ᐅ The architect has become emotional and does not want to continue. How should I proceed now?
Created on: 11 Mar 2026 17:41
O
Ohropax
Hello,
I hired an architect in the Stuttgart metropolitan area to design a single-family house and submit the building permit / planning permission application (service phases 1-4). The architect immediately received an advance payment of 15,000 euros without doing anything.
Service phases 1-2 were basically skipped; at least, I did not receive a project schedule, summaries, cost estimates, or a timetable. She basically spent all her time working only on the design.
The first design was unusable! Our budget is 750,000 euros, which was communicated both verbally and in writing. According to three construction companies, realizing the design would have required 1.25 million euros.
So a new design was created, but it contained so many practical mistakes (corridor too narrow, wardrobe not deep enough, kitchen wall too narrow for a sliding door, ceiling heights too low, bathrooms too small), and many more. An unbelievable number of errors, which you wouldn’t normally expect from an architect (at least I didn’t). The design is now in its 10th iteration because we repeatedly had to point out illogical corners, incorrectly placed windows, etc. Many of the changes were contributed by construction companies and included in the design because it was otherwise not suitable.
It was agreed with the architect that the remaining amount of about 15,000 euros would be paid before submitting the building permit / planning permission application. However, this is too risky for us because the architect’s work is very poor technically, and we fear the application will not be approved as is. The architect charged fee zone IV for a simple single-family house and noted this in the invoice. Is that correct?
Our proposal is to pay the 15,000 euros only after approval. The architect has now completely lost it, refuses to submit the application, and demands 12,000 euros for the design.
I actually did the design myself, and she just used the software. I was not advised. She simply implemented things without pointing out poor practicality. As a layperson, I am not familiar with this and expect advice; that is part of the architect’s job, isn’t it?
What should I do now? I am emotionally exhausted...
I hired an architect in the Stuttgart metropolitan area to design a single-family house and submit the building permit / planning permission application (service phases 1-4). The architect immediately received an advance payment of 15,000 euros without doing anything.
Service phases 1-2 were basically skipped; at least, I did not receive a project schedule, summaries, cost estimates, or a timetable. She basically spent all her time working only on the design.
The first design was unusable! Our budget is 750,000 euros, which was communicated both verbally and in writing. According to three construction companies, realizing the design would have required 1.25 million euros.
So a new design was created, but it contained so many practical mistakes (corridor too narrow, wardrobe not deep enough, kitchen wall too narrow for a sliding door, ceiling heights too low, bathrooms too small), and many more. An unbelievable number of errors, which you wouldn’t normally expect from an architect (at least I didn’t). The design is now in its 10th iteration because we repeatedly had to point out illogical corners, incorrectly placed windows, etc. Many of the changes were contributed by construction companies and included in the design because it was otherwise not suitable.
It was agreed with the architect that the remaining amount of about 15,000 euros would be paid before submitting the building permit / planning permission application. However, this is too risky for us because the architect’s work is very poor technically, and we fear the application will not be approved as is. The architect charged fee zone IV for a simple single-family house and noted this in the invoice. Is that correct?
Our proposal is to pay the 15,000 euros only after approval. The architect has now completely lost it, refuses to submit the application, and demands 12,000 euros for the design.
I actually did the design myself, and she just used the software. I was not advised. She simply implemented things without pointing out poor practicality. As a layperson, I am not familiar with this and expect advice; that is part of the architect’s job, isn’t it?
What should I do now? I am emotionally exhausted...
Gerddieter schrieb:
Or you insist on the contract being fulfilled (submitting the building permit / planning permission application) – if she doesn’t do it, you can have someone else do it and deduct the costs from her fee (then even the general contractor can do it for 10,000 euros because in the end it always comes to 30,000 euros for you). I will take that route. I have invested so much into the design myself that I don’t want to discard it. Now it works for me.
I don’t understand why someone would forgo 15,000 euros because they don’t receive it immediately, but only after submitting the permit application.
