Once the deadline you set expires without result, a bundle of rights opens: fix the defect yourself at the contractor’s cost, reduce the price, withdraw from the contract or claim damages.
✓ Verified: 02/08/2026
WHAT TO DO
DOCUMENTS3
When the deadline has passed and the defect remains, the customer can choose between several routes. The law lists them in a single provision, and each leads to a different outcome. They share one feature: nearly all require a deadline that was set and has expired.
A dispute over building work is the case where legal costs frequently reach the size of the invoice itself. Free consumer rights advice comes from the Verbraucherzentrale↗; legal expenses insurance covers such disputes for future cases, and tariffs are compared by Check24↗.
Before hiring a second firm, check that the first letter with the deadline is provably delivered and that the deadline truly expired. That is exactly where reimbursement claims fail: the right exists, the proof of its precondition does not.
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Max recommends:
I brought in another firm the day after a phone call, and my invoice was never reimbursed. Exactly one thing was missing: the written deadline with a date, after whose expiry the right to self-remedy arises.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What does self-remedy mean?▾
The law allows the customer, after a reasonable deadline they set has expired without result, to remedy the defect themselves and claim the necessary expenses. The limit: this does not apply where the contractor rightfully refused subsequent performance.
How does a price reduction work?▾
The law provides that instead of withdrawing, the customer may reduce the remuneration by declaration to the contractor. The reduction is made in the proportion the value of the defect-free work would have borne to its actual value. The declaration belongs in writing.
Can I simply withhold payment until it is fixed?▾
Practice knows the withholding of part of the payment until the defect is remedied, and that is often a stronger lever than arguing about percentages. Its size and permissibility depend on circumstances, so refusing payment entirely without advice is risky.
When is withdrawal appropriate?▾
Withdrawal stands in the law alongside price reduction and follows the general rules on rescission. It fits substantial defects and usually means unwinding the whole transaction, so this route belongs weighed in advance rather than chosen in anger.