William F. Heine, Architect

Review: I engaged [redacted] in January of 2013 to provide architectural plans and drawings for a proposed new home on the site located at [redacted]. A retainer of $2,500 was given to [redacted] on January **, 2013. After many unreturned phone calls and e-mails, [redacted] has yet to provide me with any proposed architectural plans.Desired Settlement: I would like to be refunded my $2,500 retainer fee since none of the work was ever completed.

Business

Response:

August **, 2013

Send via E-mail: [redacted]

Re: Revdex.com ID [redacted]

Subject Property: [redacted]

History:

•The house reportedly flooded during Hurricane Sandy on October **, 2012

•I first met with [redacted] at his second home on Saturday, December *, 2012 @ 9:00am

•I analyzed the survey for the Town of Southampton zoning and for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) regulations

•I sent a proposal to [redacted] dated December **, 2012

•I did not hear from him again until mid January of 2013

•I sent a revised proposal to [redacted] on January **, 2013

•[redacted] signed the proposal and dated it January **, 2013

•[redacted] did not want to sign an American Institute of Architect’s (A.I.A) contract until he had decided on either renovating & adding onto his existing house or knocking it down & building a new house. Therefore we do not have a contract

•The $2,500 retainer check was dated January **, 2013

•The post mark on the envelope was January **, 2013

•My associate and I field measured the existing unheated house and decks on January **, 2013

•My associate completed drafting the floor plans (2) of the existing house on AutoCAD on March *, 2013

•I created budgets for both renovating & adding onto the existing house and knocking it down & building a new house dated March **, 2013

•[redacted] did not accept the budget stating that it was too high

•On April **, 2013 [redacted] sent me an e-mail with his wishes for the project that did not state whether the project was to renovate & add onto the existing house or knock it down & build a new house and did not state his budget guidelines either. He did add an additional ([redacted]) bedroom to the project even though he was not yet happy with the budget. The e-mail is difficult to comprehend as it is a run on sentence of disconnected thoughts (this may be due to compaction of the e-mail by his internet provider)

•I created revised budgets with the assistance of a competent contractor for both renovating & adding onto the existing house and knocking it down & building a new house dated May **, 2013

•[redacted] again did not accept the budget stating that it was still too high

Documents: (can be provided as an attachment)

•Survey with Town of Southampton zoning and FEMA regulations depicted

•Town of Southampton zoning and FEMA regulations (3 sheets)

•Proposal for architectural services dated December **, 2012

•Revised proposal for architectural services dated January **, 2013

•Field measurement notes of existing house and decks

•Existing first and second floor plans for house, decks and pool drawn on AutoCAD with square foot areas noted

•Construction budget dated March **, 2013

•[redacted]’s e-mail dated April **, 2013

•Revised construction budget dated May **, 2013

Hours and fees: (as per proposal)

•I have spent approximately 12 hours working on [redacted]’s project (Architect’s hourly fee = $160/ hour X 12 hours = $1,920.00)

•My associate has spent approximately 12 hours working on [redacted]’s project (Associate’s hourly fee = $80/ hour X 12 hours = $960.00)

•We have invested $2,880.00 is this project

Conclusion:

[redacted] has been unclear as to his intensions from the beginning with his decisions being steered by the economics of the project. Whether he will renovate & add onto the existing house or knock it down & build a new house is to be decided based on the costs of each. Without a clear budget and a decision on renovating or building new, I have been unable to proceed.

[redacted] has yet to decide whether he will renovate & add onto the existing house or knock it down & build a new house. He also has not determined the budget that he would like to work toward. Even with budgets that he felt were too high he added addition work (a [redacted] bedroom) to the project.

In the interest of fairness I am willing to return a portion of [redacted]’s retainer even though it is clear that we have invested more than we have received. [redacted] has received all of the items noted as documents in this e-mail and as electronic files it would be impossible to return them to me. Therefore he will have the use of them and benefit from them regardless of the outcome. [redacted]’s comment that no work has been provided on his project is completely incorrect as can be seen by the list of documents. The documents can be sent to you as an attachment if required.

The $2500 we received was a retainer. The fee for the entire project was $12,400 if renovating & adding onto his existing house and $15,280 if knocking down the existing house & building a new house.

I do not feel that we can resolve this easily and it would be best to terminate our agreement.

I would like to suggest that I return $1,500.00 to [redacted]. This would leave me with $1,000.00 to cover only the costs of my associate.

This could all have been more easily resolved if [redacted] had contacted me directly will a reasonable resolution in lieu of attacking my business and lively hood with a permanent mark on my record.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

WFH: [redacted]

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID# [redacted], and have determined that my complaint has NOT been resolved because:

Hello [redacted],

Regarding my complaint ID #[redacted], I have agreed to accept [redacted]'s offer to send me $1,500 to resolve this complaint. I sent [redacted] an e-mail to this effect. However, I have yet to receive an acknowledgement of my e-mail and have not yet received any money from [redacted], so unfortunately this case is still open.

Thanks for your help thus far,

Consumer

Response:

At this time, I have not been contacted by William F. Heine, Architect regarding complaint ID [redacted].

Sincerely,