architect wants £400 a month till new build is singed off

fred200

hi all new here needing advise,

bought a plot of land with planning permission and drawn up plans by a certain architect company, this was a complete package. was a private sale.

the architect in question, has been in touch with me, saying since he owns the copyright to the plans and drawings he needs to be paid £400 a month till this building work is completed and house is signed off.

i was planning on doing my own site managing and having build regs sign this house off as this is what i understood i could do.
the previous owner of the plot of land bought the plans and drawings off this architect so why should he own the copyright to it and why should i have to pay him anything
any advise would be great thanks
fred

MX5huggy

He does own the copyright, ie you can't use the plans to build the same house on another plot. The design should have been purchased by the seller of the plot and transferred to you. Considering you don't have to start building for 5 or 7 years then take as long as you like after starting he is taking the Mick.

Building control will sign off the house but that does not provide any warranty, the architect would provide a 10 or 15 year warranty.

System

report them to the arb!

fred200

its the same house on the same plot, just i bought it off the people who actually were gonna build it and changed there mind, so they paid the architect, i were gonna change the house plans, but i am new to this so didnt really know who to go about it all, the architect seems to think he should get get £400 a month, and says he will sort out building regs and stuff like that, i assumed i could deal with building regs direct and not pay the architect anything else just maybe a signing off fee,

i purchased this plot, plans last year but permission only was granted till april 2012, so i thought i would start now,

why should i pay him anything, ??

System

you shouldn't have to pay them anything and you don't have to use their drawings - you will require to get drawings/calcs done for a building warrant, but you could also change the design of the house etc if you wanted to, i would suggest that given this guys attitude you might want to find someone else to get it through building warrant stage!
you could even get a technician to do the drawings for the warrant (most offices would have a technician working on them anyway!) you might experience some problems with that if you are going to get a self build mortgage tho, unless you appoint a technician with pi insurance that can sign off stages (most self build mortgages insist on that)
planning and building standards are two entirely seperate things, planning drawings will not get you a building warrant

fred200

plot and plans was bought cash as will the house be built with cash, i sold my flat which i made a tidy profit off to allow me to do this,

i wasn't in any particular rush to get this built as i i was going to do most the interior work myself, but now am thinking i have to rush to save paying him

thanks again for all the advice

MX5huggy

I really doubt you have any contractual obligation to this architect at all. If you used him for contract administration (project managing) I would expect him to be on a % fee. Maybe he expects £400 per month of this until it signed off. Then the balance.

fred200

architect says following matters need attending
1 discharge of planning conditions
2 appointment of structural engineer - ground investigation foundation design steel beam design. roof structur design
3 discharge of building regulations conditions
appointment of services consultant to do s.a.p. calculations

i thought i could get my own qualified people in to do this
also
he fee's are :-
1 site inspection/architect certification £400 a month
2 building regulations application/consultation and council consultations drawing changes TBC
which i also think i could sort out myself
thanks again for all the advise
W

fred200

he also says it would need a sound test the house will be detached and no buildings within 30 feet would this be needed

MX5huggy

fred200 wrote: »

he also says it would need a sound test the house will be detached and no buildings within 30 feet would this be needed

Sounds unlikely, all the approved documents (building regulations) are on the planning portal website. Check there.

MX5huggy

You need to decide if having an experienced expert on side is going to save you more than his fees I would think it quite likely.