Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Professional Development vs. Self-Development

[James Kacki (jimkacki]

If you have an architect who produced the plans, part of his/her job 
(and fee) is to review the completed construction and identify 
deficiencies.
Usually the architect is also the payment certifier (i.e. at the end of 
each month the architect reviews the work based on the plans and 
assesses the contractors request for payment, then certifies the amount 
due to the contractor based on the review of work completed).  This is 
pretty standard, part of the architects work; so there is usually no 
need to hire an engineer to separately identify deficiencies. If there 
are deficiencies at the end, the architect certifies that the contractor 
will not receive his last payment until the deficiencies are corrected.
 If there is site work to be done (grading, water &sewer, etc.), an 
engineer would design it, review the work each month and be the payment 
certifier for that engineering work.
Its a standard system that works well.
James (an architect)

Sharon Villines wrote:
> On Jul 26, 2007, at 1:56 PM, Christine Johnson wrote:
>
> > Just my opinion:  our cohousing community was developed with a
> > professional developer, builder and project manager in place, all of
> > whom had prior experience in cohousing development.   All the  
> > owners in
> > our community are bearing unanticipated costs because our builder and
> > the project manager, did not meet the contract's requirements.
>
>
> We had similar problems but when you have a developer, the developer  
> is responsible for correcting any problems.
>
> Once you move in, it is important to have an engineering study done  
> immediately. There are firms that do this and you can find one  
> through the Community Associations Institute. That study will  
> identify deficiencies that must be corrected. We are still finding  
> some but major ones were identified and corrected.
>
> The developer was responsible for insisting that the contractor or  
> third parties correct any identified deficiencies. This was done  
> without legal action although we did have the notification of  
> deficiencies written by our lawyer.
>
> Sharon
> ----
> Sharon Villines
> Takoma Village Cohousing
> Washington DC
> http://www.takomavillage.org
>
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