General Terms & Conditions
1. The following General Terms & Conditions as well as the Terms of Delivery and Payment shall apply to all offers and contracts with the contractor. Any deviations from these conditions require the written form. Ancillary verbal agreements shall be confirmed in writing.
2. Offers shall not be binding and are subject to change until they have been confirmed in writing. The sale and delivery of goods shall be subject to correct and punctual supply to ourselves, with the contractor being responsible for the careful selection of his suppliers. The documents relating to the offer – such as illustrations, drawings, dimensions and data concerning the weight – have not been stated completely.
3. The Verdingungsordnung für Bauleistungen (Standard Building
Contract Terms [VOB], parts B and C) shall be applicable for all
building services, especially for floor laying and decorating
services. These services conform to the General Technical
Regulations (ATV) as applicable to the work rendered by the
contractor, unless anything to the contrary has been agreed below
or in the order confirmation, or in any other specific agreement.
If specifically requested to do so, the contractor shall make the
text of these provisions available for the other party’s
information.
4. Force Majeure as well as grave and unforeseeable operational disorders shall extend the term of delivery by the length of the delay. The client shall be informed immediately, when such a delay occurs. If the delay is unreasonably long, each contracting party can withdraw from the contract without being under the obligation to make a replacement delivery. Should the contractor be unable to meet the agreed deadline for the services or for the deliveries to be rendered, or for other reasons, the client shall put him in default at once and set a grace period that is reasonable as to the kind and scope of service to be rendered, unless the service is seasonally determined. The client can only assert claims for damages on the grounds of delay, if the contractor, his legal representative or his vicarious agent have acted with gross negligence or willful intent. In the case of supplying goods, deliveries shall be made ex workshop or warehouse at the client’s account and risk. The contractor shall be entitled to render partial services, if this is reasonable for the client. Partial services shall only be rendered, after the customer has been duly informed. The color and grain of wooden surfaces as well as the fabric and color of textiles may be subject to minor deviations. Customers are explicitly informed herewith that wall-to-wall carpets made of velour are subject to permanent shading in some very rare cases, but the causes are not due to faults in the material or design. Such occurrence shall not constitute a fault. Nor shall minor deviations in the patterns, from the dimensions or from the weight as compared with samples or specimens constitute a fault, if they are customary in the industry, especially if they occur in the sense of the technical progress, unless the relevant warranty has been granted.
5. If the delivery cannot be made by the agreed deadline for reasons for which the client is responsible, the risk shall pass on to the client, as soon as the latter has been notified about the contractor’s readiness to deliver. The client shall pay the warehousing costs incurred.
6. Deliveries or services shall be accepted immediately after the readiness to deliver has been communicated. This shall also apply with respect to self-contained partial deliveries or services. The carpet technicians and parquet recliners shall be issued a document in accordance with the supplier’s form, after each job has been completed. If this document is withheld despite the repeated demand to have it issued, the service is deemed to have been accepted. As a matter of principle, the delivery/service is deemed to have been accepted after putting it into use.
7. In the event of complaints, the contractor shall be given the
opportunity to make an on-site inspection. Should the complaint be
justified, supplementary performance shall be effected free of
charge and within a reasonable period, which is normally four
weeks. If supplementary performance fails to remedy the fault, the
client may demand a replacement delivery or an abatement of the
price. Any supplementary performance is deemed to have failed after
the second vain attempt. If the client happens to be an end
consumer who accepts the service exclusively for his own private
use, he can demand a new product/a replacement delivery instead of
supplementary performance. However, this shall not apply if, from
the contractor’s point of view, the production of a new article or
the replacement delivery seems to be unreasonable as compared with
the supplementary performance. In the case of services that are not
building services, the client can demand to nullify the contract
instead of claiming an abatement of the price. The contractor shall
be unlimited liable in accordance with the statutory regulations
for any bodily damage caused by his own negligent or willful
violation of duties or that of his legal representatives or
vicarious agents as well as for any damage covered by the Product
Liability Act and any loss or damage caused by a willful or grossly
negligent violation of the contract or the seller’s malicious
intent as well as that of his legal representatives or vicarious
agents. Should the contractor have warranted certain properties of
the goods or parts thereof, and/or the minimum service life, he
shall also be liable within the scope of the warranty given.
However, the contractor shall only be liable for any damage that is
based on the non-existence of such warranties for certain
properties or the durability, but does not affect the goods
directly, if the risk of such damage is patently covered by such
warranty for properties or the durability.
The contractor shall also be liable for damage that has been caused
by simple negligence, if this negligence concerns the violation of
major contractual duties or of a cardinal obligation. The same
shall apply, if the client can claim damages rather than the
service. However, the contractor shall only be liable to such an
extent that the damage is typically related to the contract and
predictable.
