Architect unreliable - How to proceed?

To the thread starter:
1.) Get competence on your side. Professionally and legally.
2.) Seek dialogue with your contracting partner, that is Hanse Haus. Make sure they are informed about every step / put them in cc, so that they are kept up to date about the stalled progress.

"Your" architect is not yours if he gets his money from others.

Is there a lack of architects or why can such "experts" survive in the market?

Yes, a lot is being built. Everyone is fully booked. And for Hanse Haus, the quality of the planning is not decisive, but the price. So they simply award it to the cheapest.

Hanse Haus will never want to work with that man again after the debacle, right?

The site manager, who will later implement it, will do everything to ensure it does not turn out that way. But for the next house, the salesman / sales department again has two offers for architects and takes the cheaper one again.

(Criticism not aimed at Hanse Haus, no experience with them. Rather, it generally works that way in the construction industry that merchants and technicians have different approaches.)

We have already signed a contract with Hanse Haus (mid May 2021).

And all that just for a preliminary building inquiry.

Why do you sign a house construction contract when it is not even clear what can actually be built? How can a price for the house be determined then?

First you look at what can be built and only then do you choose the right house builder. You have created that problem yourself.

Maybe this is just a preliminary contract? The representative from Schwörerhaus also tried to push something like this on us in the last 5 minutes between the door and the hinge. We were supposed to secure the old price list before the price increase at the turn of the year. The whole thing would have been without a specific house as well.

Don't shy away from choosing clear formulations when addressing Hanse Haus and the architect. The sooner you make it clear that you see the blame with them, the better. Always demand concrete timelines, especially for the entire planning process. If you only ever get confirmation for the next step, unfortunately that is of no use to you for the overall planning (if he performs each step in one week but hides that there are 104 steps, then it won't work...)

For example, formulate to Hanse Haus:

"The planning phase has already taken X of 15 months due to the work of your architect. To what extent does this long processing time affect your further planning, and how much time was allocated for this step? After what time will you assign a new processor to me? Please provide me with concrete dates by which certain planning milestones must be reached."

Also towards the architect, have him provide you with his schedule with deadlines. Only this way can you insist on missed deadlines later.

Good to know, in my opinion he was commissioned by Hanse Haus, the architect's costs are included in the house price. There is no contract from our side commissioning the architect.

Then Hanse Haus, or the house-building company, is always the contact person.

From now on, keep a protocol and make this available to [HAnse] for information. If there is a delay, you cannot come up with arguments.