Hello,
I don’t want to write a long story about everything that has happened so far, so I will try to keep it brief.
We have already signed a contract with Hanse Haus (mid-May 2021). According to the contract, the price guarantee is valid for 15 months. Unfortunately, the architect is more than just incompetent, and we don’t know if we should already prepare for potential future problems. After all, this is not something you do every day.
- Our plot is not simple, as it is located in the old town center and there is no zoning plan (building permit / planning permission).
- It took ages just to get an appointment at the construction site with the architects at the beginning—1 to 2 months.
- After the first visit to the site, we hired surveyors, which went quite quickly. After one month, I asked the architect for a status update, but didn’t get a reply for two weeks, then on a Friday I received an email:
Hello, I will be on vacation for four weeks starting Monday and will contact you afterwards.
- I am basically doing the architect’s work by pointing out the parking regulations, asking everything possible at the local building authority in my municipality, and then at the responsible city building authority, and passing this information on in an organized way.
- He seemed to want to rush me into submitting the building application directly and skip the preliminary building inquiry, or at least that was my impression.
- In early November, the site plan finally arrived, of course completely confusing and incorrect (e.g., gray arrows overlapping gray areas, incorrect windows, the wrong address listed instead of mine, parking regulations ignored, etc.)
- At the end of November, the preliminary building inquiry was actually submitted, but was promptly rejected because it was submitted incorrectly. The building authority’s response: not processable in this form.
- It was resubmitted at the beginning of December, but was again rejected, still not processable.
- Mid-December it was finally successfully submitted. The worst part was that a particular sentence was missing that I had provided earlier to the architect after asking the building authority. So all the effort could have been avoided.
And all this was just for a preliminary building inquiry. I have documented everything in writing, always with CC to my Hanse Haus advisor. I wrote to the architect in a factual tone that his preliminary building inquiry was faulty (which it was) and not processable, and asked him to handle it urgently. Then he called me and said it wasn’t like that and that I should watch my tone (?); he hadn’t even sent an invoice yet. Unbelievable.
I already feel abandoned by Hanse Haus. Apparently, the architect cannot be changed; only when the 15-month period is approaching would they arrange a meeting with all parties and maybe extend the price guarantee by a few months. Of course, I haven’t described everything; this is just the most important part in my opinion. I would appreciate any advice...
I don’t want to write a long story about everything that has happened so far, so I will try to keep it brief.
We have already signed a contract with Hanse Haus (mid-May 2021). According to the contract, the price guarantee is valid for 15 months. Unfortunately, the architect is more than just incompetent, and we don’t know if we should already prepare for potential future problems. After all, this is not something you do every day.
- Our plot is not simple, as it is located in the old town center and there is no zoning plan (building permit / planning permission).
- It took ages just to get an appointment at the construction site with the architects at the beginning—1 to 2 months.
- After the first visit to the site, we hired surveyors, which went quite quickly. After one month, I asked the architect for a status update, but didn’t get a reply for two weeks, then on a Friday I received an email:
Hello, I will be on vacation for four weeks starting Monday and will contact you afterwards.
- I am basically doing the architect’s work by pointing out the parking regulations, asking everything possible at the local building authority in my municipality, and then at the responsible city building authority, and passing this information on in an organized way.
- He seemed to want to rush me into submitting the building application directly and skip the preliminary building inquiry, or at least that was my impression.
- In early November, the site plan finally arrived, of course completely confusing and incorrect (e.g., gray arrows overlapping gray areas, incorrect windows, the wrong address listed instead of mine, parking regulations ignored, etc.)
- At the end of November, the preliminary building inquiry was actually submitted, but was promptly rejected because it was submitted incorrectly. The building authority’s response: not processable in this form.
- It was resubmitted at the beginning of December, but was again rejected, still not processable.
- Mid-December it was finally successfully submitted. The worst part was that a particular sentence was missing that I had provided earlier to the architect after asking the building authority. So all the effort could have been avoided.
And all this was just for a preliminary building inquiry. I have documented everything in writing, always with CC to my Hanse Haus advisor. I wrote to the architect in a factual tone that his preliminary building inquiry was faulty (which it was) and not processable, and asked him to handle it urgently. Then he called me and said it wasn’t like that and that I should watch my tone (?); he hadn’t even sent an invoice yet. Unbelievable.
I already feel abandoned by Hanse Haus. Apparently, the architect cannot be changed; only when the 15-month period is approaching would they arrange a meeting with all parties and maybe extend the price guarantee by a few months. Of course, I haven’t described everything; this is just the most important part in my opinion. I would appreciate any advice...
MayrCh schrieb:
Is the architect employed by your contractor (Hanse), a direct contractor of yours, or a subcontractor of Hanse?I assume he is a subcontractor of Hanse, as he was assigned to us.
W
WilderSueden14 Jan 2022 08:48This is an important detail. If the architect is a service provided by Hanse Haus, then it is their fault if you miss the deadline for the price guarantee because of the architect. However, if the architect was appointed by you (even if possibly recommended by them), they will take the position that it is your problem for not meeting the deadlines.
In der Ruine14 Jan 2022 09:41Unbelievable. Is there a shortage of architects, or how can such "experts" still remain active in the market? Hanse Haus surely will never want to work with that man again after the disaster, right? He is ruining a company’s "good" reputation.