Reefs of construction

There are a huge number of nuances when organizing a construction project in Slovenia. If you decide to go through everything on your own experience, then there may be two options: you overpay a lot of money, or, in addition to money, you will also lose time. And also, it will cost you nerves ... and, believe me, you will spend a lot of nerves.

Slovenia is a small country, which leaves a special imprint on its business environment. First, there is not enough here. For example, a limited list of suppliers materials, a limited number of builders, designers, workers and the like. A limited number leads to overheating of the market. This is not a client "always right", and the supplier. You do not select the builder, but he chooses what, where and according to what price it is profitable for him to do.

Secondly, everyone around is very busy. It's a rare occasion when you get through to a person with the first time, even when you pay him money. We used to wait a couple of days, to discuss important points with our designer.

Also, in Slovenia they love “their own and their own”. For example, a Slovenian, choosing among window suppliers, in most cases, will prefer windows from a Slovenian manufacturer to a Polish one. Although, according to the characteristics and external data, the windows will be the same, of the same quality level. For this reason, you can get a window from Poland in 1 month, and the Slovenian supplier will promise you a period of 4-5 months due to production overload, plus 20-30% to the price.

No matter how much the country gravitates towards Austria and Italy on the outside, the culture is deep inside the nation is still Slavic. In construction, this is expressed as optional. Contractor may not come to work, promises and does not call back, cancels the deal, delays the deadlines and so on.

You will be surprised by some of the "frills" of the legislation. In some cases, the law a clear line in the responsibility of the participants in the construction project: the investor, contractor, supervisor, designer, etc. And in other cases, it's a question controversial. For example, each construction site should have a data plate of the works and participants, and the investor is solely responsible for this. Investor can entrust the installation of this plate to the builder, but he does not take responsibility will remove. If the inspector does not like it, a fine will be imposed on the investor. And here, e.g. obligation and liability for site fencing, law clearly someone does not impute, the question is open and it must be provided for in the contract.

Another unpleasant moment is the need for a short time give a reasoned refusal in writing to pay the invoice issued to you, if you are with it do not agree. For example, you were billed for services not rendered, or for services overpriced, and you did not write back why you would not pay this incorrect account. Or you just didn't see it in your mailbox because you were on vacation... In this case, you will be required to pay this bill, or you will be required to pay it in court (read the concept of verodostojna listina).

There is nothing to do in a construction project without understanding the laws and regulations, and the laws are written in Slovenian, which obviously does not make the process easier.

In general, the situation is such that everyone will want to make money on you, especially when they understand (and they will understand right away) that you are not in the subject.

The architect will not be able to start work without this document. If you have your own vision of what you want to build and are looking for a land plot for this, then before purchasing it, you should definitely familiarize yourself with lokacijsko informacijo.

Before hiring an architect, you should clarify what technology he is going to use design your building. For example, houses that look exactly the same, inside can be made of different materials, on which the cost depends. construction, its terms, as well as the choice of a construction company and suppliers.

For example, a number of designers work only with specific materials, which greatly limit your choice in the market, cost more, require a construction company with certain skills and the like. Not uncommon cases where your designer ends up being closely associated with the suppliers of these materials and construction companies. Formally, this does not violate the law, but allows you to earn extra money. In order not to be in such situation, you should explore possible options for construction, ask cost and understand the future performance of the building. in Slovenia and In the EU, in general, the so-called “passive buildings” (passivna hiša) are highly valued, when the level of energy efficiency allows you to save a lot on heating in winter and cooling in summer. But not every construction technology allows you to achieve the desired characteristics.

After the project is ready and an application for a building permit has been submitted (gradbeno dovolenje), the relevant body of the community considers the amount of the communal payment (komunalni prispevek) based on the area and specifics of the projected object. Komunalni prispevek is an investor's contribution to the development of a common communal place infrastructure. Basically, the amount of the utility bill depends on the area of the facility being built.

Paying this fee is a condition for issuing a building permit. Should foresee the costs of this in advance, since for new objects, it can be several tens of thousands of euros. If you purchased a plot with an old house and plan to demolish this house in order to build a new building in its place, then the amount of the utility payment that was paid for the old house will be deducted from the amount of the utility bill calculated for the new building.

In other words, if you plan to build a house on the site with the dimensions of the old demolished building, then the utility bill is not paid extra have to. There are some ways to optimize the cost of CP and conscientious the architect must offer them to you.

