Architect, contract according to HOAI 2013 - refuses to provide service

Good day! I am new here in the forum and could use some help. I have a contract with an architect according to HOAI 2013 for phases 1 - 8. His fee is VERY high at 18.5% of the total costs. He is also the construction manager. The architect was already 72 years old when commissioned; he recommended himself due to construction success with a neighbor.

The architect has already invoiced 75% of the total fee as interim payments, but the house (basement, ground floor, sleeping floor) does not even have the basement finished yet (proportional costs so far 24% for the construction company of the total amount for construction costs), other trades have hardly been (documented) worked on, there is no schedule, and finished execution plans are missing for the upper floors. On the construction site, he shows up at most once per month for an hour, which has led to misunderstandings in the construction process due to lack of supervision.

Now the architect has issued another invoice, which would bring the total already paid to 86% of the total fee. I have presented him with the above situation and referred to an interim payment appropriate to the construction progress, asking him to please submit the invoice at a later date.

In response, the architect started to argue with the construction company until a break and states that he cannot continue working due to insufficient quality of the construction company and that he would not do so as long as his completely justified claim was not settled. Construction is at a standstill because the plans for the ground floor are missing.

My question would be: can the architect demand arbitrarily high interim payments on the HOAI without corresponding progress and service provision?

Thank you if anyone has experience with this.

Completely overpaid. What did he get the money for when the plans are not even finished? Find yourself a construction law lawyer. Maybe you can "persuade" him to continue or make claims for repayment. That already sounds complicated. Don't throw good money after bad. That was probably not what you wanted to hear. I think this will end in an architect change and a legal dispute.

Nope!

Partial payments also require a verifiable invoice. However, this will not be possible without simultaneous progress in work. Request the architect (in writing) to resume his work and ask about his professional liability insurance in advance.

The service phases for the single-family house are as follows:

Service Phase 1 (Basic Evaluation)	2 %
Service Phase 2 (Preliminary Planning)	7 %
Service Phase 3 (Design Planning)	15 %
Service Phase 4 (Approval Planning)	for buildings 3 % for interiors 2 %
Service Phase 5 (Execution Planning)	for buildings 25 % for interiors 30 %
Service Phase 6 (Preparation for Awarding of Contract)	for buildings 10 % for interiors 7 %
Service Phase 7 (Participation in Awarding of Contract)	for buildings 4% for interiors 3 %
Service Phase 8 (Site Supervision)	32 %

The invoice therefore does NOT reflect the actual construction progress, but the degree of completion of the individual service phases (SP). This can be overlapping but does not have to be.
Service phases 1, 2, 3 and 4 are presumably fully completed. Therefore, he can invoice 27% of his fee.
For service phases 5-8 you would have to estimate how much has been delivered.

How did it go with the neighbor? Were the "advance payments" also that high?

The service phases for a single-family house are as follows:

Service Phase 1 (Basic evaluation)	2 %
Service Phase 2 (Preliminary design)	7 %
Service Phase 3 (Design planning)	15 %
Service Phase 4 (Approval planning)	for buildings 3 % for interiors 2 %
Service Phase 5 (Execution planning)	for buildings 25 % for interiors 30 %
Service Phase 6 (Preparation of awarding)	for buildings 10 % for interiors 7 %
Service Phase 7 (Participation in awarding)	for buildings 4% for interiors 3 %
Service Phase 8 (Site supervision)	32 %

The invoice therefore does NOT reflect the actual construction progress, but the degree of completion of the individual service phases (SP). This can overlap, but does not have to.
Service phases 1, 2, 3, and 4 are probably fully completed. Therefore, he can invoice 27% of his fee.
For service phases 5-8, you would have to estimate how much has been delivered.

How did it go with the neighbor? Were the "advance payments" also that high?

I see it the same way, but showing up once a month is not proper site supervision in the real sense. That should also be clear. But what does lacking supervision mean? Where are you actually? The shell builder can only build "rubbish" if he doesn't know exactly how and what to do, but they can all execute!

Always this "I'm paying the architect so I don't have to do anything" mentality. What good does it do you if you sit back and point your finger at the architect? It is your construction project, not the architect’s. In the end, you have the problems.

Thank you very much! I have already found a specialist lawyer who will review the invoice. Termination for cause is a very risky matter that I would only do reluctantly.

I have already compared the service phases in detail, according to Annex 10 of the HOAI. I come to a little over 27%, but not 75% and certainly not 86%. The neighbor advised me against continuing to employ him after the shell was completed. But it was still going better back then. That was 15 years ago...

Zaba12, how do you come to the conclusion "I pay the architect so I don’t have to do anything"? I have to keep detailed minutes at every meeting with the architect, otherwise it is never clear what was discussed and how decisions were made. He does not do it. But as a layman, I cannot tell on site how long the reinforcing steel must be. If it is then too short, I am certainly not responsible for that. At most, I can provide the photos.

It also seems very suspicious to me that although the HOAI 2013 contract template states that I hire and pay the structural engineer, the architect "took this over" from me (without asking!) and silently commissioned his buddy. For this, the architect simply charged me the fee for the structural engineering planning. As a result, I am now also dependent on the duo of architect & structural engineer. I noticed this too late.