This is the continuation of the Post on Architects Fee at Practical Completion and how I nearly got it wrong !

The RIAI divides a domestic agreement into 4 Work Stages:

Work Stage 1 is effectively briefing, analysis, sketch design

Work Stage 2 is effectively up to Planning Application

Work Stage 3 is effectively up to tender and

Work Stage 4 is on site up to Completion.

Now in the previous post I was discussing the percentage of the architects fee at Practical Completion and suggested (as two of the options) 100% and 95% but we’re forgetting that Work Stage 1-3 are complete and that to be in line with the contractor at Practical Completion the architects fee at this stage should be 95% of Work Stage 4 i.e 25% + 25% + 25% + 95% of 25% = 98.75%.

Now, the beauty of being a small company is that you can make ‘turns on a sixpence’ and change company policy instantly, the problem is that the client and Contractor don’t really need you at Completion and there’s a big risk of going unpaid and it is for this reason as you can see from the RESULTS OF THE POLL that the vast majority of those polled chose 100% and it is also for this reason that 100% of my architectural fee is due at Practical Completion.