The building project consists of several sections (architecture, geomechanics, statics, electrical, equipment, and so on), each of which must perform qualified engineer. In the vast majority of cases, hired by you architect, will not be qualified to design all sections and will hire subcontractors. In this case, formally, he becomes vodja projekta, and the direct developer of the section is odgovornji projektant.

Please note that you are not required to hire an architect as general designer and you can independently choose performers for each section. Closer contact with them will be necessary for you to guarantee accurate and effective fulfillment of your requirements, and in the future, when construction will begin. For example, an engineer developing a specific section may be invited by you to observe the construction in this part. Before starting the design, it is recommended to perform a geodetic survey plot with the definition of its boundaries, since it is often possible to detect a fence neighbors on your construction site, and then get a problem with the regulatory indentation of the building from the boundaries.

Additionally, it is worth adding here some more state bodies, with with which the investor will have to interact. First of all, these are network companies through which the connection to public utilities and their authorized contractors.

Let's make a reservation right away that there can be several participants of each type. For example, you have there may be several designers, several builders, as well as several supervisors responsible for specific parts of the project. And we highly recommend such an approach, since by closing everything to one (general) executor, you immediately lose control and start to incur additional costs. Although this will require greater involvement in construction and understanding the essence of things, in general, this approach is more justified.

The designer was mentioned above. We can only add that the designer can carry out architectural supervision of construction and that this service optional. Moreover, during construction without significant deviations from project, the need for such a service is very doubtful, since the designer, in in any case, will be obliged to respond to your questions if there is something in the project fuzzy done.

Next, we should focus on the builder and supervisor (nadzornik). The law specifies that the builder and the supervisor must be independent of each other. friend. This is obvious, since one builds, and the other controls, confirms the volumes and compliance with the design. Builders around the world tend to overestimate volumes, to the addition of additional work, or savings where it will not be noticeably. Slovenia, in this sense, is no exception, so the supervisor should monitor the correct execution of work.

At the request of the law, with a few exceptions, the supervisor must be hired by an investor to build most of the facilities. This entails little an increase in construction costs, but our opinion is that a supervisor should be hired essential and very helpful. A good supervisor is an investor's assistant. Thanks to the supervisor, you can save a lot of money and nerves, get qualified answers to technical questions, etc.

But the key point here is trust, because if suddenly the supervisor colludes with a builder, then the position of the investor will become very unenviable. In this case, expenses will begin to grow unpredictably, and their growth directly depends on the level the greed of the parties involved. In case you don't understand the situation early stage, then you will fall into a serious trap of blackmailers. In our case, the builder began to attribute illogical additional work, raise prices, and supervisor (on our behalf) to confirm them. When we began to demand explanations, the builder stopped the construction site and demanded payment, and the supervisor tried to cover builder with legal documents. The blackmail has begun. In the end, we had to replace both of them and enter into a long legal confrontation with them with involving lawyers and a detective, which cost money and time.

Unfortunately, there is no universal recipe for how to avoid this, except for personally deeply to delve into the affairs and clearly understand the construction process and its legal aspects. The process of choosing a builder will be to find him, check his qualifications, its ability to build your facility efficiently, quickly; it will also be mandatory to compare its pricing with the prices of competitors. Of course, it will be more correct to choose a builder when there are positive recommendations from people you trust.

The main difficulty at the moment is the construction boom in Slovenia. In progress there are a huge number of construction sites throughout the country, and it is not so easy to find a builder. You may be asked to queue up to start in 3-4-5 months. In conditions inflation and rapidly rising prices in construction, this will mean an increase in project. Don't limit your search to your city. Often regional companies can make a better offer.

The Construction Law defines the format of the tables in which the designer enters the list works and materials and where the builder is obliged to provide you with his offer. This very convenient, as it allows you to quickly compare the offers of different companies as in in general, and for a specific position.

A mandatory annex to the contract with the builder is the work schedule (terminski plan), which the builder issues very reluctantly, or does not issue at all. The presence of a signed work plan imposes responsibility on the builder, therefore, most likely, you will either not receive a plan, or you will receive it in a very general form, or, receive it by email without a signature indicating that it is an example vision. Be sure to insist that this document be signed and handed over to you before the start of work.

We sincerely recommend that the investor visit the construction site as soon as possible more often. Even if you do not understand construction, you will get a sense of the process. TO For example, often a builder works on two or more objects at once, and if he sees that control is not enough, it can allocate fewer people for your construction site, which will affect on deadlines. This is especially true if you did not have a construction schedule transferred as expected.

