"Invoice that cannot be verified"? The customer must provide a sound justification.

Even a partial final invoice must be auditable. Formal objections from the client are insufficient if they do not identify any specific errors in the content. This was the ruling of the Higher Regional Court of Brandenburg.

This article is part of the special topic "Current Building Law".

Anyone demanding payment for work performed should present their invoice in a way that allows the client to review it . Otherwise, the client can object to the lack of transparency. This also applies to partial final invoices. However, the client must not make excessive demands: services that are not in question are not grounds for withholding payment. The Brandenburg Higher Regional Court requires more substantial arguments to justify such a refusal.

The case

A construction company carried out drying and dismantling work. Following water damage, the client also commissioned restoration work . The contract included unit prices and was later expanded to include further work. The construction company issued a partial final invoice.

According to Section 650g Paragraph 4 of the German Civil Code (BGB) , a verifiable final invoice is a prerequisite for the due date of a claim for payment for work performed under a German Civil Code (BGB) contract. The client objected to the verifiability of the partial final invoice and refused payment of the contract price. He insisted that the invoice was incomprehensible without a verifiable measurement report.

Die Entscheidung

The final invoice was verifiable because it contained a clear overview of the services rendered and was comprehensible to the client . This was the ruling of the Higher Regional Court of Brandenburg. The mere formal objection of missing measurements is insufficient if the client does not dispute the quantities and dimensions . Rather, the client must explain the purpose for which the measurements are required.

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"Doubts arise from the fact that the defendant does not dispute the quantities and masses specified by the plaintiff for the invoicing of the unit price contract , but instead, without further examination of the information, resorts solely to the formal objection of a lack of measurement, without making it clear which items would require this for verification," the Higher Regional Court stated verbatim.

The customer had to pay the contract price of 24.074,21 euros plus interest.

Note: Objections to the verifiability of the final invoice are not an end in themselves.

Brandenburg Higher Regional Court, decision of June 21, 2023, file number 4 U 102/22

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