Court claim - House building plans

[MissFM]

Re: Court claim - House building plans

I'm afraid I have a completely different take on this. What I'm seeing is a possible case of *artistic differences*. I have been a property developer for many years and the relationship between an architect and the client is built entirely on communication, expectations and what is lawfully permissible which is not always possible or desirable to the client. Compromise is the name of the game in property development. You described your ideal home and he came up with something completely different. Maybe your vision would never have got passed the planning department or building control. He's offered to design something more appropriate and you have refused his offer because he wants to charge you more. What does it say in those Ts & Cs about his fees? Sorry, PlanB, can't agree with this at all on the evidence provided - see below

The most important thing is you have a county court summons which needs to be dealt withnever mind all this letter writing malarkey. You have to tick the box (online) or write to the court to acknowledge service stating your intention to defend the claim within 14 days. If you don't then the claimant can get a default judgement against you. Indeed - good point! I believe the OP is seeing his solicitor this week

Once you file your defence the court will offer you the option of mediation. I see this situation as a classic case for mediation in order to avoid the trauma of going to court. Going to court is a trauma to be avoided.

He gave you his Ts & Cs. You paid him money on receipt of his Ts & Cs. I expect this means you entered into a legal contract which is all a judge will care about.

Hi Plan B

Sorry to disagree with you but I do. Differing views being one of the huge advantages of this forumtortghost!

I don't think this is a matter of "artistic differences" from the evidence provided. My experiences of commissioning architects (or any professional for that matter) is that you give them an outline brief and they work to that specification as far as is possible, using their professional expertise to make your idea work, whilst discussing any pragmatic need for departure from that brief. In this case, it would appear that the architect disregarded the basic spec. and even attempted to shoe-horn work from previous unrelated projects into this one (ie he doesn't appear to have actually done much specific work for his client).

Additionally, the architect would appear to have become so abusive when asked to provide work according to the original agreement that the relationship has broken down.

Whatever the TOB, I would imagine it would be unfair contactually (including in the legal sense) for the client to be required to pay for work not as commissioned and inappropriate to the original brief and agreement.

The OP has received a court claim, out of the blue (no LBA) for money that is not owing, as the contracted work has not been done - even though the OP paid £1,000 in advance, in the utmost good faith, to enable the work to progress as planned.

To put it another way, it's as if you commissioned a bespoke size 10 party dress and were expected to pay for a size 18 boiler suit that happened to be in stock instead.

I hope the OP's solicitor will help him retrieve his £1K without further stress.

nb - spent ages on this post then the site crashed and my eloquent essay with it - so it's now a shadow of its former self lol