Construction law and architectural law

Building and architectural law includes all legal texts and regulations that concern the development of land. Construction law and architectural law are partly part of private law, but partly also part of public law.

Public building law can be divided into building planning law and building regulations law. Building planning law is about orderly, urban development in building law; roughly speaking, it is about where you can build which buildings. Building regulations, on the other hand, serve to avert danger in building law; roughly speaking, it is about how a building can be built and used (type and extent). The most important laws in public building law include the Building Code, the BauNVO and the building regulations regulated in the federal states.

Further information on public building law can be found under the heading: Public building law

Private construction law primarily covers the civil law legal relationships between the people involved in a construction project, such as the construction of a single-family home. In construction law, these are, for example, the client as the builder, the property developer or building contractor, the contractors involved in the construction or the architect. In addition, the legal relationships between builders (e.g. neighbors) also count as private building law. Under construction law, private construction projects are usually based on a construction contract, which from a legal point of view is a work contract in accordance with. § 631 BGB represents.

The architect has a special position in construction law when carrying out construction projects, as he has a particularly high level of responsibility towards the client due to his specialist knowledge. He is the client’s administrator and trustee in architectural law. Therefore, there are special legal regulations for the rights and obligations of the architect; these are referred to as architects’ law and represent a subset of private building law.