₦airaland Forum

Person2person:
Wahala wahala wahala...

I am not an Architect! I support my quotation with a sketch to butress the clients brief. Abi you wan kill my profession ni?
YES! I don't expect to get all jobs.

Meanwhile, the last job you did here, you charge below the professional rate, you didn't submit detailed drawings, don't you think you are killing the profession?

Thank you for your advice.

FEGEITOK:
Don't let anyone deceive you.

At law school they tell lawyers that clients must visit your office that you should not visit them. Please tell me which President that hired a lawyer in Nigeria ever visited the office or offices of his lawyers? Or did the lawyers not go see the President to discuss his case in the villa?

What of governors?

What of heads of multi-billion dollar firms?

The client I spoke of a while ago is my junior yet I call her Madam, I call her aunty.

Yes, I know because I have access to her date of birth.

Apparently, you are not ready to roll in the big league yet.

Person2person I will commission you to do a drawing for me and generate a list of materials for me, and take note of this: I will pay you for it!

Olumighty123:
Oga, shift go front, you're one greedy being, I've been following your hullabalu around this space and I came to conclusion how greedy of a person you are.

kopell:
If he did, smart marketing strategy for displaying this. I bet his phone wont stop ringing from interested customers. It shows his capability for those who don't know him.

Person2person:
Yes, it's our usual practice to design first and I have done it for every person that contact me for jobs here and off here. At my busiest time, I may just send a free hand sketch of the intended arrangements.

topsy23:
Architects, structural engineers and everybody in the house what can you say about the building

Philipgarza31:
see bro forget those guys stop responding to any. Pls see the pictures below, if I send u a floor plan can I get a rendering of that quality, interiors also.
The architect is working on it however I need u to run the 3d interiors inclusive but rendering of that quality. Let me know.
Save the pictures so I can delete them back

twinskenny:
Boss it was a simple issue till u expanded it… not really necessary sir.

MrOkenwa:
Lol. Your last submission my foot. After you don scatter everything finish. The client will eventually pay you but those whom you have attacked by proxy would not forget in a hurry. Learn to take it easy with money. You were paid 25% at a time that you could have also ran away with the clients money. We’ve had far more cases on here, in which the clients were at the receiving end. some are yet to be resolved till date.
Somebody old enough to be your father and who can also recommend you for career changing jobs was abused up there because of the peanut that you are being owed, you read it and just passed. No caution, no apology.
This one shall pass but those who are foolish enough to engage you again here must have seen what you are capable of doing should they forget to pay up within 12hours.

Philipgarza31:
MrOkenwa you are someone I respect very well on this forum but haven't mentioned you before. We shouldn't make like harder for people in this time things have become extremely difficult. I don't know brickdevo neither have I met him ever in person nor ever mention him on the forum but it has been my nature to fight for others right and grant freedom where I sence oppression is being perpetrated and this is pure intimidation. Someone that worked for you and you are now forming big man on top his money? No that is not acceptable to me. Stop threatening brickdevo because as we wake up and sleep daily a new life is born. Since the past 20yeare we are hearing fraud will stop paying yet it wasn't paying well till recently so it fraudsters are making it still big then be sure that legitimate working people will always eat no matter how it gets. Believe me there's too much money outside and thank God for cashless policy being implemented now the economy is about to experience a Suge because now doing huge transfers won't seem much when people can't remember how it feels to hold such amount in palm.
Okay, the client came online with a heart warming message to buy back peoples mimd and asked brick Devo to drop his account again 😂😂😂, someone u sent money to twice so u no longer have the account number again?🤣🤣🤣🤣 Chai proverty is a bastard. One of the keep think to observe before working for people is their financial status. A professional architect is supposed to gather such data so you don't work for someone that can even flush his own shit. It's a shame some people are defending such injustice and I am really disappointed. I spent 6hours in queue to get fuel here in Benin now imagine burning 4litres to do a job and the client starts to ghost me and form Mr busy that doesn't check WhatsApp message? Damn.

