Building law ticker: BGH, judgement of 14.11.2017, VII ZR 65/14: Contractor's obligation to provide information when changing the recognised rules of technology

7. March 2018

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The judgement deals in particular with the interesting and recurring question of how to deal with changes to the recognised rules of technology (a.R.d.T.) between the award of the contract and acceptance.

Legal issues

The recognised rules of technology (a.R.d.T.) must be complied with, even if this is not expressly agreed in the contract. For the VOB/B contract, this already results from § 13 Para. 1 VOB/B. However, this intention is also transferred by the courts to the BGB works contract. In addition, the time of acceptance is decisive for the assessment of whether the work complies with the recognised rules of technology (a.R.d.T). In this respect, it is also irrelevant if, for example, a quality agreement exists and this falls short of the recognised rules of technology. These shall still apply unless the client has expressly excluded their applicability. A change to the standard terms and conditions between the conclusion of the contract and acceptance does not lead to a different result. The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) expressly confirmed this in its judgement of 14 November 2017 and explained it in a way that is worth reading.

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