A shop purchased from a contractor was delivered with a delay of nearly three years from the contractual date, during most of which the contractor used the shop to store its own construction equipment. At the time of the late delivery, the purchaser signed a delivery protocol. Additionally, during the contract period, the purchaser was late in making some of its payments to the contractor.
The Court ordered the contractor to compensate the purchaser for the delayed delivery of the shop. Generally, signing a delivery protocol does not constitute a waiver of a claim for late delivery and here the purchaser even deleted words from the protocol to clarify that it does not waive claims. Furthermore, a contractor is not permitted to rely on late payments as a justification for a delayed delivery. Here, the contractor did not send any warning letter regarding payment delays in real time (but rather contended this only retroactively during the trial) and additionally, the contractor itself used the shop as a warehouse for most of the delay period. Therefore, the contractor was ordered to pay the purchaser compensation for the delay in the delivery of the shop.