the_r_sole

Unfortunately these are the problems living beside other people! Sounds like you've tried to appease them as much as you can so you just have to let it run it's course now, switching to a hip roof is something that seems a problem now but in a couple of years you'll completely forget about it

Have a look on your local planning portal to see who's submitting applications in your area, you'll usually find a large percentage of applications aren't made by Architects... I guess CIAT might have a search facility on their site to find someone local to you?

Tbf, that's really going to shut down the neighbours conservatory - if I was them I'd probably be having a moan, not that I'd be expecting to actually stop the project... Did you speak to them before submitting your application?

You could look around your area for a local architectural technologist who would be able to take your design and turn it into competent drawings, which is what arkiplan offer (I don't think they are Architects) but it's a more comparable service rather than using an architect...

Do you need the integral garage? And do you really want to rebuild the same(ish) house? If you're going down the demolish and rebuild route, you have the opportunity to do something more suited to you? Especially if you are thinking you might end up with oldies staying...

It's an interesting business model they have but I'm not sure what design skills they bring to a project. Seems like they focus on the permissions and output side of things If you want a standard house, why not go to a kit home supplier? And if you want a bespoke design for your individual site and suited to your lifestyle then use a designer who will at least visit the site and get the most out of the design...

Lovely spot there! Is it Lesley the planning officer in that area still? I'm based down the road but I'm an architect who works a lot in Argyll and Bute

There's a lot of issues to unpick there tbf! Surely if you're going to be pm on the project then things like the icf order and delivery will be in your responsibility anyway? Same with the windows and doors, you can negotiate prices with a supplier if you are the pm... Sound's like you need to give them a very defined scope of what you want and don't want?

you've posted images which look like they are from his service proposal which could be an appointment document (we ask for a signed copy of ours to be sent back) but it should either have terms and conditions or say it's in accordance with the standard form of appointment...

The plan of work has nothing at all to do with the appointment of the architect. In their appointment document they should have detailed how to deal with termination and disputes, if they haven't then it would be against the code of conduct....

That's what I thought - it's the reference to Part C that makes it impossible to tell if that's the case

4k a week for how long? what happens if they go over time? another 4k? 5% is standard retention, it's not a huge amount on a small job but it's there to address snagging rather than as an incentive to stay on site! 4k a week is pretty good incentive tbh!! What you should have done is set up payments based on progress, paid after that stage is complete but you're never going to get a contractor to sign up to those terms 6 weeks in to a gravy train situation. How are you tracking any changes or additions to the costs? Did they give you an over all cost for the project? I would now be looking to reduce the weekly payment to say 2k per week and then a bonus at stages, that way the contractor keeps a cashflow and you have less risk that it's not going to get finished - but might be a hard sell! Start at 1k a week and negotiate hard!

Their inspectors will be used to inspecting things to English Regs compliance which are different to the technical Standards here so it's much more of a risk for LABC to provide inspections on sites where they aren't experienced in the compliance requirements. Having an NHBC "approved supplier" in the chain means literally nothing, it only means something if you use an NHBC registered contractor to complete the works and give you a guarantee... Anyone can cut corners but the scottish regs help to protect against that a little and if there is a main contractor involved the insurer has someone to sue at the end of the day - and in reality they will be much more experienced that a self builder in building houses... It's all about the risk. Having said that, most self builds I've seen have been put together better, with more attention to detail than a lot of contractor delivered homes. Having compliance inspections carried out by the local authority who get a fixed fee means they have no encouragement to not follow the regs, I've seen a number of private building control inspectors allow things on site that have been a bit iffy! You only need to look at the huge scandals in the press about construction quality to see what danger there is in incentivising the sign off of buildings with big wads of cash!

Interesting - weekly meetings are usually more than adequate for that kind of duty - checking the builder is following the plans is some way off Project Management so i guess it depends how he is selling that service... You would expect around 10-12% of construction costs for the entire job from sketch plans to building regs plans, tender and site works - 12% of construction costs for on site seems high but looks like he's trying to justify it with the amount of site attendance? If you haven't tendered the work yet but have the documents, you can either tender it yourself or get the architect to tender it to who you want - we regualarly have clients who ask us to send the tender to their preferred contractor and we always try to get our clients to meet the contractors (and previous clients of them) before they appoint them to make sure they are happy with them, if you suspect the architect is only tendering to friends to get a kickback there's a big trust issue there

Nice one, where is the plot (my neck of the woods!) How far down the line are you? have you had the delights of argyll and bute planning yet?!

That's quite a confusing fee note there imo! They say it's 10% for "Part C" then all of the services are described with numbers? ? If you don't trust the architect to properly run the tender then there's a bigger issue here, it seems to be very far down the line to still think they are going to suggest a contractor just to get a kickback?! What kind of project management is he proposing to do? When we are involved in site works we certainly aren't doing day to day project management for the contractor, really a main contractor would be project managing it, the only time you'd really need an independent PM would be if you were only employing subcontractors all on different contracts which it doesn't sound like you are thinking of? (in my experience you really need a balance of good social skills and the eye for detail to project manage a build, just an eye for detail and with no middle man, it has the potential for fall outs!)

you're using a specialist construction method without a main contractor so the risk for a structural warranty provider are massively increased for a job like this so it makes sense that your options become more limited . LABC don't cover scotland because their warranty is reliant on the LABC guys doing the inspections for building reg compliance, and in Scotland that's only done by the Local Authorities - which does an big advantage at times!

reducing the door opening width by 360mm seems huge, how big is your front door that you can lose that off it and still get in and out!?

A structural Warranty has more value and more security for sure, if you read the ins and outs of the PCC thing, it's going to be almost impossible to prove negligence, I've got some RIAS guidance on these somewhere. £3.4k isn't huge (I was recently quoted 16k for a house in the middle of nowhere!) in the overall scheme of things, given what it covers, although as pointed out it's often cheaper to get indemnity cover at the time of sale if required, but it depends on your attitude to risk and piece of mind!

what's the purpose of that hall?! bizarre... why not have it all for cloaks/store? or make the dining larger... anyway.. Has your stair always come down into the sitting room? I guess since the lounge is already the escape route for the house then it might be possible to argue that you're not making it worst? Alternatively could the window in the hall be made into an escape window?

The thing with CML's is that in the real world they are actually useless! The structural warranties are actually much better in terms of what they cover and if I was buying a recently completed home, I'd definitely be looking for that over a CML

Once the principle of a house being on the plot is established, it's usually not too difficult to vary a permission (there are always exceptions!) But I would seriously consider making an offer subject to planning if the permitted house isn't what you want, then at least you don't have to sink a huge amount into it before knowing you can get the house you want

If you want your architect to do CML's you need to tell them at the outset, we charge separately (and additionally) to do them as it increases liability for us (at least on paper!) - our pi cover has been mental since grenfell so it has an additional overhead for us to sign off a CML

as in, it's not registered for council tax? I've worked on plenty of old disused buildings and not required a change of use (although sometimes planning has been required for alterations), it's either a dwelling historically or it's not been used as a dwelling, there isn't a register aside from council tax, a change of use needs to have a change of use surely? Just living in a house again isn't really any change

your sap report doesn't reflect the fabric uvaules you've said in the post?