I probably would have paid 10,000 euros after submission and 5,000 euros after approval. So she gets none of it. I don’t understand this behavior, unless the design really isn’t approvable.
ypg schrieb:
That is, of course, not acceptable, or rather, we don’t know what went wrong in the communication… it could also be that this was initially just a simple preliminary design to outline how “something,” meaning one thing or another, would come across to you. A 50% budget overrun is not even unusual when dealing with "@Gerddieter warns" / “first half” architects. The corrective measure of evaluation is never experienced if the design is not followed through to execution. Often the expensive design isn’t actually built; instead, the general contractor proposes a more affordable alternative, and the failure goes unnoticed. The “normal” approach with “infinite monkey design explorations” is that when enthusiasm for the test balloon fails, a newly refined attempt is created. This case was atypical: the original poster had implicitly already decided in favor of the test balloon and even made specific attempts to improve it. It’s not fair to blame an inexperienced architect for engaging with that process. Perhaps, until the dispute about compensation arose, she was even happy to be coached through dialogue by a client and to mature through the experience.
Ohropax schrieb:
I personally invested so much in the design that I don’t want to discard it. Now it fits for me. Well, the phenomenon of the “sunk cost fallacy” – in a way a distant cousin of Stockholm syndrome – was probably already mentioned. By “fits,” it probably means an approximate match with the original idea. What that is worth is not for us to judge – the saying that a picture is worth a thousand words is clearly demonstrated here ;-)
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
Ohropax schrieb:
That’s a good closing remark. I could have used this tool too, with a bit of practice. Let’s put it this way: creativity alone does not build a house. On the contrary.
Seen yesterday:
a technical room of 2.5 sqm (27 sq ft) in a house of over 200 sqm (2,150 sq ft), with the HVAC system integrated into the double garage, which means only one car fits in the garage.
Seen today: an open space connecting the living room on the ground floor with the bedroom upstairs, through which you can look directly from the upper floor hallway in front of the kids’ rooms into the bedroom.
Every third creative floor plan is unbuildable because it only exists in 2D thinking and no roof works.
Some staircases on the upper floor collide with the roof slope because they were simply rotated without consideration.
Kitchens are minimized so much that a pantry is created, which is as large as the kitchen itself.
And so on.
11ant schrieb:
A 50% budget overrun is not even unusual when you hire architects labeled as "@Gerddieter warns" / "first half" types. However, "unusual" is not the standard here. The question is about quality of work, whether good or bad.
11ant schrieb:
Maybe she was even happy about the disagreement over her fees, being coached by a client through the dialogue and maturing as a result. I had the same impression. Although “coached” sounds a bit harsh.
11ant schrieb:
What this is worth cannot be judged by us – the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” is impressively demonstrated here ;-) This will end up in a legal dispute, and the architect insists that the design is her intellectual property. I ask for your understanding.
ypg schrieb:
Usf. Wardrobe in the dirty area.
To get from the guest room to the guest bathroom, you had to walk through the hallway/dirty area. I then requested that the guest room and guest bathroom be placed together in the same "corner," so guests wouldn’t have to pass through the hallway/dirty area and risk being seen "half-naked" by other people in the house. You know what I mean? Such basic practical considerations were not made. As a layperson and client, you eventually just get frustrated.
Ohropax schrieb:
You know what I mean? Yes, as a planner I have to say that in most floor plans for affordable single-family homes of a standard size, it just doesn’t work out. That’s exactly the catch-22.
And often, the builder gets in his own way by giving guests the same priority, which shifts the prioritization.
A similar example is the access from the hallway/freeze room to the garage. Incorrectly, constant precipitation in Germany is assumed, which turns the freeze room into the hallway. Then the hallway is no longer a dirt area, because that is now the freeze room 😉
Don’t take it the wrong way if I suspect how the Mio Villa design developed.
Your too narrow hallway probably also results from prioritization.
Ohropax schrieb:
I quickly had the impression that the architect simply created something without checking if it really makes sense. Maybe the whole room requirement profile didn’t really fit from the start, which is why the lady deliberately took that deposit 8-)
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