Clarity, before it gets expensive.
Building damage, a purchase, a handover, a dispute: a German expert report gives you a defensible technical basis to act on. Every assessment is produced under the direction of our architect, entered in the Architektenliste of North Rhine-Westphalia, and carries his personal signature.
German speakers: the corresponding German page is more detailed, Gutachten im Überblick.
A Privatgutachten, what it does, and what it does not do.
A Gutachten is an expert report; a Sachverständiger is the expert who writes it. German construction practice runs on these documents. What we produce is a Privatgutachten: commissioned by you, not appointed by a court, and therefore treated in litigation as your submission rather than as neutral evidence. It does not bind a judge.
It nonetheless decides a great many disputes, because most of them never reach a court-appointed expert. A report with an identifiable, professionally liable author, findings separated from assessment and a traceable line of reasoning is what moves an insurer or a contractor from refusal to negotiation. Where you prevail in proceedings, its cost is frequently recoverable.
Privatgutachten
PARTY-COMMISSIONED EXPERT REPORT
Commissioned and paid for by one side. Treated as that party's case. This is what we produce, and what most German disputes are actually settled on.
Gerichtlicher Sachverständiger
COURT-APPOINTED EXPERT
Instructed by the court, owing a duty to the court rather than to a party. Appointed only once proceedings are running, and considerably slower and more expensive to reach.
Beweissicherung
PRESERVATION OF EVIDENCE
Recording the condition of a building before something happens to it, typically before neighbouring construction starts. Cheap beforehand; frequently impossible afterwards.
Reports for owners, purchasers and parties to a dispute.
These are the same amounts our German pages show, because they come from the same source: the product catalogue behind our ordering system. Not every position can be ordered online, where it says "on request", write to us and we will quote it. We do not quote differently because an enquiry arrives in English. Where a figure is marked indicative rather than fixed, you receive a fixed fee in writing before anything begins.
DIGITAL PRE-CHECKS
Produced from your documents and photographs, without a site visit.
Building application completeness report
Checks a Bauantrag against the Bauvorlagen prescribed by the BauPrüfVO NRW and lists what is missing, before the authority rejects it.
149 € · incl. German VAT · fixed price · immediately, digital
§ 34 BauGB feasibility short check
Whether a proposal fits into the character of its surroundings where no binding development plan applies, with a rough check of site coverage and floor area ratios.
199 € · incl. German VAT · fixed price · immediately, digital
Change-of-use pre-check
Whether an intended Nutzungsänderung, changing what a building is used for, itself a permit matter in Germany, is likely to be permissible, and under which conditions.
249 € · incl. German VAT · fixed price · immediately, digital
Check of the building description under § 650j BGB
The Baubeschreibung a German builder owes a consumer client by law, checked against what the statute requires it to contain.
199 € · incl. German VAT · fixed price · on request, not orderable online
Construction contract check
Your construction contract read against the clauses that regularly cost German clients money: payment schedule, deadlines, acceptance, warranty.
249 € · incl. German VAT · fixed price · on request, not orderable online
Plausibility check of a contractor's quotation
Whether the quoted amounts are reasonable for the work described, before you sign.
129 € · incl. German VAT · fixed price · immediately, digital
Comparison of up to four tenders
Competing quotations set side by side on the same basis, with the differences in scope made explicit.
179 € · incl. German VAT · fixed price · immediately, digital
Funding report
Which German federal and state programmes fit the project, in what order to apply, and the deadlines that decide eligibility.
199 € · incl. German VAT · fixed price · immediately, digital
Building damage pre-check
A founded first assessment from your photographs and description, released in short form by our architect. Orientation, not a Gutachten.
350 € · incl. German VAT · fixed price · 1 bis 2 business days
Mould pre-check, online
A first assessment of a mould or moisture problem from your description and photographs.
79 € · incl. German VAT · fixed price · immediately, digital
Floor area calculation to the WoFlV
Living area calculated from your existing drawings under the Wohnflächenverordnung, the German regulation that defines how living area is measured.
199 € · incl. German VAT · fixed price · immediately, digital
Defect notice package
A formally correct Mängelrüge, the written notice of defects that preserves your rights against the contractor, with the deadlines set out.
149 € · incl. German VAT · fixed price · immediately, digital
REPORTS AT A CATALOGUE PRICE
Prepared from the documents, released personally by our chamber-registered architect.
Bauschadensgutachten, building damage report
Cause analysis, photographic documentation and recommended remedial measures for defective workmanship and damage.
890 € · incl. German VAT · fixed price · immediately, digital
Rissgutachten, cracks and settlement
Assessment of crack patterns and settlement, and what they mean for the structure.
790 € · incl. German VAT · fixed price · immediately, digital
Moisture and mould report
Finding the cause rather than painting over the symptom: moisture, ventilation and building physics assessed together.
