For off-plan buyers
Off-plan: the instalment plan is law. Do you know it?
Buying off-plan in Germany, you pay by progress — at most 13 instalments from fixed percentages, regulated by the MaBV. BOB stores your instalment plan, checks every instalment against it and keeps upgrades in view before they become an expensive footnote.
Where it breaks
Instalments arrive, progress unclear
The “shell complete” instalment is in the letterbox — but is the shell complete? Without a check you pay on demand, not on progress.
Upgrades add up invisibly
Better tiles here, one more socket there: small alone, five figures together — and rarely documented cleanly.
Nobody knows the MaBV by heart
First instalment at most 30%, at most seven partial amounts from 13 stages: the regulation protects you — but only if someone checks.
How BOB helps
Set the plan up once, check it always
You record the payment plan from your contract with its MaBV stages. Every incoming instalment is checked against percentage, order and reported progress — deviations are flagged by the payment guard with the legal reference (§ 3 MaBV).
Upgrades as change orders
Every upgrade becomes a change order with amount, date and document. You see continuously what the wish list really costs — not only in the final instalment.
Side costs next to the purchase price
Transfer tax, notary, kitchen, moving, DIY outdoor works: everything the developer contract does not include gets its own items — your real project budget, not just the purchase price.
Funding in step with the instalments
Instalment due dates meet your loan drawdowns in the liquidity view — you see when the bank must pay out what, and whether commitment interest looms.
How to start: create an off-plan project → record purchase price and instalment plan from the contract → add the upgrade list as change orders. From the first instalment, BOB checks along automatically.
The German MaBV regulates how developers may accept buyer money: by progress in up to 13 defined stages (e.g. 30% after groundworks begin where land is included, 28% after shell completion), bundled into at most seven partial amounts — and no payment without the § 3 MaBV prerequisites such as the priority notice in the land register.
BOB checks the arithmetic side: instalment against stage, percentage, order and what you have confirmed as reached. Whether the shell really is complete, you confirm — with an independent inspector if in doubt. BOB makes sure you ask before the money flows.
Contracts differ in practice; only splits within the MaBV frame are permitted. BOB maps your actual contract plan and additionally shows where it deviates from the regulatory limits — a good basis for the conversation with developer or lawyer before signing.
Especially then: the purchase price is only part of your real costs. Kitchen, DIY flooring, outdoor works, moving, purchase costs and upgrades are yours alone — together regularly 10–20% on top, and exactly where budgets break.