Claim against architectural designer

[Kelvin]

As others have said best to focus on getting it fixed and compliant first and worry about liability after. You have 6 years I believe to sue a professional for negligence. 
 

I have a similar situation with our build. The architect was the principal designer and the kit erector the principal contractor so it’s a bit more clear cut for us who was responsible for what.  In my case the house hasn’t been built to either the planned drawings or the structural engineering drawings. A significant amount of re-work to make good has had to be completed. We are now compliant but it has cost us both financially and time with knock on impact to follow on work (i had to cancel every follow on trade and re-book) It’s also caused us serviceability issues that we have had to accept. Add in the stress etc and it’s been a challenging time. My focus has been to solve all the problems to get us back on track which is where we are now. It’s cost us about £10k extra, 2 month delay, and three serviceability problems. Recovering our costs and suing them hasn’t been my priority. I’ll decide what to do about that in a few months once we near completion. 

Edited August 21, 2023 by Kelvin

[Lofty718]

It's fire compliant in every other way with fire doors and smoke alarms. It was a first build for me and I had never known about the seperation needed between open plan area and staircase.

 

To be honest it's not really about money more about principal, paying a professional to do a job you expect them to not make these kind of errors. I guess it shows the high level of incompetencies that are rife throughout the British building industry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kelvin]

I agree but going legal on a matter of principle can get very expensive very quickly.   If you don’t care about the cost then fair enough. Some fights are worthing fighting. Some aren’t. 

[Haylingbilly]

Agree with the spirit off what most people have said. Get it fixed in the most cost effective way possible. Then speak to the designer and see what he suggest re claiming on his insurance...see if you can come to an agreement that saves you both a load of grief going legal on it...

[George]

I would have thought that the door / fire system was always something you needed to pay for, you just didn't know it. In which case I'm not sure you could claim the full cost, just an extra over which might not be very much.

 

But even then the standard they need to meet is reasonable skill and care and not perfection. If they had flawed information and if they can point to a BC sign off they/a court could reasonably have thought they met that standard. 

[Dave Jones]

does make you wonder if the architect missed something as fundamental and basic as fire regs what else did they screw up.

 

no wonder a lot of banks wont accept architect certs anymore, the standard of work from them these days is appalling.

 

 

 

 

[ETC]

5 hours ago, Dave Jones said:

does make you wonder if the architect missed something as fundamental and basic as fire regs what else did they screw up.

 

no wonder a lot of banks wont accept architect certs anymore, the standard of work from them these days is appalling.

 

 

 

 

You get what you pay for. Pay peanuts get monkeys!

[saveasteading]

1 minute ago, ETC said:

You get what you pay for.

Nobody's perfect, and sometimes a very cheap quote is simply because they are good at it and it doesn't take long.

But, especially on lesser forums  I see that most people just look for the cheapest quote.

[Kelvin]

5 minutes ago, ETC said:

You get what you pay for. Pay peanuts get monkeys!

You get shit service from expensive people too. 

[ETC]

1 minute ago, saveasteading said:

Nobody's perfect, and sometimes a very cheap quote is simply because they are good at it and it doesn't take long.

But, especially on lesser forums  I see that most people just look for the cheapest quote.

As I said - pay peanuts and get monkeys. I have seen so so many sh*t designs on this forum it is unbelievable - but hey it was as cheap as chip so who cares!

[ETC]

Just now, Kelvin said:

You get shit service from expensive people too. 

Absolutely.

[saveasteading]

2 hours ago, Kelvin said:

You get shit service from expensive people too.

You mean " can get" I hope.

8 hours ago, George said:

reasonable skill and care 

If I recall, for consultants, this is the reasonable skill and care to be expected from a person of their qualifications.

Thus an architectural technician may have less liability than a chartered Architect.  And a general builder perhaps less on the theory side, but more on the practical side.

On many projects the risk would far outlay the fee.

If every error and omission resulted in being sued,   the insurance cover and consultants' rates would rise somewhat.