9.6. Permits; Inspections. Contractor shall obtain and shall pay for all construction permits

and licenses. Owner shall assist Contractor, when necessary, in obtaining such permits and licenses.

Contractor shall pay all governmental charges and inspection fees necessary for the prosecution of

the Work. Contractor shall give all notices and comply with all laws and regulations applicable to

furnishing and performance of the Work.

Was the contractor responsible for producing the plans and making the necessary corrections or is there a designer or architect involved? How much was the "mobilization fee?"

There is an architect involved, and the mobilization fee was 17,000

What exactly is a mobilization fee? The name alone implies that it involves doing something to justify the fee. He has been sitting on $17,000 of your money for four months and hasn't done anything??

Jellytoast: the mobilization fee is supposed to be the fees to start the project. The contractor has started to dig out the dirt from our backyard to get ready to put the foundation in, but can’t fill it in until the architect submits the plans to the city and gets the permit. But yes, ultimately, the architect has been sitting on 4 months and hasn’t done the updates for the plans. The permit application time period has lapsed, so we’d have to reapply and pay again for the application.

Side question: are we responsible for paying the permit fee to submit to the city?

Charles: The issue is the architect not submitting the plans to the city, not so much the contractor. I agree, I want to terminate the relationship, and I think I would have to find an attorney. Thank you Charles for your response.

There is not nearly enough information to really give you good advice.

What is the scope of the project (how much money is involved in it)?

Who selected the architect? Is this a design build firm or was the architect independent?

I suspect you are talking about the mobilization draw, which is just a draw that contractor uses to begin the project. It is similar to a deposit except a deposit is more or less a reservation fee used to reduce the contractor's exposure to cancellation of a job in the early stages of a project. The idea being that the deposit is forfeit if you breach. Typically, a mobilization draw is just prepayment of actual project costs, and doesn't compensate the contractor in the event of a breach.

However, the amount he is obligated to return will probably be reduced by legitimate expenses on the project, even if those expenses are not transferable. You would then have to recover those expenses in a separate action.

E.g. - Your contractor takes $17,000 and pays $12,000 for deposits to subcontractors. Your contractor subsequently breaches and thus you terminate the relationship, deciding against using the subcontractors. The contractor must return $5,000 of the mobilization draw along with accounting for the missing $12,000. You may then sue the contractor for damages from the breach for the $12,000.

Now other damages and remedies really come from who is in breach and how far the parties are willing to push recovery.

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Having said all of this, there are a lot of judgment proof contractors out there. A contractor who takes $17,000 and does very little for 4 months, sends up a lot of caution flags. He may be protected by the legal principle of you can't get blood from a turnip.

Good luck

Hi, Amos,

Typically the contractor would be responsible for obtaining the permit. If it's in his/her name they are responsible for all code-required inspections. I can't imagine an architect sitting on plan corrections for four months unless it's a solo practitioner who's had major health issues. Something smells bad. I'd give the architect a call directly and see what's up.

Best wishes for a successful outcome.