The contractor wants to charge more than we agreed on

Quick Legal Advice:

It depends primarily on how the amount of 85,000 CZK was agreed upon. If it was a fixed price for an agreed scope of work, the carpenter cannot unilaterally increase it simply because the work took longer or cost him more than he had anticipated. According to Section 2620 of the Civil Code, in the case of a fixed price, the risk of increased labor or costs is generally borne by the contractor. The situation would be different if you had ordered additional work during the project or changed the originally agreed-upon scope of the job.

Only in a truly exceptional case, where extraordinary and unforeseeable circumstances significantly impede the completion of the work, may a court decide on a fair increase to the fixed price. Therefore, a contractor’s mere assertion that there was more work than expected or that the job became more expensive is not sufficient.

However, if the amount of 85,000 CZK was expressly stated only as an estimate, Section 2612 of the Civil Code applies. As soon as the carpenter determines that the estimate will need to be significantly exceeded, he must notify you without undue delay and, at the same time, provide a reasoned new price. If he fails to do so after he has determined—or should have and could have determined—the need for an increase, he is not entitled to payment of the difference from the original estimate. Therefore, he cannot present a significantly higher bill only after the work is completed and only then notify you that the job was more expensive.

Different rules may apply if the price was determined based on a budget, particularly if the budget was expressly designated as non-binding or subject to the reservation that it was not guaranteed to be complete. However, even in these cases, the law requires the contractor to notify the client of the need for a price increase without undue delay; if the contractor fails to do so, they may forfeit the right to claim the increase.

Therefore, be sure to keep the email stating the amount of 85,000 Kč. The exact wording of the email and prior communication will be important—particularly whether the amount was labeled as “price,” “total price,” “estimate,” “approximate price,” or whether a quote was attached to it. If the amount of 85,000 CZK was agreed upon as the final price for a precisely defined kitchen set and you did not order any additional work, the cabinetmaker’s mere claim that the work was more demanding generally does not justify the additional payment of 27,000 CZK.