Costs

The Danish Building and Construction Arbitration Board is a private enterprise established at the request of organisations in the building and construction sector to facilitate dispute resolution in the industry. The Board has no ‘shareholders’ or other stakeholders who would benefit from a positive return, and the Board is in principle operated as a non-profit organisation, which means that cases must break even financially and that income and expenses must be relatively balanced.

All expenses of the Board related to case handling, including those of staff, facilities and rent, are met by the fees and charges payable by the parties to cases and through returns on deposits received.

At the outset of a case the Arbitration Board will request provision of security by the parties, ie payment of a deposit that can cover the costs of the case. The deposit will be increased as and when the costs of the case increase.

Fees and charges payable to the Board depend on the type of case, for example whether it is a speedy resolution case, an arbitral case or an expert appraisal case. Further information is available on the different pages for case types.

The accounts of the Arbitration Board are not publicly available, but the Board has a solid financial foundation and manages its finances and deposits in a professional manner.

Arbitration Board fees and charges for cases filed after 2015
Because of the general financial situation in the period around 2015, the Arbitration Board has had to adjust its policies on fees and charges, the reason being that the Board had seen a dramatic drop in income from deposits, which previously made it possible to keep fees and charges low. If the financial situation changes, the new service charge system makes it easy to reduce charges accordingly, which will benefit parties who use the Arbitration Board’s services.

If a meeting is to be held on the premises of the Arbitration Board, cancellation of bookings must be made not later than thirty days before the scheduled meeting date. If a new date is set for the hearing of a case and premises are rented for that purpose, only the actual use of premises will be charged for, and there will be no charge for premises booked for meeting dates that were cancelled. If the case is not heard at a later date, payment will be charged for the cancelled meeting date(s). If external premises are used, the terms and conditions of the provider of those premises will apply.

If other meeting facilities are used, for example in a hotel, the venue’s cancellation rules will apply.

Adjustments were introduced on 1 January 2019, 1 April 2021 and 1 September 2022. These are included on the pages for the individual types of cases.

Fees and charges

Changes to the Board’s pricing system were introduced on 1 January 2015. They only concerned fees and charges payable to the Board and have not brought about any changes to the calculation of fees payable to arbitral tribunals.

The most recent changes to prices were introduced on 1 January 2019.

Fees are mandatory and payable when a complaint is lodged with the Arbitration Board. The lodging of a complaint results in a series of activities in the Board, including case registration and assessment of documents submitted. The service charge payable varies depending on the case type (see the list below).

For mediation, conciliation, speedy resolution, simplified arbitration and anticipatory dispute resolution, it is now possible to offset fees and charges if the proceedings do not lead to agreement and the case has to be referred to arbitration. Similarly, if an arbitral case is referred to mediation and conciliation, fees and charges will be offset.

Cases filed before 1 January 2015 are treated in accordance with the rules in force at the time. Consequently several different payment methods will be applied for a number of years.

The guidelines below concern calculation of both fees and service charges. Two tables giving an overview of prices for cases before 1 January 2015 and cases filed after that date are also shown. They can be found under the individual case types.

The price structure is described on the individual pages for each case type.

Payment information

To ensure quick and correct registration of payments and deposits at the Arbitration Board, the FIK code sent to the parties to the case when the complaint was filed should be used. Some Arbitration Board letters contain codes for both parties, and the names of the parties are clearly stated next to the relevant codes. Please use the correct FIK code. Some IT systems do not support the use of FIK codes, in which case payments can be made to the following account:

Danske Bank, registration number 4180, account number 4180211519
SWIFT: DABADKKK – DKK IBAN: DK5830004180211519

If manual transfers are used, please state the Arbitration Board file number, the names of the parties and the name of the payer.

Unfortunately it is not currently possible to use the EAN system for electronic invoicing, and electronic invoices will be therefore be issued only in response to a special request sent to bogh@voldgift.dk.

The Arbitration Board is not registered for VAT, so all fees and charges are exempt from VAT. If and when the Arbitration Board invoices services on which VAT must be paid ­– typically expenses related to expert appraisal ­– the VAT amount will be specified in the settlement letter.