You called the amount "peanuts" why hasn't the client paid the peanuts up till now? I am sure this amount we are dragging here isn't more than 20k and the client came to ask for his account and I trust that brickdevo would have updated us here upon receiving his payment but anyways brickdevo is new in the business and inexperienced yet. When I saw 3d among the job he submitted I laughed.

Brickdevo if u know u don't want to struggle in finance better know your onions around your business or you will keep thinking Benz owners are ritualist. Why did u add 3d, did the client promise to suck ur co*k or he promised u a trip to Disney land?

gbadexy:
You aren't like this, I guess we all have bad days.
Your previous contributions are noteworthy and define you.
Hope this is settled amicably and one unfortunate event shouldn't be allowed to define or affect us.

FEGEITOK:
Please go back and pull down all those screenshots with the client's number.

Two wrongs don't make a right.

Plastering his number all over the internet and associating his number to his moniker has done damage that you cannot begin to quantify

FEGEITOK:
If you asked him about the delay, that was proper on your part.

If he refused to respond to your question about the delay, that was improper on his part.

If as you allege that you are hearing for the first time about the delay from the builder for the first time on the forum, then that is not right, he should have informed you in advance.

My dear don't make an issue of it was not in our agreement, it was because I went over and abroad to do things not included in our agreement that my company got inserted into a national budget. There are several others who will tell you that by going beyond the call of duty, doors that seemed impossible were opened.

Instead of making it seem like you are always ready to fight your clients, you could have used the opportunity of the delay to ask for additional funds as the cost of the delay to you. Have you not heard how big companies that work with the government are beneficiaries of contract variations - which inevitably means additional funds to play with?

I never said that the delay was OK, I am saying and many others have said that you have handled this matter in such a way that you have scored an own goal.

gbadexy:
I supply paints with 70% advance and inform my clients I receive balance on delivery confirmation.
I get my balance once it has been confirmed I delivered the agreed quantity.
In almost all cases, I get my balance same day but I've had to wait more than a week a couple of times because the clients couldn't raise enough naira to pay from diaspora. In those cases, it wasn't an issue because they communicated the reason well ahead.
Communication could be better improved by the client also because silence could be interpreted to mean anything.
All in all, since majority of reasonable and matured folks felt his calling out the client was too early, he should backtrack and de escalate things. We've read several intelligent positions on the issue here for me to be of the opinion he should make amends.
Besides there are much more silent members here than those active and are the major potential clients who are observing how the client/contractor issue is resolved.

FEGEITOK:
Assuming the worst....

Not giving the benefit of the doubt...

No one is saying payment should not be instant, but even if payment is not instant, even if you assume the worst, must you voice it out before you have proof beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is foul play?

In real life does everything work like clockwork all the time?

That is the issue here.

Like the client said his builder delayed.

Sympathy goes both ways, the vendor for the client and the client for the vendor.

Before throwing accusations, did the vendor ask the client why the delay?

The other issue here is that the vendor has expressly stated that he expects reviews to be completed in 24 hours.

In real life shit happens, things that should happen by a particular time may not happen by that time, do adults then start throwing tantrums and then expect repeat business from the place that they threw tantrums?

In real life, contracts are varied and can be varied.

Assuming without conceding that the client did not say review before final payment, if the client then says so now, the issue is not to throw tantrums, the issue is to ask for a variation of the contract that accounts for the delay in payment, that is the mature adult thing to do.

Amosaloud:
I am not sure what the terms of your engagement were so I would give just broad advice here. If you informed the contractor prior to commencement of work that you would review his work after completion and agree a reasonable interval then the contractor owes you an apology and has dented his own image. However, if you started attaching conditions after completing your job then that's wrong and you are at fault. You should have had your reviewer on standby as you appeared to be in a hurry for this job to be completed. I think that's why the contractor is upset. You asked him to do the job quickly and then dithered after completion.
My maxim always is to treat goods and services as the same. When in doubt about the source always insist on immediate inspection before payment. So if you asked a tile seller to supply you tiles and agreed on payment on delivery then taking so long to pay after goods have been delivered is bound to cause unnecessary anxiety. You cannot ask the seller to wait an unspecified length of time while you start giving new conditions for payment.

