Provision regarding completeness in General Terms and Conditions effective even in case of detailed specifications
> February 2015

Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court has ruled that a contractor’s scope of services can be expanded with necessary services which are not expressly listed in the construction contract as a result of a so-called “turn-key, completeness or integrity provision”. This also applies in the event that the services were also specified through detailed specifications in the contract.

The case which was submitted to the court for a ruling concerned the registration of a priority notice for a debt-securing mortgage securing builders’ claims. The contractor claimed that the client had requested supplementary services exceeding the scope of services agreed on. The client rejected this and stated that there was no claim to additional compensation. Instead, the services provided by the contractor had been owed by him right from the outset because they had to be provided in the context of the completeness provision.

The court accepted the client’s opinion. It ruled that the completeness provision (which formed the subject of the dispute) constituted a mere price and/or service arrangement which was exempt from the review of content as per the general terms and conditions. In the present case, the contractor had “knowingly” undertaken to provide the services not indicated expressly as a result of the contract clause.

The case would certainly have been assessed differently if the clause constituted an ancillary agreement under price legislation which would not have been easy to foresee for the contractor.

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