ARCHITECTURAL DESIGNS - EWELL, SU

I hired Architectural Designs in Jan 2017 to develop and submit plans to develop my parent’s property. Note that my parents are in their 70s thus I was liaising with Architectural Designs on their behave. On first impressions Colin from Architectural Designs seemed credible. He visited the property sound professional and knowledgeable. When he communicated their fee note I thought it quite high and asked for a discount which he took offence and responded stating how competitive his fees were and reiterated the level of service he would be providing. He seemed extremely confident thus which gave further reassurance that I may have the right company representing me. Unfortunately this turned out not to be the case. It took 3 months (2nd Feb to 22nd April) to draft the plans and then submit them. Thereafter I had to continuously chase Architectural Designs for the updates. On numerous occasions I would check the council website for a status and then feedback to Colin what actions the council had noted on the website such that they could be proactive. There were also a few occasions where the council called my parents and then me directly because they could not reach anyone from Architectural Designs. In the end council advised that it was unlikely my plans would be approved and gave me three options 1. withdraw current application and submit completely new designs 2. withdraw my application and received a refund on my planning application 3. leave my application active whereby it would be rejected by they would provide detailed reason where it was reject. I informed Architectural Designs to withdraw my application on condition I would receive a refund, if not refund was forthcoming then my application should be left active so I have a formal reason why my application was reject. The rational was that I could use this as insight for a further applications. Some how my request was not made accurately by Architectural Designs to the council and my application was withdrawn but no refund award. When I spoke to the council they informed me it was because the window to receive the refund had expired. This left me in the situation where I didn’t receive a refund nor did I get a formal reason why my plans were not acceptable. This all concluded in Oct 2017. I have been very disappointed with the service I received from Architectural Designs 1. it took 3 month to produce drawings which when compared to previous designs I have had drawn up by other companies seemed light on detail. 2. they were very poor at managing the relationship with the council. When I brought this up they would simply point finger at the council. Point the finger at the council does not provide me with an reassurances. I paid them for a service which included acting as the interface between the council and me and if they can not own and manage that interface then if shouldn’t be part of their offering. I have worked with many other Architects and I have not have the same experience. The experience from start to finish with Architectural Designs has been very poor. My case may have been an isolated case, however the experience has been such that I will not use their services again.