AGB

GENERAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS – GENERAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF M3-ZT GMBH

The services we provide as civil engineers are very varied and complex. We want to enter into an agreement with you with “in-house and expert knowledge” that you and we can rely on with confidence. All contracts concluded with us are based exclusively on these General Terms and Conditions, irrespective of the type of legal transaction. All our declarations of intent under private law are to be understood on the basis of these GTC. Any terms and conditions on your part that conflict with or deviate from our General Terms and Conditions shall not apply unless we have expressly agreed to their validity in writing. Contractual performance on our part shall not be deemed to constitute consent to contractual provisions deviating from our GTC. We will provide you with the services agreed in the service description in a professional manner. Should you wish to commission us with additional services, we shall be entitled, but not obliged, to provide these additional services by mutual agreement. We are not responsible for any deficient performance on the part of the professionals commissioned on your behalf. Local building supervision” means the local representation of your interests, including the exercise of domiciliary rights on the building site. However, local construction supervision does not include the obligations of construction management, nor does it include quality control of the individual trades of the contracted professionals.
We rely on the accuracy, completeness and legality of the documents, information and instructions you provide to us. We also rely on the accuracy, completeness and legality of the information provided to us by the authorities, although we would like to point out that preliminary discussions and information with the authorities are always non-binding and we therefore do not assume any obligation to provide the requested permits. Even a positive decision by the building authority of first instance can be changed in appeal proceedings. We will, of course, comply with our statutory duty to warn and notify if the information and instructions given to us are obviously unsuitable.
We assume no liability for the accuracy of the cost calculation/cost estimate for the construction work, because prices in the construction industry are very volatile and often (unfortunately) speculative. We also accept no responsibility for bids actually being submitted by professionals in the context of a tender. Our services are invoiced and remunerated in accordance with our service description. The prices quoted are “net prices”, the prices are therefore to be increased by 20% VAT. The agreed flat-rate fee shall be deemed agreed for the specifically described services. Should you, in consultation with us, commission additional services or should increased expenditure arise due to delays and difficulties (for which we are not responsible) or due to official requirements or changes to relevant regulations and laws, then these additional services shall be charged to us at our hourly rate of EUR 152.96 plus VAT. 5 % service charges and VAT. to be settled. Unless otherwise expressly agreed, the following time-based remuneration (fee rates) shall be agreed as appropriate compensation. If reference is made in the service description or in these General Terms and Conditions to the remuneration of time spent (fee rates), this is understood to mean that we record the time actually spent on your project for the project-specific services and then charge for this time spent according to the hourly rate offered in the service description. The individual services are recorded in “quarter-hour cycles”. Project-specific services also include travel time, meetings, office work, artistic/design activities, telephone calls, correspondence, documentation and the like. Incidental costs (insofar as they are not expressly mentioned in the service description), such as the costs for the procurement of necessary documents, inventories, modeling, laboratory tests, model tests, material tests and the like, duplications of documents and plans, contributions to plan and document servers, production of photographs and other documentation, presentations, production of data carriers, any form of fees and administrative charges, provision of operating resources, costs of equipment for local construction supervision, costs of professional liability insurance in excess of the basic cover, travel costs by public transport, shall be remunerated separately and appropriately. If ancillary services are provided by a third party on our behalf, we are entitled to pass on these costs to you with a processing surcharge of 20%. The agreed fee rates are adjusted by us at the beginning of each calendar year on the basis of the CPI 2020 (price basis as of January 1st in the year in which the order confirmation is issued).
If a time-based fee (fee rates) is charged, we shall be entitled to issue an interim fee note on a monthly basis after the last day of the respective month. If lump-sum fees have been agreed, we shall be entitled to submit interim fee notes after completion of the agreed partial services. If an agreed interim fee note is not paid on time, we shall be entitled to demand payment of the entire outstanding amount without setting a further grace period (loss of deadline). If our performance is delayed by more than one month due to circumstances for which we are not responsible, we shall be entitled to issue a fee note for the services rendered up to that point. Irrespective of the type of invoicing, we are entitled to issue an interim fee note if you order an interruption in the provision of services or if we have reason to believe that you are experiencing liquidity bottlenecks. You shall pay the fees due for payment without deduction within 14 days to the account specified by us.
In the event of default in payment, the statutory default interest shall be deemed agreed. Furthermore, in the event that reminders become necessary, we shall be entitled to charge reminder fees of € 40.00 plus 20% VAT for each reminder. (§ 458 UGB). In addition, we shall be reimbursed for all costs incurred by us from the collection of due payments, in particular the extrajudicial lawyer’s fees necessary for the appropriate prosecution (Section 1333 (2) ABGB). Offsetting any counterclaims against our fee claims is not permitted.