You should take care in advance to develop a safety statement for you (varnostni elaborat) and familiarize all construction participants with it in writing. The presence of this document is the responsibility of the investor. It is being developed safety engineer and this position is inexpensive. At all, it is recommended to have a signed contract with such an engineer so that 1-2 times per for a month he came to the construction site and checked compliance with safety regulations. When accident, this will allow the investor to relieve himself of responsibility.

If you decide to dive deeper into the process, you can participate in the selection material suppliers. For example, you as an investor can get more favorable conditions for ordering windows if you negotiate directly. Otherwise, the discount received will remain in the pocket of your designer or builder.

However, the situation with basic building materials such as concrete, fittings, waterproofing, etc., the situation is different. Suppliers of these materials construction companies are given big discounts, which the investor himself cannot get You can if you contact them directly. Therefore, in this case, it is worth bargaining directly with your contractor at the stage of signing the contract. However however, asking for prices directly on a regular basis is helpful as it will show you the dynamics of rising / falling prices in case your builder wants to change agreed working conditions in the process, motivating this by "a sharp increase in prices" for materials.

Some materials are presented in Slovenia by one supplier or by a group related suppliers. Do not forget that in the EU you can freely order materials from neighboring countries. For example, by ordering foam glass directly in Austria, we managed to save 45% of its cost. And again, due to the high load, some things are worth ordering in advance. Term the supply of our windows from the Slovenian manufacturer was five months, and the Poles done in three.

The builder's work for you will be divided into checked and unchecked. Eg, our builder invoiced that he did tamping the foundation under the foundation 5 times, to reach the design density value. Since we are next to him at this moment were not found, it is impossible to verify this. But the construction of the foundation itself or walls are easy to check - dimensions can be measured at any time and calculated the amount of material used and the work done.

The builder indicates all the volumes of work done and materials in the work log (gradbeni dnevnik) and in the construction book (gradbena knjiga), which he signs himself and receives the supervisor's signature. Based on these data, the builder exposes you accounts. Although it is the responsibility of the supervisor to review these documents, it is strongly It is recommended to check the building book and accounts yourself. Do it easy if you understand the system and format in which the data is presented. It will help you quickly control the situation, ask questions, demand confirmations, etc.

We also recommend that you make a notarized copy of the building books every time you get it.

As described above, the trust in the supervisor must be complete, and his reputation is spotless. In the event of the slightest suspicion of collusion builder and supervisor should immediately terminate the contract with both. Cancellation can be made without giving reasons, but it is better if you complete everything this is a lawyer so that the parties to the agreement do not have a desire to demand from you any or lost profits.

Special attention should be paid to the fact that during the termination process you have submitted all the necessary documents that you will need to receive operating permit. This listing includes a Declaration of Conformity of the work performed to the project, signed by the builder and supervisor, as well as certificates for the materials used. Make the final payment only in exchange for these documents, so as not to be held hostage later. If contracts with contractors were prepared by lawyers, then usually they immediately offer you to include a significant fine in case the performers refuse to transfer to you documents on the work done. Using a lawyer to prepare contracts with contractors are highly recommended.

You should start thinking about an operating permit from the moment you sign it contract with the builder and supervisor. Their obligations must end in moment of obtaining permission, and not before that moment. The balance of payment under contracts with they should be made a condition of obtaining permission. In any case, you should not make the final payment until all the documents have been handed over to you, correctly formatted and signed.

Without the documents constituting the DZO, obtain permission to operation will not be easy. But do not despair if you come into conflict with builders/supervisor and will not receive these documents. In this case, new the building law (in force from 07/01/2022) provides for some options. In addition, documents for critical materials (for example, concrete) can be will be obtained directly from the supplier (sometimes for a small fee) if contact him directly. Obviously, in this case, you should know who the supplier was.

If significant deviations from the project were made during the construction process, then your designer will have to prepare a PID (projekt izvedenih del) which will also will be included in the package of documents for operational permit.

Delays in implementation can occur for a variety of reasons. Builders may not reach the deadline, or not provide the required number of employees. May happen downtime due to lack of material from the supplier. For example, our building stood for 3 days due to the lack of bricks, and two weeks due to the presence of unpaved water. Weather conditions have a significant impact on timing, utility companies usually pull with connection to networks and the like. All this is hard predict in advance, which increases the risk of additional costs with debt financing.

Links to relevant legislation

(Gradbeni Zakon GZ-1);

(Zakon o urejanju prostora ZUreP-2)

(Pravilnik o gradbiščih);

(Zakon o izvršbi in zavarovanju ZIZ);

(Obrazec – uporabno dovolenje).