Conflict of interest: Architect and "partner" craftsman

Hello,

when building with architects, it is always said that the trades are put out to tender. However, I have often read that architects frequently work with (partner) craftsmen or recommend craftsmen they know personally. This certainly has the advantage for the architect (and hopefully also for the client) of being able to better anticipate the quality of the work to be done. Unfortunately, in my view, it also has the potential downside that the architect can come into a conflict of interest if the friendly/acquainted craftsman makes a mistake and correcting this error would cost a lot of money (thus financially harming the craftsman and damaging the architect’s reputation).

Should one worry about such things or are these concerns rather unfounded? If the concerns are justified, how can one gain security in this regard? Should one engage a construction expert who supervises the assessing architect, who in turn supervises the craftsman? This seems a bit strange...

Best regards

We have/had the same problem. With 2 trades that we took from our architect, we are on the one hand not impressed (that’s for the topic of "that will run better"), and on the other hand we are also not sure if the architect is really as strict as he makes us believe, because things are not really progressing. However, this is only our opinion and obviously does not have to represent multiple architects!

Hello,

When building with architects, it is always said that the trades will be tendered. However, I have often read that architects often work with (partner) tradesmen or mediate craftsmen they know themselves. This certainly has the advantage for the architect (and hopefully also for the builder) of being able to better anticipate the quality of the work to be done.

Architects are people too :-) Just think about who you prefer to work with – surely also people whose characteristics/working style suit you?

Unfortunately, in my opinion, there is also the possible disadvantage that the architect can get into a conflict of interest if the friendly/acquainted tradesman makes a mistake, and correcting this mistake would cost a lot of money (thus financially harming the tradesman and damaging the architect’s reputation).
Should one worry about something like this or are these concerns rather unfounded? If the concerns are justified, how can one gain security here? Should one hire a building surveyor who controls the assessing architect, who in turn controls the tradesman? That seems a bit odd...

No one can answer this question because we do not know your architect’s assertiveness.

Regardless, it is always advisable (also when awarding contracts via general contractor/trade contractor) to involve another pair of external eyes. In your case, this keeps the architect out of possible conflicts and assures you 100% of performance for your construction project, since you will be the client. This does not seem "odd" but is common practice. If your architect resists this, you should change him; we always welcome an additional pair of eyes and ears because no one can walk on water ;)

Kind regards