Thank you for allowing me to present you with some details concerning a recent threat of legal action against me.
Backstory:
In 2005 my wife and I decided to build a house on some property we owned. We were referred to an architect through a friend. The architect had just started his own studio after working for a large firm for several years.
Upon our first meeting we asked the architect how he handled billing and what his fees were. He told us that he didn't charge by the hour but instead billed by the square footage of the house he designs and only then after the house is built. At this point my wife asked if he didn't worry about his customers not paying and he replied "that is the chance I take.".
We met with the architect four times between Dec 2005 and Mar 2006. We never settled on a final design and were presented with two basic renderings.
In Apr 2006 my wife and I found an 11 year old home for sale in our area that was the same design we wanted. We bought it because it saved us approx. $70,000 over the cost of building new. At this point we attempted to contact the architect, but never recieved an answer and our calls were never returned.
End of story right?
This past Saturday (9-15-07) we recieved a letter from the architect stating that we are "past due" on our account and if the amount was not paid in full within 30 days he would be forced to contact his lawyers and take us to court.
The bill was a hand written note that stated he has worked 40 hours at an hourly rate of $17.50 and that we owed him $700.
We finally got this guy to return a phone call and we are meeting with him on Thursday (9-20) evening.
I am not against paying this fella something for his time, but I am a little peaved that instead of contacting us and working this out, he threatened us with legal action outright. I also don't appreciate that he lied to us about his billing methods; of coarse there was never a contract signed and it's his word against ours.
Outside of me demanding an itemized bill showing exactly when he worked the 40 hours on the two basic designs, what should I be asking? I really don't want this situation to go to court and would like to believe that it can be worked out.
Thanks for any advice.
Rick Vandeven
Chaffee, MO

