This is something that arisen very recently and it seems to be an interesting topic for architects (judging by the great response from fellow professionals on a recent tweet):

What is the percentage of the architects fee that should be paid at Practical Completion?

The RIAI Domestic Agreement leaves it open; if you are working in line with the contractors agreement the answer is 95% (assuming a 10% retention) but many are saying that in today’s climate then a more realistic answer should be 100%, this is for a number of reasons:

1. You’ve been on the project for a long time already and it’s highly unlikely you’re going to skip off at this stage

2. The architects role at this stage is administrative only and the 5% to get to completion does not correlate with the amount of work that the architect is to undertake

3. Why should the architect be the last one to get paid, frequently at this stage there is no money left and the architect remains unpaid; what other profession regularly writes of 5% of the bill in this way?

I’m forever saying that we’re living in a complete different economic world than even a few years ago and remember that Ireland is in a complete different economic world than the majority of the rest of Europe. It’s standard practice now that during the construction period Architects are paid in stages as per the certificates/draw downs (this is only casually mentioned in the RIAI Domestic Agreement ‘Interim Payments may be made, by agreement, during any work stage’.

So, I’m going to ask you my dear readers – What should be the percentage of the Architects fee that should be paid at Practical Completion?

You’ll be able to see the results and I’ll post the results in due course…