Any further liability of the contractor shall be excluded,
irrespective of the legal nature of the claim asserted; this shall
particularly apply to tortuous claims or claims for wasted
expenditure rather than the service. Should the seller’s liability
be excluded or limited, this shall also apply to the personal
liability of his employees, representatives and vicarious agents.
8. The warranty for building services shall be given in accordance with the VOB (Standard Building Contract Terms). The period of limitation for all other services shall amount to 2 years, for contracts with non-consumers (see section 7, sentence 4) 1 year. Repairs, e.g. those concerning upholstered furniture, shall fall under the statutes of limitation after one year, irrespective of who the contracting party is. The contractor shall warrant that his service conforms to the generally recognized rules of sound engineering practice at the time of accepting this service and that it is not flawed with faults that would reduce the value of the service or render it useless for its usual, or for the contractually intended, purpose.
9. When making a delivery, it is assumed that the vehicle can drive up directly to the building and be unloaded there. Extra costs incurred by longer shipping routes or by obstacles encountered by the vehicle when approaching the building shall be charged to the customer. The client shall provide mechanical means of transport for any shipments made to premises that are located above the second floor. Stairs must be passable. Should the rendering of the contractor’s work or the work of persons commissioned by him impeded by circumstances for which the client is responsible, the costs incurred by such impediments (such as working time and transportation expenses) shall be invoiced accordingly.
10. The contractor reserves his proprietary rights and the copyright in all cost estimates, drawings, drafts and calculations prepared by him. Documents of this kind must neither be reproduced nor made available to third parties without the contractor’s approval.
11. The prices quoted are the final prices that include the
statutory sales tax (VAT). The final amounts quoted in the offer
have been established to the best of the offerer’s knowledge and
are approximate values, unless stated otherwise. They shall only be
valid if the offered services and/or deliveries are ordered in full
and, in the case of building services, if the contractor can render
them without any interruptions. The contractor shall be entitled to
renegotiate the prices of those agreements that include delivery
periods and service deadlines of more than 4 months after the
conclusion of the contract.
The dimensions shall be based on the work measurements in the
unfinished state, with thresholds and niches being added. No
deductions for waste and the loss of material shall be made for
pillars, projections etc. with an area not exceeding 0.12 m². A
reasonable mark-up shall be calculated without an extra agreement
for platforms, bay windows and areas of less than 10 m² or with a
particularly large proportion of waste.
Higher wage rates shall be due for services required outside the
usual working hours, to which all other costs, such as expenses and
accommodation, shall be added.
12. Unless stipulated otherwise in an individual contract, all
services, also partial ones, shall be due for payment without any
deductions immediately after the customer has been invoiced. A down
payment of 75 % of the order value shall become due when the
contract is concluded.
Payments by means of bill shall only be admissible on the basis of
a special agreement. Bills and checks shall only be accepted for
the purpose of payments, but not in lieu of payment. The contractor
can demand discount expenses and a bill protest, matching the
payment with the delivery of the paper, also of bills falling due
at a later point in time, against immediate cash payment. Consumers
(see section 7, sentence 4) shall be charged default interest at a
rate of 5 % points above the relevant basic rate of the European
Central Bank (EZB), while the interest rate of contracts without
consumer involvement levels 8 % above the EZB’s basic interest
rate. The above rates shall be higher or lower, if the contractor
can prove a financial burden with a higher interest rate or the
customer a financial burden with a lower interest rate.
Payments shall initially be offset against the costs and interest
incurred and then against the oldest debt. A major deterioration of
the client’s creditworthiness shall entitle the contractor to ask
for advance payments or securities. Should the client default on
the agreed payment arrangements, the contractor shall be entitled
to set a grace period and to issue a notice to act setting out the
consequences of non-compliance, to withdraw from the contract after
the grace period has expired or to claim damages for
non-performance.
13. In the event of disputes, only experts publicly appointed by a Chamber of Crafts in the Federal Republic of Germany for the interior decorating trade shall be admitted for assessing faults in the services and the deliveries. Should the assessment reveal that the complaints have not been justified, the client shall bear the costs incurred.
14. The contractor reserves the title to the goods delivered until
the invoice has been paid in full. If the property is lost by
operation of the law, the client herewith assigns his future claims
against the future purchaser of the title up to the outstanding
amount to the contractor.
The client shall insure the goods against fire, water, theft and
burglary with sufficient cover for the time of title retention. If
necessary, he shall assign the claims against the insurer up to the
value of the goods or up to the outstanding amount to the
contractor.
Should the goods under the retention of title become subject to
attachment, the client shall notify the contractor in writing
without any delay and inform the lienors about the retention of
title. The client shall not be entitled to sell the goods delivered
to him under the retention of title, to give them away free of
charge, to encumber them or to assign them as a security.
15. The place of performance shall be client’s registered office. If both contracting parties are general merchants, the place of jurisdiction shall be the contractor’s registered office.