A person who has an educational and practical training in planning, designing and supervising construction of buildings is called an Architect. Therefore, the main purpose of an architect is to offer services that are related to the design and construction of a single building or a group of buildings. Since an architect is responsible for public safety, he or she should take decisions keeping in mind people’s safety. For that, they should undergo intensive and special training for gaining licence to practice as an architect. Below are answers to few of the more common legal questions about architects, their responsibilities and rights : If an architect owns his or her own LLC, can they be protected by personal liability? Since LLC is an abbreviation for the term Limited Liability Company, most likely, the architect would be able to protect his or her personal liability through the LLC. However, the architect’s personal liability cannot be protected through LLC only if a customer can uncover the corporate secrets and provide strong evidence on the fact that the company was running in an unfair way. How would a person get a variance for building a house on a property in New York, if a person hired an architect to build a 2 family house? In this case, it is possible that the city may allow the person to hire an architect for building a house, if the person has created easements on his/her property. Therefore, until and unless the person or the architect agrees to the codes and things, there should not be any issues from his or her side to build a house in New York. After hiring an architect and plumber, a person finds out that they missed doing the entire bathroom project and now they want to blame and charge each other for not finishing the project. What can the person do to avoid paying second time? In this case, the person needs to send a letter to both the architect and plumber stating that the mistake was made and that the person is aware that they are accusing each other for the mistake. Moreover, it should also be stated that the person does not know where the exact fault lies and that as a customer the person knows they are not at fault. The person should therefore urgently ask both of them to resolve their issues as soon as they can so that they can fix the bathroom on time without having the customer to pay any extra amount. Now in case, the letter fails to work, then the person can take this matter to the court and file a suit against both the architect and plumber. The court would decide who is at fault and then take the repairs, damages and possibly the fees for hiring the attorney too. Is it possible for an architect living in New York file a lien on a property? Usually, a person who renders services and/or provides material is able to file a lien. In New York, there is a kind of mechanical lien, according to which, anyone who performs a service that involves fixing something can ask for a lien on assets as a payment for the services that they have rendered, in case, the lienor does not pay the money that is owed. Lienor is the person receiving the services. There are usually many customers who do not pay money to the service providers like contractors, architects and so on after they have rendered their service or provided the material. This type of lien protects them from those customers. Every customer needs to deal and interact with an architect if they are building or remodelling a home. Such interactions could be confusing at times giving rise to questions about the law, rights, roles, responsibilities and so on that both the architect and the customer have to deal with. If you need any clarification about your particular legal situation with an architect, you may wish to ask a real estate lawyer.
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