In the “Draft planning” project phase, you and we are entitled to withdraw from the contract without giving reasons. In this case, as well as in the event of a mutually agreed termination of the contract, the services rendered by us shall be remunerated as agreed. The ideas, sketches, proposals and the like submitted by us shall remain our sole property and may not be used by you in the event of withdrawal from the contract. From the time of completion of the design planning, our agreement becomes a mutually binding and non-terminable contract. Withdrawal from the contract is then only possible for good cause which makes or would make it unreasonable for one or other of us to continue the contractual relationship. Such important reasons are, in particular, that one of the contracting parties continues to act in breach of contract (despite a reminder) and one of the contracting parties is in default of performance despite a reasonable grace period. In particular, lack of cooperation, delay in payment of fees by at least 14 days (despite reminders) and failure to provide agreed securities shall entitle us to withdraw from the contract. If delays, hindrances or interruptions to our service provision occur which are not caused by us, which fall within your sphere of responsibility and which last uninterruptedly for more than two months, then we are entitled to withdraw from the contract. If the contract is rescinded for a reason for which we are responsible (which falls within our sphere of responsibility), we shall only be entitled to remuneration for those services which we have provided up to the date of rescission.
However, if you withdraw from the contract for a reason for which you are responsible (which falls within your sphere of responsibility), we shall be entitled to the agreed remuneration less the expenses saved in accordance with § 1168 (1) ABGB. Even if performance is prevented due to force majeure, we shall be entitled to the agreed remuneration less the expenses saved. This shall not affect the claim for damages to which each party to the contract is entitled against the other due to the latter’s fault in the premature termination of the contract. In the event of withdrawal from a consumer transaction, the provisions of the ABGB, KSchG and FAGG as amended shall apply.

The warranty only covers the services ordered from us. The warranty period shall be a maximum of 12 months from completion of the contractually agreed overall service. The existence of defects must be proven by you and §§ 924 and 933b ABGB do not apply.
We shall fulfill warranty claims on your part in the event of a remediable defect at our discretion either by replacement within a reasonable period or price reduction. Claims for damages aimed at remedying the defect can only be asserted if we are in default with the fulfillment of the warranty claims. You must notify us in writing of any defects that were not already reported in writing at the time of acceptance, but at the latest within one week of their discovery, together with evidence. If a complaint is not made or not made in good time, our performance shall be deemed to have been approved. The exercise of the statutory right of retention in the event of a justified notice of defects requires that the alleged defects are specified accordingly, otherwise the right of retention expires. The amount to be withheld is limited to the amount of the costs of remedying the defect. In the case of warranty in a consumer transaction, the provisions of the ABGB and KSchG as amended shall apply. All claims for damages are excluded in cases of slight negligence. The existence of gross negligence or intent is the responsibility of the injured party. Liability is limited to the value of the sum covered by our liability insurance (proof on request). We shall not be liable for indirect damages, loss of profits, loss of interest, failure to make savings, consequential and financial losses and damages arising from third-party claims. Claims for damages shall become time-barred two years after the end of our work, but at the latest within two years after the final fee note has been issued, unless the law provides for a shorter limitation period. The provisions on damages contained in these GTC or otherwise agreed shall also apply if the claim for damages is asserted in addition to or instead of a warranty claim. Our plans and documents may only be executed after any necessary official approvals and express release on our part, otherwise claims for damages shall be excluded. In the event of compensation for damages in a consumer transaction, the provisions of the ABGB and KSchG as amended shall apply.
In the service description, certain non-binding time periods are provided for our service provision. The final dates for the provision of the individual partial services and the entire term of the contract shall be set out in a schedule to be drawn up by mutual agreement. Performance dates and deadlines are only binding if you expressly agree them with us as such in writing. You will inform us of the decisions to be made by you in good time so that the project implementation can proceed swiftly and be brought to a conclusion.

The original plans and the original data will remain with us and we will store them properly and carefully for ten years after our final fee note has been issued. We can release ourselves from this safekeeping obligation by handing over the documents to you.
We are not obliged to provide you with paper copies of the documents. At your request, we will send you the final plans in PDF format. The copyright and the resulting exploitation rights to the plans, sketches, models and so on produced by us shall remain with us even after payment of the fee. In particular, this also includes the right to execute or modify the work or the reproduction by third parties. The right to utilize our services and the completed work for marketing purposes lies solely with us. However, you are entitled to publish photos and films of the work for your own marketing purposes. In this case, however, you will mention the name of our company m3-Ziviltechniker GmbH.
You have the right to use the plans for your construction project as part of the execution of this work, provided that we have approved the plans and you have met your payment obligations in full. This right only covers a one-off execution in accordance with the plan and contract. The plans/documents may only be used for other projects or passed on to third parties with our express written consent . You will allow us access to the work after termination of the contract for the purpose of recording information about the structural condition and/or for taking photographs or other recordings . We are entitled to state our name in publications and announcements about the work. We have the right to prohibit you from mentioning our name when publishing the work. This applies in particular if the contractual relationship ends prematurely or the work is subsequently modified without our consent. In any case, we are entitled to publish plans, photos and video recordings of the completed work for our own purposes (in particular for advertising purposes), in particular as part of image films, in social media, in print media, in competitions and on our website.
Any gaps in this contract shall be supplemented exclusively by the legal provisions applicable in Austria . The application of conflict-of-law rules (e.g. IPRG, Rome I Regulation) and the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods is excluded. The place of performance is our registered office.
Should individual provisions of these GTC be invalid or unenforceable in whole or in part, this shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions. Amendments or additions to these GTC must be made in writing.

^{Status: January 2024}