Professional negligence against architect

Mistakes and omission aren't automatically negligence. His exposure to you, may just be to correct the design and the calculations.

You’re going to need to get proper legal advice
 
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As a percentage of the total work how much has this error factored in? If we are talking 10% then he’s got an argument that industry norms are to allow for problems.

did the architects services just cover design or did he also have a project management role?

what relationships existed between architect and builder? Why didn’t the builder spot the error on the plans? What was his contract basis?

did the architect visit the property and take accurate measurements as part of the design service?

Did you get any paperwork from the structural engineer in terms of contract and terms?
 
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It was 22% of the total.

No project management role.

Architect designed builder build, there wasn't any relationship really and no communication between them.

I don't know why the builders haven't spotted the error,.or maybe if he did he didn't make a great deal of it because he completed a similar projects with a half brick wall without any issues (the BC was private and ours LA).

No, the architect never visited our house. He send his assistant to take the measurements.

We didn't have contact with the original SE, everything was through the architect, so no contract with the SE
 
Sounds like you were the project manager then ?

this gives the architect and SE a lot of wriggle room.

basically someone measured up, designs were done, calculations done on those designs and work done on that basis. BC spotted the error and required rework.

project managers need to check everything.

negligence isn’t making a mistake

I’d be tempted to offer without prejudice that you’d accept half of the costs as full settlement. Given Covid. You may need to offer payment terms.
 
You can say so, I see myself more as a customer. I don't have experience of building lofts, building control, architectural designs, structural engineering etc. I think it's a bit too much to expect me to spot the error and to know about half brick walls. As oldbutnotdead pointed out it's not like he didn't draw a wall which would be quite obvious, he drew the wall which was a bit thicker than it should be. I think the architect made a bad survey, and when this was pointed out to him he didn't know how to fix it. But I guess you might have a different way to look at it and obviously I am biased.

motorbiking said:
basically someone measured up, designs were done, calculations done on those designs and work done on that basis.
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It's not someone, the architect took charge of this, this is the package I bought from him: design, building regs drawings and calculations. He promised to deliver it.

I would be happy with half of the costs. I am not trying to make money on this, but I think he was the one who created all this mess and he should take some responsibility for it. He showed no duty of care towards us by completely abandoning the project without any workable solution. I don't think this is how a professional should behave. Not only that, he took another similar project and was waiting for our new SE to come up with a solution.

Sure, there are things I would have done differently, but I came to realise that even if I did things differtly i.e. submitted full plans and wait for BC's approval we would end up in the same situation.
 
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