As is well known, the European Court of Justice ruled on 4 July 2019 that the mandatory minimum and maximum fee rates of the HOAI are not compatible with the EU Services Directive.

In order to adapt the HOAI in accordance with the requirements, the Federal Ministry of Economics has now presented the draft of an ordinance amending the HOAI. Among other things, the following central changes are included:

• In future, the fees for the architectural and engineering services covered by the HOAI will always be freely agreed and will be based on the fee agreement between the contracting parties. In order to simplify the conclusion of effective fee agreements, the relevant form requirements of the HOAI are reduced.
• However, the basic principles and standards for fee calculation of the HOAI will remain unchanged. The current fee tables will in future be designed as a fee orientation. In particular, they can be used for the determination of fees in the future by agreement of the parties. However, the parties can also agree on other methods according to which the fee is determined in individual cases.

The bdla is called upon to comment and is acting in close cooperation with BAK and AHO. The legislator plans to have the amended HOAI come into force on 1 January 2021.

Latitude: 0

Longitude: 0