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Contribution to the Construction Industry Association

January 25, 2010 | 20,00 EUR | answered by Steffan Schwerin

Dear Sir or Madam,

In the nineties, I operated a sole proprietorship in the field of "assembly of prefabricated parts, without manual work".
Now, on 19.01.2010, I received a letter from the construction association stating that I would have to pay contributions for the years 1994 to 1996. In total, this would amount to 1395.98 euros.
My question is: Am I actually required to pay these contributions? If so, is it not already statute-barred?
How should I proceed now?
As I am not an expert, I kindly ask for a simple and understandable answer.

Thank you for your efforts.
Marco Martens

Steffan Schwerin

Dear questioner,

I will answer the questions you have posed, taking into account the circumstances described and your input, as follows:

By law, all companies in the construction industry and related businesses are members of the BG BAU. These are companies that construct, renovate, maintain, clean, restore, or demolish all kinds of buildings or parts of them.

The BG BAU is also responsible for auxiliary and ancillary companies if they are accountable for the main company.

Non-commercial, i.e. private construction work, also falls under their jurisdiction.

According to this definition, you should have also been a member of the BG Bau and therefore have had to pay the contributions.

The claims of the professional association for contributions only expire four years after the end of the calendar year in which they were due. Intentionally unpaid contributions can even be demanded by the professional associations up to 30 years after they were due.

In this case, you should have paid the contributions. However, you can argue that you were not aware of this requirement. In that case, there is no intentionality. The BG Bau cannot claim the contributions anymore, as the 4-year limitation period has already expired.

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Best regards,

Steffan Schwerin
Attorney at Law

Law Office of Steffan Schwerin
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Email: raschwerin@raschwerin.de

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