Buying from foreign manufacturers?
There are various ways to go about buying a tiny house. The question that always arises is: how do I get my house and does it make a difference in which country it is manufactured?
One possibility – although usually not a cheap solution – is to visit your trusted carpenter and/or joiner and commission them to build a custom-made tiny house. From a purely legal point of view, you conclude a (construction) contract with the craftsman or the craft enterprise, which is to be processed according to the general rules of the German Civil Code.
The same applies to the liability of the entrepreneur – it is to be assessed according to the provisions of the German BGB. Accordingly, the tradesman owes a service that is suitable, among other things, for ordinary (not for the contractually agreed!) use.
As a layman in legal matters, one might now come up with the idea that the ordinary use of a tiny house is living in it if I can live in it.
But this is precisely where the legal finger is to be laid on the wound. What does “live” mean? And do I want to live in my tiny house all year round or maybe just on weekends or during vacations?
This text appeared in the Kleiner-Wohnen-Magazin (issue 2024/2025). The author is Yannic Zimmermann, a specialist lawyer in construction and architectural law, notary and owner of the “Advokatur ZimmermanN” in Lennestadt in North Rhine-Westphalia. Interested parties can find the entire article and the whole issue of the magazine HERE.
