Friday 24 April 2015

Drawings and planning application

It's been while since I last posted. That's because the architect, Vewoplan, has been very slow in producing the 1:100 scale plans needed for Allkauf and the planing application. To say it's been a bit of a struggle would be an understatement. Following my meeting with the architect I began to become worried when preliminary plans didn't arrive although they had been promised the week following the meeting. They were still responding to emails but many of my questions were being ignored. As I became more insistent stories of the whole office having the flue and a serious operation for a key member of their team appeared. Then just as everyone was 'well' again the architect went on holiday for two weeks! This appalling lack of communication and professionalism mirrored my experience with G+S Wohnbau and adds weight to a worrying precedent.

Eventually, after more than a month, I did get the first draft of the plans (which had minimal changes to the blueprint) and was able to check them thoroughly. I made a few more minor changes and asked a few questions. Again, only some of these questions were answered.

Finally the architect returned from holiday and was angry with me for pestering her staff. However after more than 40 days of almost no news from the Vewoplan I don't know what she thought would happen. Anyway we did eventually the questions answered and the drawings finalised. Today I posted them off to the planning office and they will also be sent to Allkauf. That's another milestone done.

There seems to be a cultural difference here that I'm clashing with. The professionals in Germany seem to just want to tell you the answer and then you should accept it. That's not enough for me, I need to understand how they came to that conclusion. Why? Well the buck stops with me. I'll be the one left with the problems long after they've gone. Oh, and no, I don't trust them at all! They seem rude and arrogant - I expect that's how they see me too. But it's my house and I will make the decisions.

In the meantime some of my new neighbours are already building. They really have been waiting for G+S Wohnbau to get a move on. But it also shows that the geologists had been holding me back by refusing to go to site despite access being easy. Nothing can be done about that now.

So now I have to wait for planning permission. It should be straight forward but I expect it to be very slow, this is local government after all!