Does anyone here have any experience of changing architects mid-project? Under my contract I am free to part ways at any stage but does the orginal architect have an obligation to transfer the DWG files to the new architect so that they can be amended? Many thanks

Nope, none at all. Might want a fee. 

1 minute ago, newbridgewolf said:

does the orginal architect have an obligation to transfer the DWG files to the new architect so that they can be amended? Many thanks

Only if you have it agreed that they owe you the DWG files. Do you have PDFs of the plans? Depending how they were printed/exported they can be of similar use as DWGs.

 

But, DWGs are only half useful. They're a neutral file format for exporting between differing systems and loose any "intelligence" inherent in the authoring system. OK to trace around though, as are PDFs.

Unless that is written into your original contract, and I doubt it will be, they have no obligation to handover the drawings. As far as they will be concerned it is their intellectual property.

I had a similar situation and had to pay out a few thousand quid to get them.

 

In hindsight, it would have been quicker to have someone re-draw them, and would have ended up with something that more accurately represented where we were with the build at the time.

 

(you can convert PDFs to DWGs but process is not perfect and there might be a lot of tidying up and rework, you might find new architect might want to redraw regardless, especially if there are going to be changes)

I parted ways, it really was just as quick to start from scratch, get all the changes you want done dealt with at the same time. Nothing is quick with architects even if everything is handed to them on a plate, plus they will charge you just as much.

It's fairly quick to re-draw if you know exactly what you want to draw. You can also clean up. You could probably get it done cheap on fiverr or similar - but specify exactly what package it's destined for. Your new architect may well send it out to a service anyway.

It depends what you have agreed to. But the majority in my experience will not release and issue their DWG files.

When I was working as an Architectural Technologist I would never use files produced by others to produce drawings.  They were useful to provide input for a measured survey but I would not trust that they were accurate.

Ours didn’t and actually threatened the timber frame supplier  with legal action if they shared them with us.   In the end it made no difference apart from effort but I’m lucky as my partner is a cad/revit engineer so redrew everything.   
 

Residential architects in general are dinosaurs and don’t understand that in the new world ‘revit’ models are full life models so have to be shared. They have no idea about the need for as -built models unless you pay them £££££££.

1 hour ago, PNAmble said:

Residential architects in general are dinosaurs

 

Ours hand drew everything - even did a had drawn colour rendering for planning committee. Not quite revit but definitely full of life 😁

I know this is months later. I'm really sorry not to have responded at the time but thank all of you your replies. It helped me make a decision at the time.