Attic-Client-Journey | Jearchitecture

JEA Attic Client Journey

This page is written as a guide to assist you on your journey through your project form concept through to completion with JEA. it is written in order to help educate to you the steps and processes that we will guide you through on the project.

Communication

Please understand that we have finite resources in JEA and as such we strive to deliver excellence at all times, so efficient communication is key to that at all times.

We insist that all correspondence during the project where possible shall be done through email, before resorting to a phone call. We ask that you do this because of our work load and programs and because we have so many new enquiries, we request this because we need to prioritise our phone time wherever possible.

Refer back to this document if you have any general enquiries before reaching out to us with a question as most general questions will be answered here. If your question refers to a specific design or admin issue related just to your project, having that in an email allows us to best respond and record what we need to do to help.

If the query is urgent please book a call with the member of the team as needed.

Fees

It is a requirement of the RIAI Code of Conduct that architects must agree all fees in writing prior to commencement of work. You will have received your fee agreement by email and acceptance of same will be deemed as a valid contract for the stages of work you have agreed too.

Stage 01 – Scheme Design/Planning

As the brief is being developed JEA will carry out a detailed survey of the existing property or site if the projects involves a new build to create existing drawings as part of the design process. This brief meeting may be a separate meeting or may happen at the same time as the survey is carried out, depending on the complexity of the project.

From here JEA will take your design brief and begin to develop the design aiming to incorporate as many items in the brief that the design allows for. JEA will then take the brief and the survey away and work on your designs. This can take anywhere up to 4-5 weeks again depending on the complexity of your project and our current work load.

Once the design is ready, JEA will then send the design to you for review. The design will be presented in a suite of planning drawings including site plans, floor plans, elevations and sections.

The design may then be tweaked through additions or items being removed and the client will confirm in writing via email a final sign off on the designs before we proceed to the planning application.

At this stage the design will have been agreed and can now be developed in further detail to comply with relevant planning regulations and standards depending on the County Council.

JEA will produce a final set of planning drawings for the client to review before lodgement with the council. This is an important stage and the client should have any proposed changes required brought to the architect as any changes after planning is lodged can add further delays, costs and may result in a new planning application and further costs.

All associated administrative work will be completed by JEA as part of the agreement.

The planning application will be managed by JEA and any resulting correspondence received will be passed on to the client in a timely manner.

Laminated site notices will be posted out to the client with instructions on where to erect them on site. It is the Clients responsibility to make sure they are erected in the correct location and in a timely manner.

You can take the site notice down 5 weeks from the date noted on the site notice.

Approximate Planning Timelines following lodgement-

8 weeks - To give an initial decision of a grant/refusal.
4 weeks - for the final grant of permission. This decision will be open to objections from the public for a further 4 weeks. This means the final grant is not valid until the 4 weeks elapse.

Additional Information – The council can request further information on a planning application to aid them in making their decision. This can involve additional drawings, consultant reports for example. Once requested the applicant must respond within a period of 6 Months.

Compliance Submissions

Following a grant of permission, the council may ask for compliance documents/drawings on various items prior to commencement of the project on site. JEA can complete these items for you or have consultants aid in this being completed if required. Compliance submissions if required may incur Additional Cost for this work, which is dependent upon the council request.

Appeals

If the decision is (i) granted and appealed by a third party, or (ii) the design is refused, or (iii) has been granted with conditions the client would like to contest/appeal this can be appealed to An Bord Pleanala within a period of 4 weeks after the date of the decision.

The client must inform JEA in a timely manner if they wish to appeal, because this appeal requires the preparation of separate document which takes time to formulate. If JEA do not have the time to prepare this document we may not be ale to make your appeal in time.

In some cases where the appeal is complex, JEA will require a planning consultant to carry out the appeal. In this case JEA can advise on an appropriate planning consultant and seek quotations for said additional work. Note that any appeal made to An Bord Pleanala Appeal will incur Additional Costs for this work is dependent on whats involved.

Stage 02 – Site Stage

In most instances our clients opt to use a specialist Attic Builder for their attic construction post planning. If it is your intention to use an attic specialist your relationship with JEA will end at this point.

If you plan to use your attic for habitable space it is imperative that you follow the Published Local Government Guidelines for Loft Conversions, which can be downloaded from this link.

If you want JEA to do a detail design, tender and certification for your project we would be more than happy to offer this service post planning. Please indicate this at the grant of planning stage and we can offer you a quotation for your project at that stage.

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