Changing Architects

[denny]

Dear Nigel,
Could you possibly help us.
We have a plot of land, we have planning permission and the architect has just received the building permit. However we have over the last 16 months done all the chasing up in both departments. We want to change the architect as we have found another architect who is more willing to listen to us about the design and materials to be used. Will we be liable to pay compensation to the first architect if we dont want to use him.

Kind Regards
Denny

[Nigel Howarth]

Hi Denny & welcome to the forum,

Apologies for the delay in getting back to you - I've been sorting out a few problems.

You can change your architect, but there will be some costs involved. I can give you some idea of what these are likely to be - they'll be based on the overall estimated construction costs and the agreement you have with your architect.

If you have a look at your agreement, it should say somewhere what the architect is charging you. I expect it's in the range 4% to 6%.

As he's only done part of the work, he'll charge you a percentage of that 4% to 6% figure:

• 20% Outline proposals
  5% Scheme Design and Planning Application
  35% Detail and Structural Design and Building Application

So if the estimated costs for the construction of your property is €200,000, your architect's charges will be based on €60,000. 4% of that is €2,400 and 6% is €3,600.

He may have used some other people - a Structural Engineer and an Electrical & Mechanical engineer.

• The structural engineer's fee should be in the region of 0.5% of the total construction cost, which works out at €4,000. But if your architect is qualified to do this work, it may have been included in his original quotation.
  
  The mechanical engineer's will be approximately 1% of the overall costs for the Electrical & Mechanical engineering works. If this is €20,000 you'll be paying around €200.

So I guess you're looking at a figure around €7,500 to get rid of him.

Regards,

[denny]

Dear Nigel,
Thank you for the reply and advice, we will need to decide what to do next
Kind Regards
Denny