Drainage design wrong,who should foot the bill?

[Pica21]

The architect designed the drainage wrong, i.e he didn't take into account that the ground was rising. The builders seen this and flagged and another way of providing the drainage was discussed with 1m dropped required. This was put to us at 1100 pounds on top of the original tender. I would like to know who should be footing the bill. Is it always the customer even though it is not some unforseen issue?  Please advice

Thanks

 

 

[honeybee13]

Hello, welcome to CAG.

 

I've moved your thread to our building trade forum and left you a link to follow from the other one.

 

Maybe you could tell us more about the story please?

 

Best, HB

[mantis shrimp]

Have you raised this with the architect? 

[BankFodder]

This seems to be relating to work which would have had to have been done even if the problem had been spotted by the architect.

On that basis, the customer would be liable but if it could be shown that the failure by the architect to understand the issue had caused any losses beyond the cost of addressing the rising ground had this been appreciated at the outset, then the architect would probably be liable for that.

[Pica21]

1 hour ago, BankFodder said:

This seems to be relating to work which would have had to have been done even if the problem had been spotted by the architect.

On that basis, the customer would be liable but if it could be shown that the failure by the architect to understand the issue had caused any losses beyond the cost of addressing the rising ground had this been appreciated at the outset, then the architect would probably be liable for that.

I would happily pay if the architect had seen his error and updated with a quote from the builder. But that is not what happened. The builders were digging the founds and seen that the drainage layout won't work as the ground was going up. The next day the contractor and the architect showed up and told us that the drainage has to redesigned via a different route and we need to agree then and there for the cost of rerouting the drainage. They were forceful and made us agree to it. It never sat right with me. Because we had agreed then and there, we had to pay out for it. 

[mantis shrimp]

You may be missing the point. The question is whether the additional cost would or would not have been incurred had the drainage been properly designed in the first place. Can you say that a properly designed sceme would not have had the additional cost? 

 

Obviously the last thing you would have wanted was for the drains to be built as initially designed. 

Edited April 3, 2022 by mantis shrimp

[Pica21]

24 minutes ago, Pica21 said:

I would happily pay if the architect had seen his error and updated with a quote from the builder before the building work had started. But that is not what happened. The builders were digging the founds and seen that the drainage layout won't work as the ground was going up. The next day the contractor and the architect showed up and told us that the drainage has to redesigned via a different route and we need to agree then and there for the cost of rerouting the drainage. They were forceful and made us agree to it. It never sat right with me. Because we had agreed then and there, we had to pay out for it. 

 

Edited April 3, 2022 by Pica21

[BankFodder]

Maybe the fact that there was rising ground is not something that could have been recognised by any competent professional exercising a proper standard of care.
But whatever the case, the problem was there, detected or not – and so it would be the customers liability to pay for work which took that into account. If you could show that the architect had failed in his professional duty in some way then you might be able to claim some additional losses – if there were any – from the architect.
Proving that an architect did not exercise a proper standard of professional care would be very difficult and in fact you would have to get another architect to agree with you.

[mantis shrimp]

I read the OP's post the first time. Should I repeat my last one? 

[Pica21]

Thanks for that. I was just worried that I was being taken for a ride