process, activities, clients, and construction practices. In doing so, we specifically address contracting work, additional work, completion, payment, warranties, and liability.

General terms and conditions are important as soon as you regularly issue quotations, perform work on site, supply materials, use installment payments, carry out additional work, or run liability risks. In the construction industry, disputes often arise over topics that you can properly regulate in advance: price, additional work, delays, completion, damage, repairs, and payment.

For contractors, handyman businesses, installers, and self-employed professionals in the construction industry, general terms and conditions are particularly useful because practice often changes during execution. The client requests additional work, materials become more expensive or are delivered late, permits are delayed, or a dispute arises regarding what was and was not included in the quotation.

The content depends on your activities and clients. In many cases, we assess or arrange, among other things:

• validity of quotations and conclusion of the contract;
• payment terms, advances, installment invoices and suspension;
• additional work, reduced work and modification of the assignment;
• planning, delays and cooperation from the client;
• delivery, selection and price increase of materials;
• access to the construction site, safety and storage of materials;
• use of subcontractors and third parties;
• delivery, inspection, repair points and commissioning;
• warranty, complaints and reporting of defects;
• liability for damage to existing property or third parties;
• retention of title on delivered materials;
• termination, cancellation and consequences of non-payment;
• relationship to AVA, UAV, UAV-GC or other construction conditions.

In the construction industry, standard terms and conditions such as the AVA or the UAV are frequently used. The AVA are widely used in contracting, particularly for smaller construction projects. The UAV and UAV-GC are often used for larger or more regulated works, including in civil engineering (ground, road, and hydraulic engineering) and technical installation works.

Your own general terms and conditions may be used alongside or instead of such standard terms and conditions, but this must be done carefully. You must avoid different sets of terms and conditions overlapping or containing conflicting provisions. It must also be clear which terms and conditions apply to the assignment.

We therefore assess on a case-by-case basis whether your own general terms and conditions, AVA, UAV, UAV-GC, or supplementary project conditions best suit your activities and clients.

Additional work is one of the biggest points of conflict in construction projects. During the work, a client requests extra tasks, different materials, or changes to the schedule. Without clear arrangements, disputes arise regarding whether the work was included in the quotation, whether permission was granted, and which price applies.

General terms and conditions for construction must therefore specify when additional work occurs, how additional work is approved, how the price is determined, and what the consequences are for planning and delivery. In practice, it is advisable to confirm additional work in writing, for example via email, order form, or digital agreement.

In contracting work, it is important to establish when the work is considered completed. This can be done through a handover moment, inspection, agreement on repair points, or commissioning by the client. Without a clear handover arrangement, it often remains unclear when payment is due and when warranty or complaint periods begin.

It must also be stipulated how defects are reported, what repair period applies, and when complaints are too late. For consumers, this must be formulated carefully and reasonably. For business clients, there may be more contractual freedom, but there too, the arrangement must be practically feasible.

General terms and conditions do not automatically become part of an assignment. You must declare them applicable before or at the time of concluding the agreement and give the client a reasonable opportunity to review the terms. In practice, this means: sending them along with the quotation, including them as an attachment to the order confirmation, or clearly offering them via a download link.

Merely referring to terms and conditions on the invoice is usually too late. Filing with the Chamber of Commerce is also not sufficient in itself. Moreover, with business clients who have their own purchasing or contract terms and conditions, you must clearly indicate that you reject those terms if you wish to apply your own.

Do you work for both consumers and business clients? Then you need to pay close attention. Consumers are more strongly protected than business clients. Provisions regarding payment, cancellation, liability, complaints, warranty, and price changes are more likely to go too far for consumers.

Therefore, a single general set of terms and conditions is not always ideal. Sometimes it is better to use separate terms and conditions or clear, segregated provisions for private and business clients. We assess which approach suits your construction company and the type of projects.

Do you already have general terms and conditions for your construction company? If so, we can check whether they still suit your activities, clients, and quoting method. We examine, among other things, additional work, payment, planning, completion, warranty, liability, subcontractors, material prices, applicability, and the relationship to AVA, UAV, or other conditions.

We also assess whether the terms and conditions are used in practice. A well-written text is of little use if the terms and conditions are not sent along, are not included in the quotation, or do not align with your order confirmations and invoices.

After a brief intake, we discuss your construction company, activities, clients, quotation process, and key risks. We then draft custom-made general terms and conditions for the construction industry or review your existing terms.

You will receive terms and conditions tailored to your practice, with attention to payment, additional work, planning, delivery, warranty, liability, materials, subcontractors, and correct use in quotations and order confirmations.