The structure
| Part | Service profiles |
|---|---|
| Part 2 Spatial planning | land use plan, development plan, landscape plan, green space plan, landscape framework plan, landscape accompanying plan, management and development plan |
| Part 3 Object design | buildings and interiors, open spaces, engineering structures, transport works |
| Part 4 Specialist design | structural design, building services |
| Annex 1 | environmental impact study, building physics, geotechnics, engineering surveying |
Each profile has its own annex containing the catalogue of its basic services and examples of additional services. The catalogues do not coincide with one another.
The reference quantities differ
The most fundamental difference concerns not the percentages but the quantity the fee hangs on. It runs between part 2 on one side and parts 3 and 4 on the other.
| Part | Reference quantity | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Part 2, area planning | the size of the area in hectares, together with the fee zone | the planning scope itself |
| Parts 3 and 4, object and specialist design | the chargeable costs of the object | the cost calculation, failing that the cost estimate |
Moving from spatial planning to object design therefore means the system cannot be transferred. Fee zones are also determined by their own assessment criteria within each profile.
The percentages diverge considerably
A comparison shows how far the weighting differs between two profiles within object design. Both belong to the same part of the ordinance.
| Work phase | Buildings | Transport works |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Initial appraisal | 2 % | 2 % |
| 2 Concept design | 7 % | 20 % |
| 3 Developed design | 15 % | 25 % |
| 4 Consent design | 3 % | 8 % |
| 5 Detailed design | 25 % | 15 % |
| 6 Preparing procurement | 10 % | 10 % |
| 7 Assisting procurement | 4 % | 4 % |
| 8 Construction supervision | 32 % | 15 % |
| 9 Aftercare | 2 % | 1 % |
The difference is structural rather than incidental. For buildings the weight sits in construction supervision at 32 per cent; for transport works it sits in design, with 45 per cent for concept and developed design alone.
That makes substantive sense, because the centre of gravity of the work differs. A transport scheme requires extensive alignment and consultation work during design, while construction is less supervision-intensive than a building.
Practical consequence: anyone working across profiles must calculate per profile and may transfer no values. A partial commission to work phase 4 means 27 per cent for buildings and 55 per cent for transport works, that is more than double.
The special rule for structural design
Structural design is the engineering design for object design of buildings and engineering structures. A separate rule applies to its chargeable costs, departing from the object design system.
For buildings and associated structures, fixed shares apply in place of the threshold rule. They do not depend on the level of the costs and are therefore simpler to handle.
| Cost share | Chargeable for structural design |
|---|---|
| Fabric costs | 55 % |
| Cost of technical installations | 10 % |
The rule is immediately intelligible: the structural engineer deals with part of the fabric and only marginally with the technical installations. It also shows that chargeable costs are not a property of the building but a property of the particular design service.
For object design of buildings, by contrast, the threshold rule for technical installations applies, covered in the branch on chargeable costs. Applying both rules together would be wrong.
Building services design
The building services profile is the specialist design for the installations of cost group 400. It likewise follows nine work phases with its own percentages.
One point matters for collaboration with the lead designer: the cost group 400 figures in the lead designer's cost calculation come from this specialist design. Where it is commissioned only after work phase 4, the lead designer must work from benchmarks.
Since the level of cost group 400 also governs the threshold rule, an understated allowance acts twice over. The system is covered in the article on KG 400.
Annex 1
Annex 1 contains further specialist and advisory services: environmental impact studies, building physics, geotechnics and engineering surveying. They sit outside parts 2 to 4.
Its status shifted with the reform. Under the former price law the fees of parts 2 to 4 were bindingly regulated and those of Annex 1 expressly were not. Since 2021 no fee level is binding, and the services of Annex 1 are largely on the same footing as the other basic services.
In practice this means in particular that the fallback of the base fee rate, where no agreement in text form exists, applies to these services too. Performing them without agreeing the level in text form lands you at that rate.
What to watch across several profiles
Where a commission covers services from several profiles, calculation proceeds separately per profile. Two points need settling.
| To be settled | Why |
|---|---|
| Delimiting chargeable costs | each profile has its own rules on which costs are chargeable; a common fee basis for all services is the exception |
| Handling de minimis thresholds | for open spaces, separate fee calculation is omitted where it would fall below a certain level of chargeable costs |
Both belong named in the contract, because the allocation is hard to reconstruct afterwards. The dispute then arises in the final account rather than in the negotiation.
Related articles
This article reflects the position of the rules and case law at the date of checking and serves professional orientation. It does not constitute legal advice and does not replace assessment of the individual case.