740 € · incl. German VAT · fixed price · immediately, digital
Beweissicherung, condition record before works begin
The condition of your building recorded before construction starts next door, while the evidence is still uncontested.
690 € · incl. German VAT · fixed price · immediately, digital
Review of another expert's report
An existing Gutachten examined against the standards it claims to apply, for use where you disagree with it.
960 € · incl. German VAT · fixed price · immediately, digital
Refurbishment report for a WEG
For a Wohnungseigentümergemeinschaft, the German form of co-ownership: what has to be done when, and in which order it pays.
980 € · incl. German VAT · fixed price · immediately, digital
Wertermittlung nach ImmoWertV, short form
A valuation following the Immobilienwertermittlungsverordnung, the German statutory valuation regulation. Expressly not a valuation binding on a tax authority or a court.
1,290 € · incl. German VAT · fixed price · immediately, digital
Restnutzungsdauer report under § 7 EStG
Remaining useful life for depreciation purposes (AfA). Note that the BMF letter of 22.02.2023 was withdrawn with effect from 01.12.2025, so the model alone no longer suffices as evidence.
899 € · incl. German VAT · fixed price · 5 business days
Second opinion on an insurance claim, on the documents
Your insurer's assessment checked against the file, without a site visit.
490 € · incl. German VAT · fixed price · on request, not orderable online
ZVG property dossier
For a Zwangsversteigerung, the German judicial foreclosure auction: the court file read into a technical picture of the property. No bidding recommendation.
290 € · incl. German VAT · fixed price · immediately, digital
SERVICES WITH A SITE INSPECTION
Commissioned on enquiry; the amount depends on the size of the property and the travel involved.
Building damage report, size S, with architect's release
Site inspection and full report for a smaller property, released personally by our chamber-registered architect.
3,900 € · incl. German VAT · fixed price · three weeks from the on-site appointment
Building damage report, size M, with architect's release
The same for a larger property or a more complex pattern of damage.
6,900 € · incl. German VAT · fixed price · three weeks from the on-site appointment
Mould inspection with short report
Moisture measurement on site and a written assessment with a remediation recommendation.
490 € · incl. German VAT · fixed price · on request, not orderable online
Full mould report with laboratory analysis
Where the species or the extent has to be established, not merely the cause.
1,490 € · incl. German VAT · fixed price · by appointment
Floor area calculation with a measured survey on site
Measured on site to the WoFlV and DIN 277 and signed by our architect, where a bank, an insurer or a letting requires a recognised statement.
599 € · incl. German VAT · fixed price · on request, not orderable online
Condition record, per neighbouring property
Series rate where several neighbouring properties have to be recorded before the same construction works.
320 € bis 450 € per property · plus German VAT · fixed price · on request, not orderable online
Underground car park condition screening
Chloride-induced corrosion, waterproofing and drainage in a structure that is expensive to repair late.
1,772 € · incl. German VAT · fixed price · 5 business days
Written to be read by a credit committee.
Quoted net, plus German VAT, as is customary between businesses.
Technical due diligence before acquisition
Structure, building services, deferred maintenance and risk, with a cost forecast a credit committee can work from.
4,900 € bis 7,900 € · plus German VAT · fixed price · on request, not orderable online
EPBD portfolio check
Which buildings in a portfolio fall into the worst-performing band that the EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive addresses first, with a decarbonisation pathway.
from 490 € per building · plus German VAT · indicative · on request, not orderable online
Four steps, and you know the fee after the second.
Describe the question
Not the whole building, the question. What is cracked, wet, disputed or about to be bought. A precise question is what makes a report cheap.
Scope and fixed fee
We say what we will look at, what we will not, and what it costs. In writing, before anything begins.
Inspection and measurement
On site with moisture meters, photographic documentation and, where needed, laboratory samples. Findings are recorded as findings, separately from any conclusion.
The report
Question, findings, assessment, conclusion, the settled German structure, signed personally by our chamber-registered architect and delivered in English alongside the German original.
Anonymised sample reports are published on our German pages so you can see the structure before commissioning anything, a sample building damage report is the most representative. The sample is in German; the layout, the separation of findings from assessment and the signature block are what to look at.
Describe the damage, the purchase or the dispute.
A few sentences and a photograph are usually enough for us to tell you which report you need, and which you do not.
Everything we publish in English.
Overview
Who we are, what we do and how a project with us starts.
Services
Project development, project management, permit design and technical assessment.
Investors
Technical due diligence, feasibility, CapEx planning and development management.
Building in Germany
Architektenkammer, Bauantrag, HOAI Leistungsphasen and the weight of an expert report.
International
German design delivered to projects outside Germany, with a local architect of record.
About us
The two people behind Alpha Quadrat and the network around them.
Contact
Send us your project or RFP. A personal reply within one business day.
THE GERMAN SITE IS CONSIDERABLY LARGER. IF YOU READ GERMAN, START AT ALPHA-QUADRAT.DE.