General Terms and Conditions of the Engineering Offices of Austria

1.) Validity of the General Terms and Conditions and Deviations

a) The following general terms and conditions apply to all present and future contracts between the client and the engineering office.
b) Deviations from these conditions and in particular also conditions of the customer are only valid if they are expressly recognized and confirmed in writing by the engineering office.
c) As far as the contracts are concluded with consumers in the sense of the KSchG, the mandatory provisions of this law take precedence over the following General Terms and Conditions.1

2) Offers, ancillary agreements

a) The offers of the engineering office are, unless otherwise specified, subject to change with regard to all specified data including the fee.
b) If an order confirmation of the engineering office contains changes compared to the order, these are considered as approved by the customer, unless the customer immediately objects in writing.
c) Agreements must always be made in writing.

3.) Placing of order

a) Type and scope of the agreed service result from the contract, power of attorney and these general terms and conditions.
b) Changes and additions of the order require the written confirmation by the engineering office to become subject of the present contractual relationship.
c) The engineering office commits itself to the proper execution of the order given to it according to the generally recognized rules of the technology and the principles of the economy.
d) The engineering office is allowed to use other authorized persons for the fulfillment of the contract and to give them orders in the name and for the account of the customer. The engineering office is however obligated to inform the client of this intention in writing and to grant the client the possibility to contradict this placing of order to a third party within 10 days.
e) The engineering office can also call in other accordingly authorized persons as subplanners for the fulfillment of the contract and give them orders in the name and for the account of the engineering office. However, the engineering office is obliged to inform the customer in writing if it intends to have orders carried out by a sub-planner and to give the customer the possibility to object to this placing of order to the sub-planner within one week; in this case the engineering office has to carry out the order itself.

4) Warranty and compensation

a) Warranty claims can only be made after notification of defects, which must be made exclusively by registered letter within 14 days of handover of the service or partial service.
b) Claims for redhibitory action and price reduction are excluded. Claims for improvement or supplement of what is missing are to be fulfilled by the engineering office within a reasonable period of time, which should generally be one third of the period agreed upon for the performance of the service. A claim for damage caused by delay cannot be asserted within this period.
c) The engineering office has to perform its services with the diligence to be expected from it as a professional (§1299 ABGB).

5.) Withdrawal from the contract

a) Withdrawal from the contract is only permissible for good cause.
b) In case of delay of the engineering office with a service, a resignation of the customer is only possible after setting an appropriate respite; the respite is to be set by registered letter.
c) In case of delay of the customer with a partial performance or an agreed cooperation activity, which makes the execution of the order by the engineering office impossible or hinders it considerably, the engineering office is entitled to withdraw from the contract.

Therefore, the following regulations do not apply or apply with the following deviations for consumers:

• Points 1.b, 2.c and 3.b do not exclude the validity of informally submitted declarations of the engineering company or its representatives.
• The engineering office will point out the legal consequence of the failure to object within the period according to points 3.d and 3.e in the notification.
• Points 4.a and 4.b do not apply.
• Point 5.b does not apply to fixed transactions.
• Item 5.d shall apply with the proviso that only the provision of § 1168 ABGB shall apply.
• The prohibition of set-off in item 6.c does not apply in case of insolvency of the engineering office and for counterclaims that have been judicially determined, acknowledged by the engineering office or are legally related to the claim of the engineering office.
• The last two sentences of item 9.d do not apply.
• Point 10.b shall only apply if the Client has its domicile, habitual residence or place of employment at this location. Other places of jurisdiction to which the Client is entitled shall not be excluded thereby.

d) If the engineering office is entitled to withdraw from the contract, it retains the claim to the entire agreed fee, likewise in the case of unjustified withdrawal by the client. Furthermore, §1168 ABGB (Austrian Civil Code) applies; in case of a justified withdrawal of the client, the services rendered by the engineering office are to be remunerated by the client.

6) Fee, scope of services

a) Unless otherwise stated, all fees are in EURO.
b) The stated fee amounts do not include value added tax (VAT), which is to be paid separately by the Client.
c) Compensation with any counterclaims, for whatever reason, is inadmissible.
d) Unless otherwise agreed, the non-binding calculation recommendations issued by the Professional Association of Engineering Offices shall be part of the contract.

7.) Place of performance

The place of performance for all office services is the registered office of the engineering office.

8.) Secrecy

a) The engineering office is obligated to maintain secrecy of all information provided by the client.
b) The engineering office is also obligated to maintain secrecy of its planning activities, if and as long as the customer has a justified interest in this secrecy. After execution of the order, the engineering office is entitled to publish the contractual work in whole or in part for advertising purposes, unless otherwise contractually agreed.

9.) Protection of the plans

a) The engineering office reserves all rights and uses of the documents created by him (especially plans, brochures, technical documents).
b) Any use (in particular processing, execution, duplication, distribution, public presentation, making available) of the documents or parts thereof is only permitted with the express consent of the engineering office. All documents may therefore only be used for the purposes expressly specified when the order is placed or by a subsequent agreement.
c) The engineering office is entitled, the client is obligated, to indicate the name (company, business name) of the engineering office in publications and announcements about the project.
d) In case of violation of these regulations for the protection of the documents, the engineering office is entitled to a penalty in the amount of double the appropriate fee of the unauthorized use, whereby the assertion of a claim for damages exceeding this is reserved. This penalty is not subject to the judicial right of moderation. The burden of proof that the client has not used the documents of the engineering office lies with the client.

10) Choice of law, place of jurisdiction

a) Austrian law is exclusively applicable for contracts between the client and the engineering office.
b) For all disputes arising from this contract, the jurisdiction of the competent court at the registered office of the engineering office is agreed.

As of 21.04.2008, owner, editor and publisher: Fachverband Ingenieurbüros, Schaumburgergasse 20/1, 1040 Vienna
Responsible for the content: Ing. Christian Pelzl, Schaumburgergasse 20/1, 1040 Vienna