I've got a client who, after seeing three bids come in 100k over his 450k budget.
His rationale for not paying is that since he can't afford to build the project, the drawings are useless to him.
I offered to get another bid for him, and then if it still came in too high, I offered to 'value engineer' the project to lower the cost and hopefully get it closer to his budget.
Fortunately, I do have a signed contract with the client, and nothing in the contract says anything about guaranteeing him that the project will meet his 450K budget, or any budget for that matter.
I've never had to sue anyone, but am thinking I may not have a choice here. The balance due from the client is 9K. For me, it's a lot of money that I really can't afford to walk away from.
Has anyone been in a similar situation? And if so, do you have advice on how to proceed from here? I haven't yet responded to the client, since he emailed me that he wasn't paying, so feel like I need to choose my words carefully, and do it in writing.
Take him to court. There is no reason why he should not be paying. I've had numerous clients such as yours using the same lame excuse.
Typically if I'm in similar situation, I send a certified letter stating that if no payment is made within (time period) other steps will be made to collect the fee for services rendered and include the signed contract with that letter.
Thanks for the advice! Since I didn't reply to the client's text, he followed up with a call to me and left a voicemail basically saying the same thing he said in his text. I guess I could call him back, but am thinking any correspondence here on out should have a paper trail. I like your idea to send him a certified letter. I'm thinking of offering to drop 1K from the fee if he pays the balance (8K) within 2 weeks, otherwise I'll "take further action". Do you think I should specify what the "further action" entails or keep it vague? I don't actually know what my next move would be. I'd like to avoid a law suit if possible, so maybe I send a collections agency to his door? Or someone also suggested I put a Lien on his property. I am so glad I have a signed contract. In the past,
there have been times when I went with just a handshake. Never again...
Also, not sure what kind of project this is and what your location is, but in some states architects have lien rights so you could put a lien on his property.
I don't have advice for your current situation, but having gone through that as well, in three different places in my contract I added language that says I can't design to a specific budget. I do include the "target budget" but label it as such, and have one of the disclaimers directly following.
I still occasionally get clients who think I should be able to meet their budget. The most recent, earlier this year, is an attorney. Along with his complaint, he noted that I "cleverly absolved" myself from meeting budgets. Yup--that's why that language is there, and I discuss it at some length before we sign a contract.
Yeah we've experienced similar fuckery, with a lawyer client no less. Dude, we have a contract. When we told him that if he didn't pay up, we'd go out of business and wouldn't be able to fulfill our part of the contract. After six months of bullshit, the cheque showed up the next day. We've fired them as clients but still have about $2M in fees rehoming
Thanks, great idea to put specific language in the contract about not guaranteeing a specific budget. Hopefully, since I have no verbiage in my contract that says anything about providing estimates or a budget, that will absolve me...
Given that your username is mookey, I'm sure you can get cousin frankie and big jimmie to go pay him a visit and apply a little - persuasion - if you get my drift.
Honestly, archanonymous isn't wrong. You'll probably spend more to get the 9k unless it's a very open and shut case in small claims court (sounds like it could be)
Architects really fail as businessmen or women (for the most part) like many of my professional artist friends - as an A/E service business you shouldn't shadow finance other parties - this needs to be structured as a pay-as-you-go (30 day disbursement schedule) agreement with a final payment before you release the final sealed CD set - just finished a commercial garage where the owners had no problem with a two page contract without all the AIA or other standard form legalese - I require a 50% retainer which protects me - I have the owners sign contracts with the consulting engineers and surveyor who will not release their sheets until final payment is made - I have never had an owner not pay me or a consulting engineer to date - financially protect yourself and your firm - many times a court judgement is worth the paper its written on and you must pay your lawyer's fee ...
Client refusing to pay
Hi everyone.
I'm looking for advice on a contentious issue.
I've got a client who, after seeing three bids come in 100k over his 450k budget.
His rationale for not paying is that since he can't afford to build the project, the drawings are useless to him.
