My wife and I hired Megan Baker to design the renovation of our condo, (~40k, design-only), after seeing the nice job she did with another suite in our building, where we were told she had stayed within budget, (but it later came out she hadnt). Things went ok initially, (some good, some not so good), so we carried on. But about 2/3 of the way into the process, we discovered that our clearly-stated project-budget (250k) had ballooned to about 400k/+. I had a fairly frank phone conversation with Megan about this, to make known our dissatisfaction with the 82% construction-budget exceedance, the fact the project had fallen several weeks behind schedule, and some other disappointments. We all agreed to (and had) a meeting to correct the scope and costs, after which we all agreed to move forward and return the project to scope and budget. But just days after the meeting, (notably, as soon as we had made our most-recent monthly payment), and with ~25k having being paid thus far, Megan emailed us to say she was unilaterally terminating the project, as our expectations were misaligned (with hers).
While we feel terrible that our expectations didnt align with hers, we certainly had made our fundamental expectations crystal-clear on day-1; (budget, and what we wanted done), and all parties undertook the job on that basis. But Megan Baker walked away from our project after grossly over-designing our project, (scope and budget), charging us about 25K in the process, (not including the fees to return it to budget), and letting the whole thing fall significantly behind schedule. (She did give us our 5k retainer back though, and a bundle of PDFs of the (~400k) project).
After being terminated, (without any advance notice or explanation beyond what Ive mentioned here), when my wife and I asked her if we could still try to find a path to resurrecting the project, she offered nothing other than, if we wanted, she would give us her lawyers contact details.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $20,000.00