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...
ypg schrieb:
Exactly the same: 750,000€ available, but all additional costs still have to be deducted – while planning is based on a one million project. Yes! Very good example, thank you! Do you offer floor plan optimization and/or service phase 4 for a fee?
k-man2021 schrieb:
We don’t want to build with a general contractor; this way we have much better control over the costs. I’m not convinced by that. My general contractor provided me with a 10-page offer including numerous items and a fixed price for the entire construction period.
k-man2021 schrieb:
In your situation, we would either check if you want to continue working with the architect and maybe still find common ground, or accept the loss (even if it means paying the full amount in the worst case) and start over with a new architect. That’s my problem. Why should I accept the loss if, in my opinion, the architect did a poor job? I’m not just going to throw away 27,000 euros. Not unless it’s absolutely necessary.
k-man2021 schrieb:
Who knows if a new design might not turn out much better than the current one – and I would have serious doubts that a half-hearted design with misaligned walls would result in a house you’d be happy to live in for the next 30 years. The design is great! It’s great because it’s essentially my design. I want to use it. Besides, negotiations with the general contractors are already quite advanced; commissioning a new design again would take too much time and test my patience and nerves. In the end, contracts must be honored, and if the architect is no longer willing, then she should bear the loss, not me.
Ohropax schrieb:
Do you offer floor plan optimization and/or LP4 for a fee? No, I am not an architect. I only offer design optimizations, which the indifferent architect can then use.
M
MachsSelbst17 Mar 2026 00:27Slowly, the popcorn is running out... crazy...
Of course, an architect can be off by a large margin in the back-and-forth between the client and the contractor. The architect designs a house according to your wishes... here, your wishes obviously didn’t fit the budget, so she turned a blind eye and thought, "Well, 10 to 20% more will probably be fine," and the contractor added a significant markup because he probably had never realized some of the requests before and therefore had to include a classic "risk premium"...
If I’m supposed to do something I’ve never done before and have no prospect of doing exactly the same for 20 or 30 other clients... and the client is a small fish I don’t necessarily need to sustain my business 😉 ... then I calculate with 200% safety margin. Take it or leave it... Some call this a defensive offer, but in this case, it’s simply the concern of stumbling on unknown ground and ending up losing money on a project you actually didn’t want to take on. It’s also hard to judge because nobody knows the super-duper miracle design you want to register as a patent for the world formula 😉 Maybe it’s total junk, like many designs here that future homeowners feel are the squaring of the circle...
Legally, it doesn’t matter whether the design largely originates from you or not — you would first have to prove that. You are not authorized to submit building plans, and if your general contractor rejects the design with a defensive offer and doesn’t want to submit it as a building permit / planning permission, then they probably know why. Even if the mountain is carried to Mohammed, you don’t become the mountain, you remain the carrier...
Of course, an architect can be off by a large margin in the back-and-forth between the client and the contractor. The architect designs a house according to your wishes... here, your wishes obviously didn’t fit the budget, so she turned a blind eye and thought, "Well, 10 to 20% more will probably be fine," and the contractor added a significant markup because he probably had never realized some of the requests before and therefore had to include a classic "risk premium"...
If I’m supposed to do something I’ve never done before and have no prospect of doing exactly the same for 20 or 30 other clients... and the client is a small fish I don’t necessarily need to sustain my business 😉 ... then I calculate with 200% safety margin. Take it or leave it... Some call this a defensive offer, but in this case, it’s simply the concern of stumbling on unknown ground and ending up losing money on a project you actually didn’t want to take on. It’s also hard to judge because nobody knows the super-duper miracle design you want to register as a patent for the world formula 😉 Maybe it’s total junk, like many designs here that future homeowners feel are the squaring of the circle...
Legally, it doesn’t matter whether the design largely originates from you or not — you would first have to prove that. You are not authorized to submit building plans, and if your general contractor rejects the design with a defensive offer and doesn’t want to submit it as a building permit / planning permission, then they probably know why. Even if the mountain is carried to Mohammed, you don’t become the mountain, you remain the carrier...
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