I offered to get another bid for him, and then if it still came in too high, I offered to 'value engineer' the project to lower the cost and hopefully get it closer to his budget.
Fortunately, I do have a signed contract with the client, and nothing in the contract says anything about guaranteeing him that the project will meet his 450K budget, or any budget for that matter.
I've never had to sue anyone, but am thinking I may not have a choice here. The balance due from the client is 9K. For me, it's a lot of money that I really can't afford to walk away from.
Has anyone been in a similar situation? And if so, do you have advice on how to proceed from here? I haven't yet responded to the client, since he emailed me that he wasn't paying, so feel like I need to choose my words carefully, and do it in writing.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks
Lawyer time.
Services were provided.
Take him to court. There is no reason why he should not be paying. I've had numerous clients such as yours using the same lame excuse.
Typically if I'm in similar situation, I send a certified letter stating that if no payment is made within (time period) other steps will be made to collect the fee for services rendered and include the signed contract with that letter.
Thanks for the advice! Since I didn't reply to the client's text, he followed up with a call to me and left a voicemail basically saying the same thing he said in his text. I guess I could call him back, but am thinking any correspondence here on out should have a paper trail. I like your idea to send him a certified letter. I'm thinking of offering to drop 1K from the fee if he pays the balance (8K) within 2 weeks, otherwise I'll "take further action". Do you think I should specify what the "further action" entails or keep it vague? I don't actually know what my next move would be. I'd like to avoid a law suit if possible, so maybe I send a collections agency to his door? Or someone also suggested I put a Lien on his property. I am so glad I have a signed contract. In the past, there have been times when I went with just a handshake. Never again...
Also, not sure what kind of project this is and what your location is, but in some states architects have lien rights so you could put a lien on his property.
This is a highly-effective tactic, if you are in a state which allows it.
Oh, right, it was you who suggested the lien! Thanks!
I don't have advice for your current situation, but having gone through that as well, in three different places in my contract I added language that says I can't design to a specific budget. I do include the "target budget" but label it as such, and have one of the disclaimers directly following.
I still occasionally get clients who think I should be able to meet their budget. The most recent, earlier this year, is an attorney. Along with his complaint, he noted that I "cleverly absolved" myself from meeting budgets. Yup--that's why that language is there, and I discuss it at some length before we sign a contract.
Yeah we've experienced similar fuckery, with a lawyer client no less. Dude, we have a contract. When we told him that if he didn't pay up, we'd go out of business and wouldn't be able to fulfill our part of the contract. After six months of bullshit, the cheque showed up the next day. We've fired them as clients but still have about $2M in fees rehoming
*in fees still remaining in our contracts, so we can't just walk away
Thanks, great idea to put specific language in the contract about not guaranteeing a specific budget. Hopefully, since I have no verbiage in my contract that says anything about providing estimates or a budget, that will absolve me...
Given that your username is mookey, I'm sure you can get cousin frankie and big jimmie to go pay him a visit and apply a little - persuasion - if you get my drift.
Haha, I wish I had relatives and friends like that!
Honestly, archanonymous isn't wrong. You'll probably spend more to get the 9k unless it's a very open and shut case in small claims court (sounds like it could be)
Is this the cash paying dude?
Has to be... I think some of us deserve a "we tried to warn you..."
Nope. I took the advice on that one!
Architects really fail as businessmen or women (for the most part) like many of my professional artist friends - as an A/E service business you shouldn't shadow finance other parties - this needs to be structured as a pay-as-you-go (30 day disbursement schedule) agreement with a final payment before you release the final sealed CD set - just finished a commercial garage where the owners had no problem with a two page contract without all the AIA or other standard form legalese - I require a 50% retainer which protects me - I have the owners sign contracts with the consulting engineers and surveyor who will not release their sheets until final payment is made - I have never had an owner not pay me or a consulting engineer to date - financially protect yourself and your firm - many times a court judgement is worth the paper its written on and you must pay your lawyer's fee ...
Thanks. Good advice going forward.
payment dispute has
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.