I think for now best to pay him his money and if any alterations take it back to him to make final amendments. If he then charges extra for minor alterations then you should cry foul! And seek redress here.
Always do your due diligence before entering into any contract with any client or contractor here.
I can see a few motivational stories already but these cases are the exception rather than the rule. I have been bitten a few times that my default position is always to protect myself from fraud rather than working in good faith unless you are a long term client/contractor that I know all the way to your family quarters in your village!
The contractor that did a small garage/kitchen conversion structural drawing for planning application where I live insisted on full payment on day of completion after sending me the initial drawings to suggest any alterations I would like made. I had to pay in full before the final drawings were sent to me.
Also when doing my Lagos build land documentation I had to pay upfront for the final stamped architectural and structural drawings after the initial draft was sent to me for any amendments. I also paid in full before they were released to me.
We live and learn everyday. Good luck and God bless.

Philipgarza31:
forget it bro, something bigger is on the way. The internet is too large for everyone to excel so don't respond to anyone anymore even on mentions. I'm currently on a structure to be built in SA, USA resident client. 450k first, 250k second, 100k third. That's what we call a job not these Camry users. Mtcheeeew.
Go on upwork spend money to get verified on it them study building code like ASC and India code and start chopping dollars and dirhams.Don't limit yourself.

Philipgarza31:
hahaha I told you didn't i , when it comes to despute settlement forget it property section will disappoint you. I understand though, you are young in the proffession, not that you are young but there's is alot of learning for you to acquire especially in the art of collecting payment. You see there's a difference between earning money and making money, what u just got was "earn money"...... I feel like I should teach u but I prefer experience should do that for you This Year alone I ve received over 3m. I could recommend a movie for you see but I doubt you can rewatch a movie up to 20 times 😊😊😊... Count your loss, the client just played you street.

Brickdevo I ve known you on this forum for a long time and have held you in high exteem. I am sure the money in question here isn't up to 100k or even 50k but if I caught a client like that, he will pay 200k and be begging for septic tank details, that's the difference. We are street and hood, in my drawing days I could gross 500k monthly. Like I said, count your loss and move on, stop responding to them pls.

coldcandy:
It is very normal for a client to keep a balance of payments until the service is done to his satisfaction.
Are you a service provider?

PrimeQuay:
These situations are always dicy. I'm referring to payment of balance on drawings

I'll share an experience: I contracted an architect to produce a drawing for a duplex, payment 80% was paid upfront for the job. I told the architect to produce drawing in accordance to govt town planning specifications.

After the final drawing was sent and balance paid, The client took the drawing to town planning, and they requested some changes to pass approval.

Do you know the architect then requested more money to make those changes and refused to modify the work?

So I can understand the need to review the final drawings before the final payment is made.

My 2 cents: As a service provider (especially with things that don't require materials) your work is your legacy and represents you even when you aren't there, you should be willing to make modifications to your work within a sensible time frame. In this case, someone who was willing to pay a person 75% of the funds in trust, will definitely pay the balance. I'm sure he is trying to avoid the situation I mentioned above.

And as many people have stated here, fighting with a client/customer is never a good idea regardless.

@brickdevo In business we all have wins & loses no matter how much due diligence you adopt, it is just how life is. If the client decides to play funny, count it as a loss and keep doing your great work. No shake, the universe that brought you this client will bring more.

UC92:
Design reviews isn't something Any trained Architect should frown at, after all every design passes through juries in schools of Architecture.

However clients should endeavor to bring it to the notice of the Architect that his work must be juried before validation and final payment. It is also important that the client should involve the juror early enough right from the conceptualization stage till the final rendering of the 3D. At this point the job is as good as done.

The Architect inturn should endeavor to elicit requirements from the juror, keep updating the stakeholders till the final rendering of the work. At this point both the client and his reviewer understands clearly the outcome of the design.

This is the reason why I will always say that Architectural design is not a 24-48hr business.
The challenge here now is which professional Architect will agree to go into such agreement at the ridiculous amount clients are willing to pay.

It is an unfortunate situation for the Nigerian Architects.