The current thread title is a little misleading.
There is nothing allied or indeed associated between architects and say estate agents or solicitors.
We may work for the same client, but we interrelate only peripherally with others, many of whom are the greatest heatscalds you will ever meet.
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Project Managers / Client Representatives.
I've worked with one office that cost the client over €200,000 in professional fees for abortive work that was not needed, and I've endured another who was supposed to organize the health and safety and legals on a job and did neither. But its swings and roundabouts. The former one came back on another job and pointed out the need for a specialist insurance that if not purchased could have left the job high and dry. A mixed bunch. They claim to reduce the fees of others and overall costs to justify their own fee. It may happen on some projects, but I've yet to see it personally.
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Solicitors
With solicitors, architects are usually under pressure to offer certificates from an early stage in the proceedings - one of the most important skills a young architect can acquire is saying "No, and here's why..." to a pushy solicitor, whose wheedling insistence could expose an unwary professional to the risk of pre-certifying or over-certifying and set a most unwelcome precedent for a young office in future years.
Less usually with solicitors architects work supplying Reports and Opinions to a legal team run by a solicitor preparing a case. Again, the most important word to learn is "NO!" Solicitors will happily try to get others to do their work for them, such as researching lease with maps on them, merely because they have maps on them, when they are the ones getting paid by the hour to trawl through deeds and conveyances, not anyone else. Its the architects job to catch any final proof reading errors prior to swearing the Declaration of Identity and to ensure the work "compare" is used and not "inspect" which has another legal meaning.
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Estate Agents
With estate agents, these are people who put together deals and in many cases lead the discussions on commercial developments during the early stages. Just remember, their furnished information literally is not worth the paper its written on - it usually says so in the disclaimer on the back in microscopically small print. They tend to spend a lot of time pressuring architects to engage in planning studies to say what they want them to say about the likelihood of achieving the latest multi-million Euro development.
We can all remember that tower in Ballsbridge on the Jurys site that got refused, the outrageous price paid by McNamaras consortium for the land bank that put them on an unsustainable position and the tower in Lucan/Clondalkin that got permission only to be overturned by An Bórd Pleanála. So much for the dangers of talking things up.
Plus their fees are charged on the sale price, not the net building price, so there is no incentive for them to cry "hold" to a price rocketing into the stratosphere.
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Architects work in a collegiate manner with some professionals. We usually lead the design team where we try to co-ordinate all our efforts to best effect. A list of such professionals might include:
In-house - salary or hourly rate:
- 3D presenters/Graphic Artists
- Architectural Technicians
- CAD Technicians
- Draftspersons
Design Team Professional offices - professional fees:
- Chartered Surveyor (land and property)
- Landscape Architect (biodiversity, amenity screening, noise control)
- Quantity Surveyor (cost estimate, bill of quantities and contractual advice)
- Structural and Civil Consulting Engineer (structure and drainage)
- Mechanical and Electrical Consulting Engineer (services and energy usage)
- Interior Designer (environmental design of interior)
Other Professional offices - professional fees:
- Lighting Consultant
- Arborists/Tree Surgeon
- Garden designer
- Fire Safety Consultant
- Health and Safety Consultant
- Disability Access Certificate Consultant
- Photographer
- Graphic Artist
- 3D Modeler/Visualiser/Presenter
- Sports/Wellness Consultant
- Security Consultant
- IT Consultant
The team will engage with other Nominated Sub-Contractors and Specialist Firms - agreed price.
- Piling and Groundworks
- Vibro-compaction
- Land Drainage
- Shoring and Scaffolding
- Timber Frame Specialist
- Heating Contractor
- Electrical Contractor
- Plumbing Contractor
- Concrete Formwork
- Concrete Specialist
- Roofing structure
- Cladding
- Glazing
- Windows
- Doors
- Re-constituted Stone
- MVHR systems
- Air Conditions Systems
- Under Floor Heating Systems
- Radiator Specialists
- Swimming Pool suppliers
- Sauna suppliers
- Vacuum systems
- Lift Manufacturer
- Lighting
- Sanitaryware
- Kitchen Suppliers
I won't go into the large population of interior firms and suppliers including furniture, salvaged antiques and fitments, tiling, artwork, suspended ceiling, raised access floors, etc.
I similarly won't include the well-known list of tradesmen that are normally domestic to the main contractor or those artisans or craftsmen involved in the built work like Stonemasons.
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The above lists are not exhaustive and seek to outline the ranges of people we work with, of them only the professionals charge fees.
I recently did work on my holidays for a client - it had to be done, but would any salaried or P.A.Y.E. worker do that? Not in my very wide experience.
Service like that is one of the reasons why you pay professionals reasonable fees.
We undertake to get the job done, whatever it takes.
I hope this helps those outside the profession to understand the nature of professionals fees, and in particular the use of percentage fees as a tool for calculating the agreed fee figure. They are not set in stone and are seldom achieved.
ONQ
[broken link removed]
All advice on AAM is remote from the situation and cannot be relied upon as a defence or support - in and of itself - should legal action be taken.
Competent legal and building professionals should be asked to advise in Real Life with rights to inspect and issue reports on the matters at hand.
