Responsibility of the architect in case of KfW interest and further matters

My husband created the floor plan drawings himself, and these were ultimately submitted from the idea stage, except for the swap of the children's and bedroom. Of course, I am aware that transferring them into the software is still a lot of work - I do not want to diminish that. But the architect said that we had already saved him quite a bit of brainpower with this. In addition, we also obtained offers with the specifications, created overviews (now apparently for the first time the total sum of the offers was formed - the young architect hadn't thought of that before). I understand that the architect's service includes much more, but it is not quite clear to me why that would justify poorer work. Then at some point, there should have been a hint that our ideas for our investment sum are simply not feasible or that he cannot take on so much work for the money. But that was never mentioned... Nor was a single word ever said that we would have any kind of bonus or anything like that.

Well, maybe he wanted to do you a favor. Our architect made it very clear that for the price we paid, we cannot expect all services according to HOAI. So within the respective service phase.

That was okay for us.

That is then also a completely different kind of transparency creation.

That is then also a completely different creation of transparency.

That is just one possible explanation. It could also be due to inexperience. Maybe the old architect is also unmotivated or not up to date with current technology. Who knows! Communication is everything. Unfortunately, not relying on people when you already have a weird gut feeling is also important.

If something on the construction site doesn't suit me or I don't recognize something I expect, I make a call to the trade immediately. The architect is not part of my communication chain. And that immediately. And either I am wrong (happens more often) or I am right and it can be corrected.

But what is it actually about now? If the fee is too low, do you then have to expect that you won’t be properly supervised?

Not necessarily, but on that basis you can hardly demand the full range of services according to HOAI. If in doubt, he will simply refer you to the "cheap" fee and claim that THIS service is not (fully) included.

I would advise you to have another conversation about this and write down a few things that are important to you. In this regard, consult the "basic services of the service phases."

I wouldn’t mind, for example, creating the specifications from offers. If he hadn’t told you, it would never have been noticed (maybe 70% of all architects really work like this?! ). However, I would definitely insist on an accurate cost CALCULATION.

Zaba, I think I come across here a bit more naive and shy than we both really are. We actually question everything all the time and we did that with the architect as well. But when the older one is poorly reachable by phone and emails remain unanswered for several days and we are told that everything is already okay and it fits as it is, it’s not so easy. We have now also written VERY clearly that we see urgent need for clarification. But for novices like us, it is also hard to see whether our wish for all information regarding changes (for example this massive increase in costs due to the excavation) is justified so that WE can still decide. The young architect told us, for example, on Wednesday in passing that he had told the structural engineer to prepare the terrace area a bit. After the heavy bill, we immediately objected to that - he should absolutely not do anything there before costs for it are clarified. But when the young architect says it would be better if he does it directly, you don’t counter that right away. At least we asked about the additional costs, which he could not name.

In any case, I thank everyone already for their efforts in writing!!! Even if one might not see everything exactly the same way, these are valuable impulses.

May I ask again directly: Which specific points are now to be clarified with the old and young architect?

We see:
1. Significantly better flow of information: We want to decide and be informed about (estimated) additional costs for that.

2. Keeping an eye on prices. The young architect has not really considered these so far, he didn’t really know the cost estimate of the old architect on Wednesday either. He only said casually that the old architect had used standard values. He had zero view of deviations.

3. Compliance with agreements: The young architect has already told us several times that he wants to call companies, and every time he says or writes that he still has to do that. But how are we supposed to distribute orders that way?

Not necessarily that, but based on that you can hardly demand the full range of services according to HOAI. In case of doubt, he will simply refer you to the "cheap" fee and claim that THIS particular service is not (fully) included.

I would advise you to have another conversation about this and write down a few things that are important to you. In this regard, consult the "basic services of the service phases."

I wouldn't find it so bad, for example, to put together the LV from offers. If he hadn't told you that, it would never have been noticed (maybe 70% of all architects actually work like that?! ).
However, I would definitely insist on an accurate cost CALCULATION.

Thank you, that helps me a lot! Exactly such assessments are valuable to us. So where we might be "making things difficult" and what we really urgently need to clarify.

We don't want to take action AGAINST the architect now, but to get our project done properly WITH HIM.