ÖNORM B 2110 explained: what the contractual standard means for your build

ÖNORM B 2110 carries the title general contract terms for construction services. It is issued by Austrian Standards, the Austrian standardisation organisation. It bundles tried-and-tested contract rules for construction projects and is frequently agreed in practice, because it creates an established and balanced framework for both sides.

The current edition is ÖNORM B 2110 in its 2023 version, which has replaced the earlier edition. Among other things it was adapted to the reformed warranty law. Which version applies to your contract depends on what the contract refers to. It is therefore important to check in the contract whether and to which edition reference is made.

Because the standard applies only by virtue of agreement, the contract wording is decisive. A full or only a partial incorporation is possible. Where an individual arrangement in the contract departs from the standard, the express individual term generally takes precedence. The general framework of the works contract is explored on our focus page on construction contracts and remuneration.

ÖNORM B 2110 covers the typical course of a construction project. It contains rules on the acceptance of the service, that is, the process by which the work is formally accepted. Deadlines attach to this, for example for inspection, the notice of defects and the start of the warranty. This structuring creates clarity about the individual steps at the end of the build.

A central area concerns changes in services and claims for extra costs. The standard provides an orderly procedure for how additional or changed services are to be notified, assessed and settled. It thereby addresses precisely those points of dispute that frequently arise on building sites, for example where it turns out during the work that a service must be extended or adjusted.

In addition, the standard governs the consequences of disruptions in the construction sequence, withdrawal from the contract and questions of remuneration. It thereby orders situations that the ABGB treats only in general terms. How an inflated invoice due to extra costs is to be assessed is dealt with separately in our article on the exceeded cost estimate.

A practically important area of ÖNORM B 2110 concerns securities. The standard provides typical instruments with which the client can protect itself against defects and against defective execution. These include the cover retention during the construction work and the warranty retention for the warranty period.

With the cover retention, the client withholds part of the respective payment during the construction phase, in order to protect itself against overpayments and against defects in the ongoing service. The warranty retention serves as protection in the warranty period. It ensures that an amount or a guarantee is available for remedying defects that appear later.

Such retentions can often be replaced by a bank guarantee, so that the executing firm does not have to forgo part of the remuneration permanently. We explain the distinction, replacement by a bank guarantee and release in detail in our article on retention money in construction contracts. How warranty and cover retention are sensibly structured in the contract depends on the project. A precise reading of the agreed version of the standard is indispensable here, because the details determine the amount and the duration of the security.

Before you agree to the application of ÖNORM B 2110, you should know what you are agreeing to. First clarify whether the standard is incorporated in full or only in part, and to which edition the contract refers. These two points alone decide which rules actually apply.

Pay attention, too, to the interplay with the individual clauses of the contract. Where an express individual term departs from the standard, it generally takes precedence. In this way a contract can amend the standard in individual places without excluding it as a whole. A careful reading shows which rule is decisive in the event of a dispute.

The areas of acceptance, deadlines, extra costs and securities in particular deserve attention, because they decide about money and time. Anyone who reviews the contract together with the standard before signing avoids later surprises. We summarise the key points to check in a construction contract in our article on reviewing the construction contract before signing. A compact definition is provided by our glossary entry on ÖNORM B 2110.