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Unsere Standorte

Grant law

Defect, sup­ple­men­tary and obstruc­tion man­age­ment

The con­tract award marks the start of the exe­cu­tion phase — and thus a new risk win­dow for fund­ing. Sup­ple­ments, obstruc­tions and defects not only affect the con­trac­tu­al rela­tion­ship, but also direct­ly affect the eli­gi­bil­i­ty of costs and com­pli­ance with dead­lines for the use of funds.

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Prac­ti­cal note

Check eli­gi­bil­i­ty

Every adden­dum can force the approval author­i­ty to con­sult — or jeop­ar­dize the fund­ing

Risk fac­tor

Dead­lines and forms

In the event of defects, there is a risk of loss of rights due to missed dead­lines or incor­rect dec­la­ra­tions

What we do for you

Sup­ple­men­tary man­age­ment & eli­gi­bil­i­ty

We check sup­ple­men­tary requests on a con­trac­tu­al basis and clar­i­fy whether addi­tion­al costs are cov­ered by the fund­ing or whether con­sul­ta­tion with the approval author­i­ty is required.

Dis­abil­i­ty and con­cern noti­fi­ca­tions

We eval­u­ate incom­ing noti­fi­ca­tions from a legal per­spec­tive and show which mea­sures need to be tak­en and against whom — tak­ing into account the dead­lines for the use of funds.

Defect man­age­ment & ter­mi­na­tion

We sup­port you by set­ting dead­lines, noti­fy­ing defects and — if nec­es­sary — extra­or­di­nary ter­mi­na­tion so that you do not lose any rights and the eli­gi­bil­i­ty of the project remains secured.

Con­tract exe­cu­tion begins with the award of the con­tract

The award of the con­tract not only marks the end of the award pro­ce­dure. It is also the con­clu­sion of the con­tract, with which mutu­al rights and oblig­a­tions arise. The bid­der becomes the con­trac­tor — and now often “dis­cov­ers” for the first time that it is hin­dered in the exe­cu­tion of its ser­vices, that the exe­cu­tion meth­ods envis­aged by the client are alleged­ly impos­si­ble or that it requires var­i­ous sup­ple­men­tary orders in order to achieve the desired per­for­mance suc­cess. As grant recip­i­ents do not spend their own mon­ey and any unplanned cost increase can jeop­ar­dize the financ­ing struc­ture of the fund­ed project, they are always well advised to close­ly exam­ine the alleged claims of their con­trac­tors. This some­times requires spe­cial­ist legal exper­tise.

The sup­ple­men­tary offer

Not only in the con­struc­tion sec­tor, but also in the sup­ply of goods and ser­vices, there are changes in per­for­mance and addi­tion­al ser­vices that become nec­es­sary. Agree­ment must then be reached with the con­trac­tor as to whether and what remu­ner­a­tion is to be pro­vid­ed for this. Each sup­ple­men­tary case rais­es spe­cif­ic legal ques­tions: Has the alleged addi­tion­al ser­vice not actu­al­ly already been com­mis­sioned? Is it cov­ered by the sub­si­dized costs — or should the approval author­i­ty be con­sult­ed before the con­tract is award­ed? On what con­trac­tu­al basis is the remu­ner­a­tion to be adjust­ed if the change in ser­vice is not asso­ci­at­ed with any obvi­ous addi­tion­al costs for the con­trac­tor?

Every adden­dum is also a ques­tion of fund­ing law. If you com­mis­sion sup­ple­ments with­out hav­ing clar­i­fied the eli­gi­bil­i­ty of the addi­tion­al costs, you risk being stuck with these costs — or, in the worst case, trig­ger­ing a reclaim for the entire project. You should there­fore dis­cuss requests for sup­ple­ments with us at an ear­ly stage.

The obstruc­tion and con­cern notice

The prin­ci­ple among con­trac­tors is that it is bet­ter to send one obstruc­tion and con­cern report too many than one too few. For the fund­ing recip­i­ent, who has sub­mit­ted a financ­ing plan and has to real­ize his project with­in the dead­line for the use of funds, such noti­fi­ca­tions are often a use­ful sig­nal: they give an impres­sion of where things are going wrong — before the sit­u­a­tion esca­lates. At the same time, noti­fi­ca­tions of obstruc­tions and con­cerns cre­ate legal pres­sure to act. They can make it nec­es­sary to exert greater influ­ence on sub­con­trac­tors or to review your own coor­di­na­tion oblig­a­tions. We will work with you to clar­i­fy what is rec­om­mend­ed from a legal per­spec­tive and what mea­sures need to be tak­en and towards whom.

The defect case

Defects some­times occur with­in the war­ran­ty peri­od. Or the defects are so sig­nif­i­cant from the out­set that they pre­vent accep­tance. In both cas­es, the fund­ing recip­i­ent must observe and set dead­lines and, if nec­es­sary, sub­mit for­mal dec­la­ra­tions. Some­times even extra­or­di­nary ter­mi­na­tion for good cause is required if the con­trac­tor fails to rem­e­dy defects dur­ing the ongo­ing project. To ensure that you do not lose any rights and do not make any for­mal or dead­line errors, you must pro­ceed in a struc­tured and planned man­ner. You should not leave this to your project man­ag­er alone — espe­cial­ly as the eli­gi­bil­i­ty of your project for fund­ing may be at risk if there are seri­ous defects.

Typ­i­cal pro­ce­dure

  • Check sup­ple­men­tary requests for con­trac­tu­al and fund­ing law basis
  • Clar­i­fy eli­gi­bil­i­ty for fund­ing — con­sult with the approval author­i­ty if nec­es­sary
  • Legal­ly assess and respond to obstruc­tion notices
  • Noti­fi­ca­tion of defects and set­ting a dead­line in due form
  • Ter­mi­na­tion or com­pen­sa­tion — secur­ing and enforc­ing rights

Fre­quent­ly asked ques­tions about pro­ce­dur­al sup­port

Gen­er­al ini­tial ori­en­ta­tion — no sub­sti­tute for legal advice in indi­vid­ual cas­es.

As a grant recip­i­ent, do I have to coor­di­nate sup­ple­ments with the grant­i­ng author­i­ty?

This depends on the scope of the adden­dum and the ancil­lary pro­vi­sions of your grant noti­fi­ca­tion. Many fund­ing providers require approval or at least noti­fi­ca­tion if the bud­get of the fund­ed project changes sig­nif­i­cant­ly. If you fail to do this, you run the risk of the addi­tion­al costs not being rec­og­nized as eli­gi­ble for fund­ing. In indi­vid­ual cas­es, this can only be assessed by a lawyer. We will be hap­py to help you.

→ Arrange an ini­tial con­sul­ta­tion now

Sig­nif­i­cant defi­cien­cies can delay or pre­vent the accep­tance and thus the com­ple­tion of the fund­ed project. This in turn can jeop­ar­dize com­pli­ance with dead­lines for the use of funds and, in the worst case, lead to a reclaim. How you can take legal action in such a sit­u­a­tion and secure the fund­ing can only be assessed on a case-by-case basis. We will be hap­py to help you.

Silence can be risky. If you do not respond to a notice of obstruc­tion, you run the risk of the con­trac­tor lat­er deriv­ing claims from it — for exam­ple for an exten­sion of the con­struc­tion peri­od or addi­tion­al remu­ner­a­tion. The cor­rect legal response to a notice of obstruc­tion depends on the indi­vid­ual case. We will be hap­py to help you.

→ Arrange an ini­tial con­sul­ta­tion now

Note: No legal advice. All answers do not replace an indi­vid­ual exam­i­na­tion by a lawyer.

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