Anti-Competitive ‘Homearchitect.ie’ Carries RIAI Logo

@mulp wrote:

At last it clicks: Yes, it is a serious problem. One compounded by the fact that the RIAI appear to be supporting it and it is “organised by a respected member of the RIAI”.

The last time you looked around for car servicing costs did you find a ‘licensed network’ of separate SIMI members all offering to do your work for the exact same price? Even car dealers (pure business people as opposed to professionals) have been taken to task by the competition authority when fixing new car prices, and they were all selling the exact same product (brand).
Have you missed what happened to the Vintners when they tried to to fix prices in order to actually stop any price increases?

Lots of people do indeed form alliances to promote their business, but most of them know the law in relation to fixed pricing.
Ignorance of the law is not an excuse. Not even in desperate times.

As I said initially, the new & improved RIAI Archi-search site should be promoted and advertised by the institute rather than a service which is anti-competitive, bad for clients and bad for other RIAI member Architects.

Finally what is the intention of your comment: “Your accusation that a respected member of the RIAI is breaking the law is a very serious one.”?
Is it mean’t to worry me? Will you be telling me next that he has impeccable qualifications and won a host of awards?
Please reread my post. I made no mention of any individual RIAI member. That was contributed by others. I then commented that it “Makes it difficult to comprehend how he was not aware of the Competition Act…”

This Protectionist Nonsense is one of the many factors which together contribute to such a low engagement of RIAI architects for domestic extension and one-off new-build work.

Try and take a look from the outside in for a change. You’ll be surprised what it is everyone else sees.

before commenting on the legal side of it does anyone know how exactly this process works? Is this a network of individual companies or is it a single company that then pays individual companies? Or is it a collaboration?

I appreciate Mulp’s comments on tendering but, in a sense, is it any different from me not being able to take on a commission and handing it over to a friend? this is very common, especially where small firms club together to share office space

For the record if I was in any way interested in nixers I might give an initial consulation free but no way would that last more than an hour. if it was a full day – as this lot do for a larger scheme – I’d definitely be charging a minimum of 500 bucks, probably more. It would be percentage based thereafter though, not an hourly rate

@SirRaymondMang wrote:

Sorry, but then your sums above are not to ‘break even’. The profit is already included in that fee?

€125/hour is not a break even rate.

sorry, maybe I wasn’t clear. I was merely dividing the rate into the fee to prove a point. You’re right in that an hourly charge out fee will factor in all the overheads, profit etc. for a company

That’s slightly different to my point which was that the 12% fee has to cover everything – profit, overheads etc. I just used the 125 to give an indication of the time that can be spent on a job before you’re eating in to the bottom line

MULP There was no intention to “worry” you. Its just I’d be a bit slower to say/imply that our colleague is acting in contravention of the law. The Competition Authority itself appears to be somewhat confused about the true meaning of competition. The price of the Irish Times is the same in every newsgaent in the country. Every civil servant is on the same pay scale. Even the doctors have recently had a universal rate applied to them by some clever avoidance of the competition laws. And, as we have just seen, electricians have agreed minimum rates based on legislation dating from the 1940’s, as do catering staff who must get double time on Sundays if they are outside the capital. I don’t know, but I expect that every McDonalds has the same prices which to me is ok on the basis that the customer is free to go to Burger King. In that respect the conviction of the Citroen dealers seemed to me a little harsh, (after all, the customers could buy Renault if they wanted) but the crucial difference here is that they were pretending to be in competition while effectively operating a fixed price list through varying trade-in prices. They were also affecting the market prices for Citroens, whereas it could not be said that our friends are hoping to affect the prevailing rates for architects or that they are pretending to be in competition with each other.

I don’t know if the client will not know which member of the consortium they will get, or if the organisers are taking a cut. It may be a co-op, and they might be very happy to offer some or all of the members for the client to choose from. Clients of very big firms often get to choose which wretched youth is sent down to design their extension either, so this is hardly a fair criticism.

At least, even if you think a network is anti-consumer, you can take out an ad yourself, proclaiming your free first consultations – and the best of luck.

@mulp wrote:

Lots of people do indeed form alliances to promote their business, but most of them know the law in relation to fixed pricing.
Ignorance of the law is not an excuse. Not even in desperate times.

This Protectionist Nonsense is one of the many factors which together contribute to such a low engagement of RIAI architects for domestic extension and one-off new-build work.

Well said mulp, I agree. (Well done for starting a thread on this)

@wearnicehats wrote:

before commenting on the legal side of it does anyone know how exactly this process works? Is this a network of individual companies or is it a single company that then pays individual companies? Or is it a collaboration?

I appreciate Mulp’s comments on tendering but, in a sense, is it any different from me not being able to take on a commission and handing it over to a friend? this is very common, especially where small firms club together to share office space

was this cleared up?

@mulp wrote:

Any potential client coming to their site can only go on the clear description given above.
It does seem unambiguous in its claim to be a network, not a single company and not some collaborative group.
Home Architect is not registered as an RIAI member practice.
Wonder what the situation is regarding professional indemnity and contract. A client could unwittingly find themselves in a situation where they have no direct contractual relationship with the actual architect who provides the service…

I don’t see how this clears up the method of payment issue. As such, therefore, the collaboration / network / single company issue is still unclear. Criticism still seems to be based on unsubstantiated hearsay